Attributed to Mr. Raghav Kapur, Director, SILA
As real estate owners focus on achieving enhanced occupant experience and energy efficiency levels in their building environments, leading facility management firms are integrating technology solutions to exceed these objectives and streamline other operations
While real estate facility management (FM) has seen massive transformation over the recent past, top-ranking FM service providers continue to leverage technological advancements to enhance efficiency standards and optimize their processes further. This increasing technology integration remains key to managing real estate more efficiently while also exceeding the ever-evolving expectations of tech-savvy Gen-Z and millennial tenants. Let us look at the top advantages of embracing a technology-focused approach in real estate facility management and why real estate owners ought to switch over from traditional property management practices.
Embracing smart solutions for a lower carbon footprint
As human-induced climate change continues to be the biggest threat to the natural environment and society at large, businesses need to implement green practices and policies to contain rising greenhouse emissions. To achieve this environmental objective, new-age FM firms are resorting to holistic energy management strategies that involve performing detailed energy consumption analysis and incorporating smart energy-saving solutions across the building premises. Installing solar panels, incorporating smart light and water sensors, replacing old maintenance equipment with energy-efficient appliances as well as monitoring and optimizing energy usage are just a few notable examples that are proving indispensable in lower a facility’s carbon footprint.
What’s more, real estate owners can optimize energy consumption in line with changing occupancy levels that is common in large habitable building spaces, with the added advantage of lowering monthly energy costs due to the implementation of such smart technological solutions. Live energy monitoring can support in identifying energy-intensive operations and help real estate owners in further optimizing energy usage, without sacrificing occupant comfort standards or building performance. Integrating smart and green technology solutions along with entrusting facility management to technology-driven FM service providers is thus the need of the hour to ensure sustainable business activity expansion.
Automation implementation strategies to enhance operational efficiencies
While the rapid proliferation of Internet of Things (IoT) technology is transformed how humans interact with each other and their surroundings, there are many innovative building applications that are utilizing this technology to improve productivity levels and unravel further workforce efficiencies. Integrating smart devices with building management softwares and dedicated mobile applications can provide facility management staff with greater control over building functions, with the added functionality of automating repetitive maintenance functions at the touch of a button.
As a result, FM firms are leveraging automation strategies to slash response times, eliminate human errors and even do away with the need for manually perform maintenance and compliance checks. Sharing employee-specific daily worklists through a mobile app and cloud-based visitor management are just two examples of how FM firms are using automation strategies to change the face of property management. The use of digital tracking tools for tasks such as recording waste generation, energy consumption and even compliance reporting offers the dual benefit of promoting higher work efficiency and reducing operating expenses.
Digital technology adoption to improve productivity standards
With hundreds of employees often engaged in managing large residential or commercial spaces, managing key HR activities like employee attendance, daily work allocation and performance monitoring can be a herculean task for real estate owners. What’s more, balancing employee needs with facility-specific performance targets is essential to ensure high staff motivation levels as well as maintain high facility standards. To alleviate these operational challenges, leading FM firms have curated proprietary technology platforms that can facilitate better coordination, while improving both employee satisfaction levels and maximizing real estate productivity. Facility managers can get a more nuanced view of facility operations on their hand-held computing devices and can dynamically allocate tasks to the present manpower. They can also provide employees with intuitive feedback and facilitate a transparent ‘performance rating process’ that is more effective at motivating front-line employees.
