4 February 2019 | Gregory Blondeau
Technology has changed the way FMs can operate, writes Gregory Blondeau.
Breaking from the shackles of technology suites - whereby all services are delivered by a sole provider (the norm for far too long) - FMs are cherry-picking from a smorgasbord of best-of-breed (b-o-b) fully interoperable solutions.
Exciting developments in automation, cloud technology and Software as a Service (SaaS) have changed the game. From managing visitors, assets and property maintenance to meeting room scheduling and more, FMs can work with niche vendors to procure the best individual solutions.
An oligopoly no more, the FM industry recognises that no vendor is the best at everything. Why should we be locked into a suite contract with one provider when almost all the time we'll 'hit a wall' with its solutions? You risk steering your company into a technological dead-end if your vendor is not using the latest technologies.
A good analogy to describe b-o-b is the smartphone. We're accustomed to downloading many apps to manage activities, from our to-do lists to ordering taxis and takeout. We want the best app to suit a specific need, and this is PropTech's approach too.
The ultimate outcome for b-o-b is for FMs to procure the optimal solution for each business area. This approach has helped us to create the 'integrated visitor experience'. Individual visitor experience systems and integrated solutions are helping organisations to unearth insightful data.
Vodafone is a great example. By combining a new visitor management solution (VMS) with a legacy parking solution, it has created greater efficiencies for visitor parking. While the site's 35 parking spaces always appeared full, once staff began pre-registering visitors through the VMS with the secondary option to reserve a space, use capacity reduced by 50 per cent.
Gregory Blondeau is the founder of Proxyclick