Transforming with a unified platform approach

Prabhu Ramachandran, the founder and CEO at Facilio, an established leader in the connected buildings and facilities management software space discusses how the company has been delivering on the collective vision to enable true digital transformation within the property operations space.  Facilio offers an AI-driven property operations platform that allows real estate owners to aggregate building data, optimize performance, and control portfolio operations – all from one place.

Discuss the demand for property management solutions such as what Facilio offers globally and in the region. Have the demands for SaaS solutions been driven by digital transformation initiatives?

The built environment is evolving rapidly. One one side, there are the savvy & sustainability-conscious commercial tenants demanding best-in-class facilities & services. On the other hand, real estate owners are still using legacy systems & technology from the 90’s to maintain & operate their buildings. If digital transformation has to be accelerated in the real estate sector, mindset shifts need to happen.

It is not just sufficient to move to the cloud, and replace legacy systems with new-age technologies, it is also imperative that a unified platform approach is adopted to avoid silos created by fragmented tech stacks.

So with this increasing thrust towards delivering a better tenant user  experience and centralizing access to data, we have seen a huge uptick in the adoption of SaaS solutions.

 How does your Connected CMMS platform solve for the needs of multiple stakeholders?

Facilio’s connected CMMS platform is a unified O&M solution suite, that connects systems, people, and processes, and frees up locked-in operational data across multiple building systems, business software, and workflows, into a single pane of glass and makes it useful for multi-stakeholders (Cx to technicians, contractors to tenants). This allows asset/facility owners to get a complete operational picture in real-time, helping them to lower their operating cost up to 20%, increase the productivity of teams, and deliver smooth customer experiences.

Our platform employs machine-learning algorithms to predictively uncover energy savings (in the range of millions of $$), extends the life cycle of expensive equipment, reduces carbon footprint, and improves overall operating efficiency. Facilio has built ML algorithms that learn patterns from past operations data from building systems to predict equipment failures/performance, energy usage/demand, and create insights to operate buildings efficiently.

What are some of the benefits that your customers have derived from using your connected CMMS platform?

Our connected CMMS platform gives real estate owners a complete real-time view of how their buildings are performing. They get full control and visibility. Once every building function is consolidated into the CMMS, it becomes much easier to automate processes too. For example, a large building portfolio in the UAE was able to automate workflows and power a mobile workforce, thus increasing their workforce productivity by 13%.

Some of the other benefits our customers have realized are a reduction in operating costs by 20%, decrease in energy spend by 15% and much smoother tenant experiences.

Elaborate the importance of a data-driven approach in facilities management and how is this offered through your solution?

Buildings are a powerhouse of data. But most often, due to the usage of disparate systems & tools for each use case, there is no visibility for owners into how their buildings are performing.

Access to centralized building data gives a complete view of the entire operations scope for real estate owners- be it a single building or a large portfolio of buildings. This holistic view allows them to understand, and eventually influence the ‘why’ behind what’s happening in their properties. And once they gain this understanding, they will be able to empower their tenants to make meaningful real-time changes to optimize energy costs, employee’s comfort, and productivity.

 Facilio provides a unified operations platform that brings together data from building systems, human factors, and external conditions, transforms it into 360* operational insights, and makes it actionable for operators, owners, and tenants.

Is Asset Management a subset or a module of your platform of solutions?

Asset management is a part of our Connected CMMS product. Our platform offers IoT based integration capabilities with assets and building automation systems to offer asset management capabilities like condition-based maintenance, predictive maintenance, fault detection and diagnostics(FDD) and remote monitoring and control.

What does your workplace management solution offer?

Today’s workplace needs are dynamic and continuously evolving. Our workplace management module provides an entire gamut of solutions ranging from space management & real-time space unitisation, to hotdesking, and meeting room automation and controls.

 What are your future plans in the region?

In the past year, we have made significant strides as a progressive and innovative technology leader in the commercial real estate industry, and are proud to have global brands such as ICD Brookfield, Investa, Aster DM Healthcare, Mercatus, BritishLand UK, among others as our customers.

We will continue to educate both Facility management (FM) & real estate owners about modernizing their still outdated CMMS, help them to minimize their spend on property O&M with a unified platform approach.

In the region, we are committed to helping real estate owners to improve energy efficiencies in line with UAE’s vision to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.

We already have 8 strategic partners in the UAE region, and we are looking to onboard more by the end of 2022.