FOCUS INTERVIEW
characteristic style, Dewing and the team
didn’t follow the usual path.
He says: “When COVID came, it hit
us like a train as 70 per cent of our
clients were restaurants. We went from
collecting six and half million pounds a
month revenue down to £200,000. The
restaurants panicked and started locking
up the chequebooks so we had a choice,
either start threatening legal action or do
something diŽ erent. We talked to every one
of the CFOs, and said ‘let’s work together
and be honest, we can handle bad news not
no news’.
“Every client bar one engaged and spoke
to us every week and what we said to our
clients was ‘don’t just sit and do nothing,
you need to drip feed us little and o™ en and
we’ll do the same with the supply chains’.
Although our combined clients were only
paying us a proportion of what they owed
us every month we supported them and
they in turn looked a™ er us, discharged
their debts and have said they’ll never
forget what we did for them during COVID.”
ENERGY SOLUTION
Having weathered that storm Dewing and
the team are looking forward to the future
with another bold new concept. Working
with Essex University and through a process
of knowledge transfer Cloudfm employs a
group of PHD researchers in areas such as
human psychology, electrical engineering,
IoT and data science. With them they’ve
created a new cutting-edge technology
(referred to currently as SmartBox), that
can monitor the performance of assets
including ovens, hot water systems, air
quality, air-conditioners and refrigerators.
The tech works diŽ erently from IoT
sensors in that instead of using sensors all
around the building, the ‘box’ connects
directly to an electrical distribution board.
This enables it to analyse every bit of
energy consumption from every one of the
assets in a building to assess and predict
crucial asset maintenance needs and
reduce reactive visits.
Explains Dewing: “Everything that draws
current creates its own harmonics, so no
two bits of kit are the same. By using this
system, within 24 hours, you can identify
42 NOVEMBER 2021
every asset in that building drawing
current, and from that we can say ‘this
is how it works when its working well’.
Instead of using complicated graphics
or dashboards it creates user-friendly
insights on an app, where there is a visual
representation of each asset that clearly
indicates if an asset is beginning to fail. It’s
that straightforward.”
The tech will also provide actionable
insights to influence employees to be more
environmentally friendly and operate
assets more eŽ iciently. For instance, cites
Dewing, a restaurant manager may receive
a notice that they haven’t turned oŽ the
air conditioning system for three nights
and this has cost the organisation £37 and
contributed to carbon waste. The following
day the system reminds to switch the
aircon oŽ , and when he complies, sends a
congratulations message to say well done.
“The key is in using tech such as AI to give
us insight and share it,” says Dewing. “In
the same way that social media makes a
human feel good we can stimulate human
behaviour by giving them insight and
instant gratification. If you get people to act
on that they’ll thrive which will help change
the world. What we’re doing is getting the
population to act on climate change and
our technology is helping to create the
insight to do so.
“Data is the new oil. In itself it’s got zero
value, but where it does have value is the
insight from the data.”
FUTURE PLANS
Alongside this exciting new piece of tech,
Cloudfm has emerged from the pandemic
with a clear-sighted aim to expand over the
next five years. Restaurants, which were
90 per cent of the client base now account
for around 40 per cent, which comprises
commercial oŽ ice, retail and education
sectors.
Says Dewing: “COVID made us reimagine
the business, and as an organisation we’ve
become far stronger and profitable. We’re
now going for growth, so we are forecasting
a £200 million turnover by 2025; not to
become the biggest but to show we can
earn the profits that everyone desires by
oŽ ering clients incredible value and gaining
us more credibility to become a bigger
influencer.”
While the FM sector has raised its profile
during COVID, Dewing believes that FM as
an influencer will go back to the way it was
before if its people continue to behave in
the same way.
“The reason we get on so well with our
client base is because we engage with the
C-suite and they see the value we bring in
managing their portfolio in a strategic and
advanced way. The FM sector needs to force
that process and say, ‘if you want to do this
as well as you can do it and reap the value
you can achieve, we will all succeed”.
FURTHER INFORMATION
www.cloudfmgroup.com
Doing the opposite: A life, its lessons & building
success https://amzn.to/3bmmP
CO9ID made us reimagine the business, and as an organisation we’ve
become far stronger and proƛ table. We’re now going for growth, so we
are forecasting a £00 million turnover by 05 not to become the biggest but
to show we can earn the proƛ ts that everyone desires by off ering clients
incredible value and gaining us more credibility to become a bigger inƜ uencer.ƌ
/www.cloudfmgroup.com
/3bmmP
