The Mind of CXOs: Always Thinking Ahead of Time!! Be it Build, Buy or Both

Perhaps one of the most noticeable changes in the recent times, especially in the CRE industry is the way to look at building resiliency and leveraging technology in the most cost-effective way. The facility management teams are now far more prepared to tackle the changes and consolidate their business offers to their clients in a way that can help them reduce operational cost while maintaining the comfort factor high. 

Obviously, this is also one of the best opportunities when in search for the most suitable application and tools that can deliver the intended job starts. Some of the FMs are adding new products/services offering into their portfolio by developing them in-house while others are sourcing from their global counterparts.

We thought this could be an ideal ground to strike up a conversation around it and try to understand what’s really brewing in the minds of CXOs. How to look at the applications and tools while building a tech stack? Build, buy, or both?

Sharing  the key takeaways from the RE:Connect session where Umesh Bhutoria Founder, CEO Xempla discussed with Paul Bogan, CDO Serco, ME.  discussed about the tech stack and being ahead of time

Digital company or People’s company

We are living at times when every company regardless of the industry or geographies are working at it’s best to leverage the technology and portraying itself as a tech company. This phenomenon has further accelerated where more and more SaaS startups are tending to appear on the unicorn list. 

But, contrary to popular beliefs, Paul highlighted the fact that they are people’s company and never want to move away from the cores. He also mentioned that they are great at partnerships and driving values for their clients by bringing the right people or the technology for the right job. While he agrees that Digital transformation is here, which means leveraging technology to draw value across the supply chain will become the key differentiator. He also believes that they are known for their core business capabilities which can be maintained without diverting resources on something that they can simply outsource or partner with great tech companies.

COVID as a catalyst both for the FMs and their clients to take on digital

Prior to covid, the facility management firms were driving the digitalization and it was largely a one-sided push as an industry initiative. But Covid has stimulated the much-needed start for the clients who are now looking for digital applications and tools to reduce their operational cost, maintain assets, and keep their facilities safe and hygienic. 

So now the end customers are driving the demand for the digital transformation which is not just limited to the front desk or workplace management applications but also the data-driven asset management tools.

Ideal tech stack: Mobile capabilities, lifecycle modeling, and scope for asset performance management 

According to Paul, finalizing the ideal tech stack is not an easy job as the optimization of the stack depends on too many things. For example, where is the site is located? Is it a brownfield or greenfield site? What’s the existing data infrastructure? Is it too complex or non-complex? Whether the solution is already provided during the contract or FM team needs to develop upon it? All of these limitations or constraints one needs to consider before starting on a tech stack. 

But from an idealistic point of view, the architecture of Tech stack should be comprised of the following aspects.

• It should be an enterprise solution that can understand, manage and configure asset information.
• End to end mobile capabilities to minimize errors in capturing asset conditions.
• Life cycle modeling has to be there.
• Inbuilt or plugin option for third party asset performance management applications, sensors and IoT applications.
• Should be available in both clouds and on-premise applications. 

An ideal tech stack can undermine the cost factor to differentiate itself

When asked whether Paul sees an ideal tech stack as a differentiator or just a commodity, he instantly replied, "it definitely works as a differentiator in most of the cases if not now then soon it will be". He continued “if you look at asset management, it’s not just about the asset but the economical value that can be drawn from it” so the clients don’t just want facility management services, they want to understand how they can use their data to drive extended economical benefits, and they want better certainty where the CAPEX and OPEX should be in next 3-5 years.     

This is all possible only if you are able to provide them the right stack to leverage their data assets. It is much easier to work with partners or clients if you do not have the master and slave relationship that often exists when the cost becomes the differentiator.   

As far as Serco’s Middle-East business is concerned they are focusing on partnerships and strategic alliances with tech leaders such as Microsoft and Amazon for cloud capabilities and data management. Moreover, in the long run, they might rethink their strategy based on market position and internal capabilities. On concluding the discussion, Paul suggested that there are multiple options available for all sizes and types of Facility Management firms. It's up to them to identify what their coping capabilities are, how much they can build on themselves, and what’s the right time to bring it from the 3rd party companies.   

Do you think your organization can relate to the above discussion with Paul? What’s your ideal strategy for the Facility Management Applications? What are your thoughts about getting started with asset performance management solutions?

Schedule here a discussion with Umesh Bhutoria (Founder, CEO Xempla) to learn more about the tech transformations related to Asset Performance Management in the CRE.