Xempla

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  • Cost optimization – leveraging technology to maintain margins for FM firms

    Cost optimization – leveraging technology to maintain margins for FM firms

    The month of January started on a high note with the news of the distribution of a new vaccine for frontline healthcare workers, also economies across the world are getting back on track with the changing socio-political scenarios of the USA and the efforts of businesses to open up to a larger population. 

    Among all of this, we have seen a rise, repercussions, and dissemination to some extent of work from home or remote working strategies. While some experts are still arguing on the long-lasting effects of WFH, one thing is absolutely clear that the paranoia of working in shared or office spaces is still haunting the property owners and facility management, teams.   

    Facility management companies are facing cost pressures due to softening operating fundamentals such as a significant drop in rental income and occupancies. According to a Deloitte survey of 200 plus facility management stakeholders, respondents plan to reduce operating costs by 20% on average and try to optimize operational costs using technology to reposition space and for facilities management to improve operational resilience.  

    In this blog, we are trying to analyze a few effective cost-cutting techniques recommended by leading facility management stakeholders.

    1. The major paradox of choosing a right technology

    We all must have come across articles and discussions during the recent technology conferences that this is a golden time to invest in the right technology stack or reposition FM’s investment portfolio. We have seen a role building automation and remote monitoring has played during the lockdown. But despite all of that we also have to understand that a lot of digital transformation decisions that were taken before the pandemic were proved ineffective during the pandemic. Decisions that were ad hoc in nature and limited to a tenant-facing infrastructure only.    

    Now when the investment budget has shrunken and the pressure of cost-cutting majors has taken a toll on facility management teams, selecting or investing in the right technology has become even more critical. 

    1. Leverage IoT to gain a competitive edge

    According to Louis Vermorel, founder and CEO of Whattsense, a technology company that builds sensors and devices to connects assets with building management applications “The increasing concern with energy waste, pollution, and utility costs, combined with the higher expectations from tenants, creates enormous pressure on facility management companies and their capital expenditure.”

    He suggests, adoption of IoT solutions to improve the connectivity of a facility is a significant opportunity for FM companies to reduce costs. It helps ease the operations and maintenance process and also opens the scope of services available to building owners. This way FM companies can create their own capabilities leveraging the technology to get a competitive edge and fulfill customers’ needs.

    1. More reasons to move Predictive analytics

    Bryan Christiansen, founder and CEO at Limble CMMS has a different take on cost optimization measures according to him there are two ways to reduce operational cost and achieve long term savings,

    1. Changing/adjusting your maintenance strategy
    2. Taking advantage of an appropriate maintenance software

    He strongly recommends that it’s a time to give priority to predictive maintenance than preventive maintenance if you have the basic asset and operational data at your disposal, want more control and insight about your assets and are trying to create a holistic facility-wide maintenance strategy that will last longer then you should invest in a predictive maintenance strategy.

        4. Integrating digital solution into service delivery model 

    In one of the sessions, xempla had during the RE.Connect event with Paul Bogan, CDO of SERCO, he highlighted that trend that the clients don’t just want facility management services, they want to understand how they can use their data to drive extended economical benefits, and they want better certainty where the CAPEX and OPEX should be in next 3-5 years.       

    This transparency and accessibility to operational data as well as users’ behavioral data should come or rather should be offered by facility management teams. FM should make it a part of the services delivery model. 

    Anand Kumar Sinha, CIO of OCS group, a leading facility management firm in the UK shares a similar thought process,

    In his article in economics times, he suggested that for facilities management companies, integrating digital solutions into their delivery model is critical to differentiate, compete effectively, provide reliable and efficient service, and the key to ensuring market success.

    By providing asset performance management applications, operation and maintenance teams can better manage expenses, take efforts to support the budget cuts and also bring sustainability in Facilities Management. Identifying abnormal behavior of the asset, facility managers can quickly take repair or replace decisions as well as carry out budgeting analysis using the maintenance data.

    What are the hacks your facility management team is applying to stay lean and competitive in the current scenario? 

  • Takeaways from the Sessions Xempla Hosted at RE:Connect

    Takeaways from the Sessions Xempla Hosted at RE:Connect

    Two weeks ago, we witnessed one of the most amazing and thought-provoking gatherings of the CRE fraternity. Yes, I am talking about the RE:Connect event where we got the opportunity to conduct 9 Sessions ranging from sustainability, asset performance management to an ideal technology stack for the future of FM. 

    It’s so refreshing to know when you come out of one of the most difficult (read opportune) years for the real estate sector and meet with people who share the same passion for technology and solutions. 

    Thanks to James Dearsley and the team at Unissu for organizing such an event which was not only different in terms of overall conference experience but also the content we were able to discuss.

    At Xempla we were fortunate enough to host our session in 3 different categories: Property and Facility Management in a Digital Age, Digital Twins, and Sustainability & Energy Efficiency. Thanks to our guest speakers from Serco, Engie, Sodexo, and Embassy group for sharing their thoughts and valuable insights with our listeners.  

    When you have all that content to share it becomes difficult to digest all at once. So I just wanted to highlight some of the overarching thoughts and ideas we picked up from our guest speakers.

    Get Clear on what you want to achieve from the transformation

    Bart Holsters, GM Engie started the discussion by questioning people’s intent to go for technological innovations such as big data, AI, MI in that case. 

    He also stressed the part that people should be very clear on what they want to achieve, whether it’s energy reduction, better asset management, or tenant management accordingly they should set the roadmap and select the right technology or applications that help them to thrive and achieve.

    Digital company or people’s company

    When most of the conventional companies are projecting themselves as tech or software companies to stay relevant Paul Bogan, CDO Serco suggested believing in your firm’s core values and identity

    Contrary to popular beliefs, Paul highlighted the fact that they are people’s company and never want to move away from the cores. He also mentioned that they are great at partnerships and driving values for their clients by bringing the right people or the technology for the right job. 

    While he agrees that Digital transformation is here, which means leveraging technology to draw value across the supply chain will become the key differentiator, he also believes that they are known for their core business capabilities which can be maintained without diverting resources on something that they can simply outsource or partner with great tech companies.

    Find the missing link in data analytics

    Chirag Boonlia, CTO, Embassy group shared his view on what’s missing in the current state of building analytics:

    “The first and foremost part of the solution is that you must invest in data acquisition. You should have quality data at the required frequency. Then put the context around it and convert it into information, convert that information into a knowledge base, and feed it to your design and building activities and then use that as wisdom for making the roadmap. This entire journey is not followed clearly”  

    Similarly, for the technology vendor or partner ecosystem, they should be able to put their skin in the game. If they are confident about the saving then make it on paper. That accountability and responsibility are missing. 

    Searching for an ideal Technology stack

    According to Paul, finalizing the ideal tech stack is not an easy job as the optimization of the stack depends on too many things.

    But from an idealistic point of view, the architecture of the Tech stack should be comprised of the following aspects.

    • It should be an enterprise solution that can understand, manage and configure asset information
    • End to end mobile capabilities to minimize errors in capturing asset conditions.
    • Life cycle modeling has to be there
    • Inbuilt or plugin option for thor party asset performance management applications, sensors and IoT applications.
    • Should be available in both clouds and on-premise applications. 

    Holistic asset performance management:

    There are multiple definitions and view on APM strategy but according to Derren Mccredain, head of estates, Sodexo healthcare, there are three critical aspects of APM that should be there in the applications. 

    Asset reliability is the key here, as well as higher functionality of the asset and low vulnerability of the systems. when these three aspects meet with resiliency then you get a great holistic asset performance management strategy.

    He continued by saying that, In general, I don’t think we have embraced the technology as disrupters or innovators would do. In my experience, we still rely on the manual process rather than going digital. In most cases, the service delivery model is inefficient that emphasizes manual work delivery. 

    It’s important to demonstrate the values/use cases of APM and pursue those who are higher on the ladder. 

    Wish I could cover more on the insights our speakers shared with us, but you need not worry about it, for the full coverage of the discussions you can check out our dedicated blog section for the facility management fraternity, FM Times

  • Building Data Analytics: Taking out asset maintenance from retro

    Building Data Analytics: Taking out asset maintenance from retro

    Though most of the buildings use Building management systems (BMS) to analyze and monitor their critical assets, they have come across a situation where even BMS have failed to detect the anomalous behavior of the asset. It has been only providing insights on retrospection analysis, which does little good to a large state of the art facility. So the exploration of other smart building technology solutions with a bigger picture have begun.

    On a journey to unified building operations and maintenance practices, the next step leads to predictive maintenance by leveraging data analytics. A term that has been overused yet less understood among the property owners and service providers. So we thought, let’s dissect this term and highlight aspects that triumphant on conventional or planned preventive maintenance.        

    Contextual insights

    When an asset or the operational parameters are linked with the contextual information they often pinpoint the exact cause of the fault. For a commercial building, it could be an occupancy or (Indoor/outdoor) temperature that should be taken into consideration while predicting the exact cause of the asset failure. Having a piece of contextual background information can help in providing recommendations on asset settings as well as occupant’s behavioral aspects.  

    Fault detection and diagnostics:

    It starts with defining a ‘Fault’ or abnormal behavior of an asset. Most of the BMS dashboards follow some set of rules and set points to define asset operations. For example in an air handling unit the fan is drawing more current/power than the predefined value then the BMS sends an alert to an O&M team. This undermines some unseen scenarios:

    • User or Operator would need to fix the setpoint based on his understanding (limited to his knowledge)   
    • Any outlier value can be considered as a sign of a fault since it crosses the setpoint (without considering contextual information)

    With this, the need for statistically driven anomaly detection techniques that can maximize building performance is increasingly growing.

    According to James Dice, thought leader and consultant, The biggest challenge here are in driving action from FDD, he quoted that “With traditional solutions functioning as a human-in-the-loop tool, going from diagnostics to action to verification is not an easy route. More so when they are greatly limited by (manual) operating procedures”

    Life Cycle analysis:

    Some assets are prone to a sudden failure due to the nature of their working environment that is linked to historical performance. Tracking such incidences can help in predicting when the next failure and the probable reason for the same. 

    Having data on asset tagging since the day of installation and subsequent maintenance activities according to the time stamp can unlock a lot of opportunities to predict the next failure and prevent it from happening. 

    Operational accountability:

    Although it has nothing to do with the assets, accountability of the O&M work can be an important part of a successful maintenance team. With the help of connected data infrastructure and IoT sensors, critical assets like lifts, elevators, and HVAC systems can transfer the command data to a centralized system on maintenance performed and check it for quality. 

    As every task has been linked to an operator who is performing it, ensures transparency and accountability in work    

    Now, these are some of the aspects that come in handy with predictive maintenance which is only possible if you are leveraging data analytics for the same. Of course, there are other benefits too such as improving the sustainability quotient of the building by reducing energy and resource losses and providing uninterrupted performance and a better experience to a tenant.             
    Wanted to start with Reliability-based predictive maintenance practices? This article might help you lay down the next steps towards a comprehensive facility-wide approach to predictive maintenance and choosing a building analytics software for your organization.

  • Curating the data layer architecture the right appropriate way

    Curating the data layer architecture the right appropriate way

    The argument between Open Standards Data Architecture and Proprietary Ecosystems of Application and Hardware has been heating up recently, especially as we now have more options to choose and customize the facility’s technology stacks. 

    Similarly this argument resembles the one we all witnessed, when Google came up with android to compete with the Apple ecosystem, and that turned out beneficial for both the competitors, and more importantly for the users, as it clearly laid aspects such as security, connectivity, exclusivity and functionality for everyone to choose as they want. 

    Well, when it comes to commercial building space, the term ‘separate data layer’ has been at a central point of many discussions recently.

    In a typical building, one has systems like BMS, BAS, Energy monitoring, and metering systems to collect energy and asset-related data. Then the integration layer where a set of hardware communicates and transfers the data from individual sources to a designated location. Further historian layer stores time series and metadata on the database. Then the individual 3rd party tools in the application layer fetch the read-only data from the historian layer, processes it (Edge/cloud), and provide insights in the dashboard. Users then make decisions whether to stop there or put in the control system for complete automation.    

    Now there are some limitations when one chooses to go with the above stack. That is, the entire stack often comes with the vendor ecosystem, and if you are not getting the expected results from the application and choose to move on with another, one might lose all the data that has been tagged before and restart the cycle once again from the scratch.   

    Addition of data layer

    Addition of the data layer is a way to make the stack open and available for the data lake. That’s separating the historian layer from the application layer and maintaining the raw data tags in the data layer. This way one need not follow the vendor’s ecosystem for one application only but can prefer another set of applications as per their requirements evolve with the period of time.

    How does this work?

    Whenever data is stored in a historian layer, it comes with a common auto-tagging so that one will have the complete library of asset and location-specific datasets ready at all times (It need not be structured with a proprietary application). 

    Later one can add applications to it that will fetch in required data from the data lake and provide the insights. If not satisfied with the insights or the capabilities then one can be moved to another application without disturbing the data set up.

    Key Benefits of Having the Data Layer:

    1- Reducing the dependencies on vendor ecosystem:

    One can have the flexibility to look into the data whenever you want something that’s difficult with the vendor’s stack. You would not need to subscribe to another application or tool to access your data. 

    2- Easy to switch:

    Don’t find the insights useful anymore? Or have you Identified the loopholes in the application which the vendor is ignoring or are not able to fix? With the new stack, you can move on with the new application whenever you want without losing the data structure. 

    3- One data model for all:

    It creates a single source of truth by applying the one data model for all the applications promoting interoperability.

    For a facility manager, one of the important tasks is to keep the asset and operational data accessible to the O&M team for retro or predictive analysis. And with the separation of the data layer he can share it with the team as well as use it for any 3rd party asset performance management application trials. 

    Sounds perfect and easy right?
    Well, that depends on some critical decisions and aspects you should consider before selecting. 

    1- Increased Complexity:

    As you are customizing your tech stack it will increase the data complexity as your dedicated IT team would need to get involved in commissioning or decommissioning of the third-party applications. Needless to say, it will also increase the time to get started with the new application.

    2- 3rd party application’s use of data:

    If the application is expecting a different set of metadata or tagged data then your standardization would not work. There are few applications available that can follow the standardized asset tagging. 

    Well, every facility management team has different goals, capabilities, budget and technology roadmap to follow and as far as the tech stack is concerned, tenant’s expectation, contract terms and team’s vision to create an ideal facility plays an important role. All the insights shared in this article including the pro and cons of a separate data layer should be evaluated thoroughly with the team and then the decision should be taken. 

    Introducing a separate data layer will improve the ability to experiment with various use cases and applications (such as analytics, which leveraged the existing data layer and sit on the top of the value chain) ultimately adding greater flexibility and scalability to the tech stack.

  • Digital twins that help FM O&M teams make decisions

    Digital twins that help FM O&M teams make decisions

    A digital twin, is a virtual representation of a physical asset that is functionally similar to its physical counterpart. It integrates all of the organization’s digital information on a specific asset or piece of equipment with real-time operating and data streaming from the asset while in use.

    Technology companies and service providers are promising wonders with the digital twins for every inflating market expectations. This sudden growth in interest for digital twins made us think, are the facilities ready enough for the shift? Specifically when facility managers are facing tight budgets, limited resources and other unforeseen challenges?

    In this session, Umesh Talked about how digital twins can help Facility management teams make decisions in a way that is faster, better, and cost-effective. 

    What’s driving the Uptake?

    Facilities are much smarter now as they are filled with operational and performance data, we can point out there are three key elements that are driving the need for a virtual replica of the physical assets

    • Connectivity: with the uprise of IoT sensors and devices we have abundant data available on assets and processes, not just that but also the cost of sensors has decreased over the last couple of years contributing to the fact that they are easily available and affordable now.
    • Business model: The adoption of cloud-based saas applications has incrementally improved the accessibility of any new feature or function to the existing client making tools more relevant as they go.
    • Facility management connects – Digital twins probably be the one megatrend that can help FM teams bring in sustainability, asset management & Operational strategy initiation under one radar. 

    While it’s all true that twins have the capability to show a clear operational path to FM teams, it’s also important how they are taking it? As per our observations, people have taken it in a complex way.

    Start with Simple Operational Twins

    First, decide what you want to achieve with the twins, Umesh suggests FM team can always start with the simple operational things which can give you data and predictive insights on energy efficiency, maintenance, etc and later as it evolves you can have a 3D visual entire outlay as well for additional use cases.

    He continues by saying that “When we at Xemple started our journey of creating an operational team we have in mind to create it in a way that is super convenient for the O&M team and not just for the corporate teams.”

    Possibilities Twins can open 

    Before gaining confidence on the twins or investing entirely on the evolved one you can test it on simulations :

    • BAU Simulation: create BAU scenarios on real assets and run them all on an operation twins something that is normally ran on designed or static data. Here you have an opportunity to run it on a scale on live asset data or even facility-level data

    Thinking about a Complex site that has multiple assets can be an ideal site to start with simulation without disturbing the existing process, helping you design or modify your energy efficacy strategy and also help in maintenance optimization. 

    Making twins work for O&M teams:

    Umesh explained when they started working on operational twins, to lay down the problem statement thy focused on three critical aspects:

    Are the O&M team know what’s happening on the asset level

    • How the operational team can help them know that unknown, things that often missed by conventional FDDs

    Can it explain the unexpected behavior

    • Can the operational twins identify the underlying cause behind the unexpected asset behavior?

    Where to print the next steps

    • Can the operational twins suggest to O&M twins what to do next? Or alert on the trend that’s been happening which can be fatal in the future.

    If the twin is able to answer these questions, then you are on the right track and you can develop further on making it 3D for better visualization or the different use cases.

    Anyways ideal twins should be able to do that without any manual interventions.   

    Umesh later explained how he looks at building an ideal digital twin starting with simple-looking but complex Air handling units (AHUs)

    He also shared the detailed case study where they considered 100+ AHUs across three different geographical locations and facility types just have a mixture of the different asset management processes and monitored them over the period of 3-6 months to come up with phenomenal results. You can access the detailed video on the operational twins’ case study here.

    In case you want to know more about how your FM teams can be benefited from this operational twin you can schedule a call with him.   

  • Thinking beyond CAFMs and IWMS

    Thinking beyond CAFMs and IWMS

    Whenever we talk about the Facility management software, the first and foremost thing that comes to mind is the CAFM system, in a transition from in-house asset management to asset consolidation and then outsourcing for the Integrated asset and facility management, CAFMs systems have also evolved or rather created whole new categories such as CMMS and IWMS. 

    In the past couple of years, we have seen boundaries of CAFM and CMMS are getting wider and in some places getting overlapped as property owners or FM teams are using it for work order management as well as monitoring critical assets. And as a requirement for the integration grew up we facilities started relying on the IWMS platform which basically brings in all the different aspects of facility management on a single platform and provides 3rd party plug-in applications to utilize the centralized data sources to provide a unified property view. 

    Umesh Bhutoria in his session on ‘Moving beyond CAFM and CMMS’ highlighted the transition facility management firms are going through and suggested ways to prepare to maintain their edge over competitors.

    What’s next IWMS+ or IWMS 2.0

    Since Gartner published the first magic quadrant on IWMS in 2004, we have seen humongous changes in terms of communication devices, data processing capacities, analytics, and a completely different set of tenant’s expectations.  

    So to highlight the change:

    • The need for granular level occupants data has increased
    • Addition of multiple IoT platforms/applications
    • The structure of Operations and maintenance contracts have evolved from resource to performance-driven. 

    Umesh ponders on this question whether we still need to search for IWMS+ or IWMS 2.0? One that is an extension of the original version or the completely net set of tesh stack.

    FM can’t leave technology to service providers

    Now if I look at the current state of data management in facilities there are multiple stakeholders involved to manage it. From property owners to 3rd party application vendors everyone owns the piece of pie and that’s going to be there for a long time. One simply can not command the entire data architecture and that’s good for all.

    There are big and small technology companies that are trying to get into the picture by offering exclusivity or cost-efficient solutions and trying to build the tech ecosystem around their solutions. They can be a serious threat to facility management firms if they still operate in BAU conditions.

    Need to rethink on Technology stack 

    With all the complexity of various stakeholders involving in the data and software landscape at different capacities, FM’s have three options to move forward:

    • Cant survive if betting on a lower price
    • Integrate Energy management, sustainability into the product portfolio 
    • Strategic involvement with business heads to get new business opportunities into M&V, Project manager, etc    

    Umesh Highlighted that the differentiator becomes how you use the technology with your team and the processes.

    Now with the changing structure of contracts are getting signed, addon focuses on sustainability and energy efficiency targets as well as the availability of the cost-effective technology to acquire, process, and interpret complex data sources facility management firms to need to prepare their tech stack which can be flexible enough to serve various types of buildings and at the same time scalable enough to help teams build on it in the future.

    Way forward? 

    To conclude the session Umesh suggested there are three ways a strategic team can plan for the change without disturbing the original business processes.  

    Making the stack a part of the service delivery model

    • Instead of waiting for the client to come up with the request, FMs should include it as a part of SDM with a calculated risk. Take 2-3 sites and make trials possibles

    Challanges BAU process

    • Until you get the confidence on the stack or SDM run a parallel challenger process with BAU, run it for 10-12 months then evaluate both based on effort, impact, and economics and then move ahead with the right one.

    Long Term ROI:

    • Short term RoI does not need to hold back any of your Challenger BAU processes. Let it run for the longer-term ROI 

    Now you might have several questions in your mind, How to plan for the Challenger BAU process, where to start for the trials, and what aspects should be looked into? 

    Well for all those questions you can refer to our ebook on planning and executing Asset performance management trials. Or you can schedule a call with Umesh Bhutoria (Founder, CEO Xempla) to learn more about it.   

  • The Mind of CXOs: Always Thinking Ahead of Time!! Be it Build, Buy or Both

    The Mind of CXOs: Always Thinking Ahead of Time!! Be it Build, Buy or Both

    Perhaps one of the most noticeable changes in the recent times, especially in the CRE industry is the way to look at building resiliency and leveraging technology in the most cost-effective way. The facility management teams are now far more prepared to tackle the changes and consolidate their business offers to their clients in a way that can help them reduce operational cost while maintaining the comfort factor high. 

    Obviously, this is also one of the best opportunities when in search for the most suitable application and tools that can deliver the intended job starts. Some of the FMs are adding new products/services offering into their portfolio by developing them in-house while others are sourcing from their global counterparts.

    We thought this could be an ideal ground to strike up a conversation around it and try to understand what’s really brewing in the minds of CXOs. How to look at the applications and tools while building a tech stack? Build, buy, or both?

    Sharing  the key takeaways from the RE:Connect session where Umesh Bhutoria Founder, CEO Xempla discussed with Paul Bogan, CDO Serco, ME.  discussed about the tech stack and being ahead of time

    Digital company or People’s company

    We are living at times when every company regardless of the industry or geographies are working at it’s best to leverage the technology and portraying itself as a tech company. This phenomenon has further accelerated where more and more SaaS startups are tending to appear on the unicorn list. 

    But, contrary to popular beliefs, Paul highlighted the fact that they are people’s company and never want to move away from the cores. He also mentioned that they are great at partnerships and driving values for their clients by bringing the right people or the technology for the right job. While he agrees that Digital transformation is here, which means leveraging technology to draw value across the supply chain will become the key differentiator. He also believes that they are known for their core business capabilities which can be maintained without diverting resources on something that they can simply outsource or partner with great tech companies.

    COVID as a catalyst both for the FMs and their clients to take on digital

    Prior to covid, the facility management firms were driving the digitalization and it was largely a one-sided push as an industry initiative. But Covid has stimulated the much-needed start for the clients who are now looking for digital applications and tools to reduce their operational cost, maintain assets, and keep their facilities safe and hygienic. 

    So now the end customers are driving the demand for the digital transformation which is not just limited to the front desk or workplace management applications but also the data-driven asset management tools.

    Ideal tech stack: Mobile capabilities, lifecycle modeling, and scope for asset performance management 

    According to Paul, finalizing the ideal tech stack is not an easy job as the optimization of the stack depends on too many things. For example, where is the site is located? Is it a brownfield or greenfield site? What’s the existing data infrastructure? Is it too complex or non-complex? Whether the solution is already provided during the contract or FM team needs to develop upon it? All of these limitations or constraints one needs to consider before starting on a tech stack. 

    But from an idealistic point of view, the architecture of Tech stack should be comprised of the following aspects.

    • It should be an enterprise solution that can understand, manage and configure asset information.
    • End to end mobile capabilities to minimize errors in capturing asset conditions.
    • Life cycle modeling has to be there.
    • Inbuilt or plugin option for third party asset performance management applications, sensors and IoT applications.
    • Should be available in both clouds and on-premise applications. 

    An ideal tech stack can undermine the cost factor to differentiate itself

    When asked whether Paul sees an ideal tech stack as a differentiator or just a commodity, he instantly replied, “it definitely works as a differentiator in most of the cases if not now then soon it will be”. He continued “if you look at asset management, it’s not just about the asset but the economical value that can be drawn from it” so the clients don’t just want facility management services, they want to understand how they can use their data to drive extended economical benefits, and they want better certainty where the CAPEX and OPEX should be in next 3-5 years.     

    This is all possible only if you are able to provide them the right stack to leverage their data assets. It is much easier to work with partners or clients if you do not have the master and slave relationship that often exists when the cost becomes the differentiator.   

    As far as Serco’s Middle-East business is concerned they are focusing on partnerships and strategic alliances with tech leaders such as Microsoft and Amazon for cloud capabilities and data management. Moreover, in the long run, they might rethink their strategy based on market position and internal capabilities. On concluding the discussion, Paul suggested that there are multiple options available for all sizes and types of Facility Management firms. It’s up to them to identify what their coping capabilities are, how much they can build on themselves, and what’s the right time to bring it from the 3rd party companies.   

    Do you think your organization can relate to the above discussion with Paul? What’s your ideal strategy for the Facility Management Applications? What are your thoughts about getting started with asset performance management solutions?

    Schedule here a discussion with Umesh Bhutoria (Founder, CEO Xempla) to learn more about the tech transformations related to Asset Performance Management in the CRE.

  • Build vs buy – FM Applications, where to start?

    Build vs buy – FM Applications, where to start?

    In July this year, IBM joined hands with one of the leading facility management firms CBRE, to provide AI-based maintenance services to CBRE’s data center clients. And this is not the very first  CBRE’s first partnership with a tech giant to come up with a collaborative solution. They have worked with Microsoft for interactive people management applications, and power platform as a workplace solution, and if you look at CBRE Global’s past investments and partnerships, they have done multiple tech acquisitions along with in-house dedicated DT Centres. They also have numerous applications listed under the CBRE Vantage, a suite of enablement technologies. 

    Overall they have collaborated with numerous technology providers to try to fit into their client’s requirements needless to say they have built, brought and partnered with third-party tech providers whenever is necessary. But is this strategy applicable for everyone across the verticals? What are the layers, CXOs would need to unwrap before reaching the decision?.

    Facility management teams never before have faced issues they have faced like this year with tech integrations when adding up their tech stack with workplace management and remote asset monitoring applications. Some of the buying decisions were obviously Adhoc which came in with a response to safety and social distancing protocols. But now when things are settling down with the new normal in most parts of the world, they can certainly ponder upon their future tech stack and suite of new services and decide whether they should build them or buy them?

    Discussion on Build vs buy or an argument over the same, is not new to facility management firms, which is running on outsourcing tasks for their partners. It has evolved from an in-house to consolidated services and ultimately, integrated facility management solutions, that have excelled in making partnerships and managing people. However, when it comes to deciding the digital strategy for themself and their clients it has been facing fierce competition from the incumbent tech startups and consulting firms. 

    Easier said than done, for an FM firm to decide on building a suite of applications or subscribing to one can be a far complex decision, there are multiple layers of hierarchy and deciding factors that come into the picture. It’s Obvious, there can’t be a common strategy that fits for all despite the well-known pros and cons of each decision. 

    Let’s assess the aspects that help in simplifying the decision: 

    Strategic roadmap for the FM tech stack

    For a tech-enabled FM firm, it’s Important to do research on the ideal tech stacks for different types of clients regardless of the client’s expectation from one. For operations and maintenance, that includes data acquisition hardware, data storage & processing applications, visualization and control mechanism. 

    • Understanding client’s pain points, 
    • leveraging internal and external capabilities to come up with a solution
    • Standardizing an application/software based on demography and competitive market conditions
    • Keep experimenting with a healthy combination of partnerships and a homegrown application suite        

    For a CIO, building an application or buying one is not like head or tail decision. here are two primary aspects that involved in each decision 

    1.Strategic decision

    Competitive

    A set of applications or services providing the unique value proposition to the client, that can help them secure a contract or help them estimate efforts for successful bidding.  

    Leverage

    Partnership with a techfirm to create an ecosystem of applications, based on their platform which can only be available to their clients. Leveraging FM’s understanding of operational needs and domain expertise of technology partners.   

    2.Technical/functional decision

    Competency

    In house team of data analysts, programmers, SMEs, and business analysts to research, ideate, test and successfully deploy a new application

    Well that’s not all, there is one more aspect to simplify decision making, that is Lifecycle analysis of the application/ software

    According to Gartner’s Pace-Layered Strategy, which is used to categorize applications in three layers based on complexity, usage 

    • Systems of record: 

    These applications help in building the foundation to  technology stack and the capabilities of a firm. These are roughly standardized across the sector and leave little scope for differentiation. For example, in facilities BMS, ERP and CMMS would be the bare minimum yet fundamental tools required for effective O&M activities.    

    Suggestion: No need to build it in-house, can be brought from a leading vendor.

    • Systems of differentiation: 

    Solutions that define one process from another, or give a competitive advantage to efficiency and scale, for example – two different Analytics applications that use similar asset data inputs and provide different insights, one of the application, provides more accurate and contextual recommendation because of the unique logic it possesses. 

    Suggestion: Can be customized/ white-label or build depending on the decisional framework. 

    • Systems of innovation: 

    A unique approach that has never been tested or experimented with, application or technology that is in the nascent stage but holds promising use cases and can only be deployed as PoC.

    For example, digital twins or AR-based remote asset management applications 

    Suggestion: regardless of the client’s needs forward-thinking FM firms invest a lot in creating such a niche application to project their vision and capabilities.  

    In this Gartner model, each layer suggests whether one should build, buy, or partner with a technology vendor for. 

    Building on core competencies and niche areas and outsourcing or buying standardize applications that are responsible for building a basic data infrastructure. This way CIOs can follow a pragmatic approach to decide on build, buy or partner. 

    Want to know SERCO’s take on the Build Vs buy argument? Attend this virtual session of Re: CONNECT organized by UNISSU (sponsored by Xempla) on Jan 07th, 2021 REGISTER HERE