DIGITAL WORKPLACE FOCUS
FEBRUARY 2021 39
volumes are high and process interfaces
are complex (yet repetitive), maximising
automation is critical to realising marketleading
e iciency and service delivery.
“As a CAFM user for 20+ years, DMA took on
the challenge to solve CAFM’s documented
shortfalls. Appointing a CTO and investing
£1 million, DMA created its own proprietary
system to begin ‘Uber-ising’ delivery. This
gives customers anytime, anywhere access to
unrivalled levels of digitally enabled real-time
transparency, control and data on any device
and at no cost.”
Bruce McDonnell Managing Director of
Incentive Facilities Management believes that
digital adoption must go hand in hand with
high levels of customer service: “While we
believe the way in which we will be deploying
the use of a digital platform will be unique,
this alone does not give any company
competitive advantage. Our objective,
as with all of our service and technology
advancements, is to develop solutions with
the customer at the centre, adding value
to what and how we deliver in partnership
with them. Delivering value enhanced and
e iciency focussed solutions alongside our
open book partnership approach, is what we
believe gives us the advantage.”
For McGregor at DNA, “service delivery
represents the most to gain in the future.
Digitalisation may currently be ine ective
due to some larger players being hamstrung
by legacy, closed protocol and operating
systems that do not integrate with new cloud
technology.”
VALUE ADDED
With the market being flooded with digital
platforms that are focussed in specific
areas, whether that is energy management,
building performance, asset management or
service delivery, most of them add value in
their own specific way. But which is the most
worth the investment?
Says McDonnell: “That is really dependant
on the client’s priorities. Our focus is
to provide options in a single platform
covering all areas, which we know delivers
e ectiveness to service as well as energy
e iciency and drives asset and building
performance. If you get all of this right it
delivers a great environment for guests or
occupiers alike.”
For Mitie, with sustainability higher on the
agenda than ever, clients have started taking
a hard look at their operations to identify
initiatives that reduce carbon emissions
while also taking advantage of potential cost
saving opportunities. This means investment
in energy monitoring solutions can really
pay o .
Says Alloni: “From co ee shops and
o ice buildings through to warehouses and
manufacturing plants, energy monitoring
solutions create a clear picture of the
equipment’s performance and the site’s
energy consumption.
“By combining data analytics with an
understanding of the client’s needs, such as
temperature requirements for some rooms
or sites, this data can be used to identify
opportunities to improve energy e iciency.
For example, if data shows o ice buildings
are using significant amounts of energy when
empty, it could highlight that the site needs
to go into hibernation.
“Meanwhile, at more complex locations,
including data centres, that require
specific environmental conditions, such as
temperature and CO2 levels, equipment can
be managed to maintain the right conditions
while improving energy e iciency. Indeed,
by hibernating empty o ice buildings
– during lockdowns and bank holidays –
and quickly changing the HVAC settings
when temperature drops at more complex
locations, we’ve helped one of our telecom’s
clients save around £10 million in energy
costs, equivalent to 25,000 tonnes of CO2, in
just three years.”
Mining data e ectively remains a priority
for Incentive, as McDonnell explains:
“Data and telemetry are the hot topics at
the moment and the amount of valuable
‘rich data’ which can be harvested is
vast. Turning data into real, meaningful
management information is the key to the
real measurement of service levels and
e ectiveness, providing real collaborative
analytics and proactive insight. Too oŸ en
we see reams of data along with pretty
measurements in reporting packs which do
not have the client in mind.”
McGregor believes that digitalisation
requires joining the dots between the huge
quantities of data available from some
of the smallest components of the built
environment. “Automated data analysis is