Role of Technology in Facilities Management

By Deepak Uppal, Executive Director, Enviro

Facility Management forms a part of the service sector, and it is plagued with issues ranging from Manpower to delivery and quality adherence. The Indian Facilities Management (FM) industry is in the middle of a swift development in end-user industries, which has led to the substantial growth of commercial activities in metropolitan areas such as Delhi/NCR, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Pune, Chennai, and Bengaluru. According to a report, analysts forecast a CAGR of 17.19% for the Indian FM industry, over the next three years. In effect, FM services are steadily gaining popularity among commercial as well as residential clients, driven by modernization and urban development.

Advancing technology, together with organizational change, is opening opportunities for information technology in facility management. In automating facility management, organizations often look for technology partners. The organizations often lack technical expertise in-house, leading to outsourcing or facility management groups becoming cost centers in their own right and charging services back to business units. In facility management staffs need greater project management skills this is where we use SIEMENS building management system. All these newer organizational models result in more intensive use of information technology. It is nearly impossible to charge for services without having some form of technology to collect and manage a variety of information about the facility. For Complaint management, we use LATTICE Reflection.

The segment has also imbibed the use of App so as to serve its client’s faster and also to do more with less, The Hr function is catered by HR One, a specialty software. Accounting is done by Oracle, Smart metering, to calculate the consumption of electricity in a household we use Crystal. Keeping a track of CRM and customer engagement we use Salesforce.

The primary driving forces for this growth are changing work culture in organizations and rapidly deployable cloud-based solutions in various industries in the APAC countries, especially India, China, and Japan.

The rapid revolution of mobile technology has played a dramatic role in the way we operate on a daily basis – both at work and in our personal lives. Smart devices, such as tablets, smartphones, and PDAs, have shaped the way in which we interact with one other; providing instant access to an infinite range of news and social channels. The winds of change are blowing in the right direction - the Indian government has announced its 4G policy and is also on a way to make available 5G, technologies that are expected to bridge the last mile and drive mobile broadband, which will swell the segment.

We do our bit in giving back to Mother Earth. We strictly follow a ZERO wastage policy in all our buildings. We recycle water for cooling towers, horticulture. Billing and grievance redressal is catered by the App.

In future, technology will become increasingly important for lifecycle asset management, driving resources more effectively and for investment decisions; that digital connectivity will deliver improved customer service; and that more technology and analytics experts would be needed in FM to embrace developing technology and to make the industry smarter and more productive.