Managing All Building Activities in One App

Monday, March 28, 2022 TimeTec 0 Comments

 

There was an incident that happened recently worth mentioning. While implementing a cloud season parking system, one of our parking customers received a complaint email from its tenant. 

 

 

 

 

The tenant refused to download the TimeTec parking app to automate season pass's booking and renewal, commented it is "uneconomical" for one app to just be doing one thing, and preferred to remain with the existing and inefficient old system.    

The comment is valid. I'm happy that the tenant brought up his main concern about the digital building system, which was supposed to be an ecosystem to consolidate all activities into one app.    

 

 

 

 

I quoted the building owner's reply in this article with his permission. "You are right by pointing out the uneconomical to download one app for just performing one task. Our management is well aware of the importance of the ecosystem when deciding on a new system. In fact, it is in our pipeline to continue with the digital transformation journey by adopting the Super App concept, which eventually will have only one app for Smart Parking, Smart Access, Smart Commerce, Smart CCTV, Smart Tenant, Smart Workforce Management, Smart Visitor Management, Smart Facility Booking, Smart Event Management, Smart Maintenance; and even extended to our future development to have Smart Residents and Smart Medical. Imagine our tenants like you and your employees, just need to register once and enjoy all the facilities in this Smart Building. This long-term plan and the privacy concern increased our vendor selection process's strictness."  

Before I elaborate on the one app concept, I will explain the core changes for digital technology to disrupt the property management industry. I list down the comparison in the following table:

 

 

The differences are pretty straightforward. Due to the constraints of the old system, it is hard for building owners to figure out the big picture from the fragmented, isolated activities around the building. There is always a linkage between activities, but activities without connectivity always obstruct building owners from establishing their relationship, resulting in inefficiency in management.

I further explain the concept of modern building management in one app platform in the following chart:

Building management usually splits into two major categories, managing people and managing equipment. People and equipment are no separate entities; they often interact to form various activities in a building.

We have witnessed the smart resident app play a vital role in residential property management for the past three years. Our product, iNeighbour, is a multi-tasking super app for residential communities. It is achieving a one-app-solves-it-all goal, helping managements handle the growing complexity of the daily operation. Soon, we will launch iTower for building owners to manage their multi-tenanted office buildings. 

For easier comprehension, I turned the chart above to a building image that illustrates the four major types of activities groups: tenant management, building automation, security, and near field commerce.

Most businesses, especially property management companies, face crucial moments during the recent pandemic. The blow from a pandemic perhaps temporary, but the impact could be permanent.

For example, the call for a work-from-home or hybrid working environment tampered with the office rental and sales market; this is immediate with the prolonged effect caused by the outbreak of Covid-19. At the same time, it also accelerates the path for building owners to embrace digital transformation to have a leaner team to run better building management.

A digital era for office building management is about to begin. 

About Author:

Teh Hon Seng, Group CEO of TimeTec Group of Companies. Prior to forming TimeTec, Teh led PUC Founder (MSC) Bhd to be listed on MESDAQ (ACE) market of Bursa Malaysia in 2002. Teh initiated the R&D in fingerprint technology in 2000, which later developed into a renowned global brand for commercial fingerprint product known as FingerTec. In 2008, he foresaw the trend of cloud computing and mobile technology, and over the years, he had strategically diversified and transformed its biometric-focused products into a suite of cloud solutions that aimed at workforce management and security industries including smart communities and digital building system that centered around the cloud ecosystem. Teh has more than 20 patents to his name, and he is also a columnist in a local newspaper and a writer of several books.