FM Innovators' Blog

FMTech Insights is a series where subject matter experts and thought leaders in FMTech share their knowledge and opinions on the topic of their expertise; helping the industry learn, innovate and grow. The series will cover every sector in FM – from workplace management, operations and maintenance, energy management, waste management and everything in between.

Raj Subramanian is the Co-founder of Facilio, an AI-driven property operations platform that helps real estate owners and operators aggregate hard-to-access building data, optimize performance, and control portfolio operations - all from one place.

With the world returning to the workplace either partially or fully, commercial building owners are vying with each other to differentiate using technology. Which technology to adopt, do our current solutions support delivery of optimal tenant experience and meet the evolving needs of the post-pandemic workplace seem to be the top questions running in the...

Cost control, climate action and digitalisation of systems are the most critical challenges that maintenance specialists have been facing since the beginning of 2022.

Going digital in maintenance activities means going paperless and working with data to automate workflows within the building and its value chain. In this way, corporate facilities and asset managers can focus on tasks that need human intelligence and efforts to get energy costs under control and work towards net zero.

Industry 5.0 has already started, and its intention is clear: to bring humans back to the forefront, to use technology for the greater good, improve the way we interact with it, and achieve a greater work-life balance. Maintenance and Facility Management, which share responsibilities in creating safe and comfortable environments for people, must be included.

“It might be too early to tell which emerging technologies will revolutionise our industries for good, but there’s no doubt that they...

Cleaning is often regarded as the simplest of the facilities management activities, but it is among the most difficult to innovate on, digitally speaking.

There are several reasons for this and one of the main reasons is that the cleaning industry employs very large groups of lower-paid individuals, which makes it harder to find enough efficiencies to make significant financial difference while using a digital solution.

But beyond strict financial regards, it is found, though, that the benefits of digitalization in terms of building user experience and employee engagement are high. Making the cleaners’ work visible, addressable, and adaptive is a big plus for stakeholders.

What exact shapes do these benefits take, and who are the firms that are making a difference in digitalization of cleaning activities these days?

Going digital: not only with cleaning, but also detecting points of interest for other facility partners in the building

Diane van Dijk, Sales Director of CSU...

The so-called “great return to the workplace” has been dominating the news of late – with some tech giants like Uber pushing for a 100% return to physical work while others, like Airbnb, have adopted a live-and-work-anywhere policy. Whichever end of the work-spectrum we look at, hybrid work is indeed here to stay. But what exactly is hybrid work?

Max Verteletskyi, CEO of Spaceti, defines it as the ability to work from an ecosystem of places – let’s say you can perform some of the focus work from your home, more collaborative work from your company office location or nearby coworking centre, and some creative work from a café or even a hotel somewhere in the Alps that could give the right inspiration and vibe.

“In my opinion, the lines are being blurred between the types of physical space. More importance will be given to the quality of space, which will become more of a benefit for employees. As a result, ‘Space Management’...

The cleaning industry has without a doubt undergone massive transformation in the last 2 years. The Covid-19 pandemic has not only necessitated but more importantly, accelerated this transformation, ushering in an era of digitalization, or as many in the built environment industry would call it – smart cleaning. 

Smart Cleaning Revolutionizes Cleaning Industry

Smart cleaning technologies encompass in large part the installation of IoT sensors and request buttons that are often integrated in the digital workplace management solutions. The result of this integration is a more dynamic way of cleaning that takes into consideration occupancy, foot traffic and real-time requests from building occupants.

This is a stark improvement from static cleaning before where cleaning is done on regular and specific intervals regardless of the number of building occupants or actual requests and need for cleaning. IoT devices are also being used to track high volume and value mobile...

FMTech Insights is a series where subject matter experts and thought leaders in FMTech share their knowledge and opinions on the topic of their expertise; helping the industry learn, innovate and grow. The series will cover every sector in FM – from workplace management, operations and maintenance, energy management, waste management and everything in between.

Ignasi Casamada is the Co-founder & CEO at Optima Facility, an FM service provider specializing in the management and provision of a wide range of services (Maintenance, Security, Installations, Cleaning, Energy Services, etc.) with over 30 years of experience managing services for clients in the Spanish and international market. It offers a flexible service provider model and adapts to the specific demands of each client -- from a single service individually as a specialist provider, to an integrated FM services under an "Open Facility Management" model. Digital innovation and...