The need to create a safe and healthy workplace environment has never been greater than today. Workplace transformation, which has always been top of the agenda for corporate real-estate leaders, has been further accelerated owing to the pandemic, and factors such as cost pressures and the need to have business continuity plans, according to Sandeep Sethi, Managing Director, Corporate Solutions, West Asia, JLL. “This has elevated the role of workplace leaders and brought facilities management (FM) to the forefront of workplace services.” According to an independent report, the global FM market size is projected to reach $ 1,759.25 billion by 2028, exhibiting a CAGR of 5 per cent during the forecast period. India is one of the major contributors to this with a forecasted value of $ 400 billion by 2025 at a CAGR of 20 per cent, informs Pradeep Lala, MD and CEO, Embassy Services Pvt Ltd (ESPL). There is certainly a lot of job creation and economic growth that the industry will cater to. As we move forward, the role of FM companies will be more strategic and long term in nature with facets like digitisation, sustainability, hygiene, employee wellness and safety gaining importance, shares Sathish Rajendren, Chief Operating Officer, Facilities and Asset Management Services, Knight Frank India. “The FM industry is positioned for a V-shaped recovery with a ray of hope in a different form of opportunities that will transform rapidly in 2021-22.” Demand drivers In the current environment, given the unforeseen delays in the mass vaccination drive, essential service providers will continue to be growth recovery drivers, avers Rupal Sinha, CEO, Quess Integrated Facility Management Services. Essential services industries such as IT-ITES, healthcare, BFSI and manufacturing and the public utility sectors will help sustain or drive up demand. However, logistics, e-commerce and manufacturing are the segments that will provide the much-needed growth, she adds. “For a long time, the FM industry has been concentrated around the commercial market space where large IT/business parks were seeking solutions from FM service providers,” says Lala. However, he adds that with real-estate developers competing to provide the best facilities in all segments, the overall vision requires proficient FM services. Any building, whether commercial, industrial or residential, cannot function without a proficient FM wing that can anticipate and calculate risks, define asset value, analyse system performance, and deploy sustainable practices. According to Sethi, “While BAU facilities services continue to grow, workplace transformation across sectors means that demand for new offerings, like workplace consulting, space optimisation, delivering a uniform workplace-like experience to employees working from anywhere, mobile engineering services, sensor and demand-based FM operations, green buildings and indoor air quality monitoring, is expected to provide large opportunities in future.” Key regulations for the FM industry in India “While no regulations have yet been floated, it is presumed that the industry will adopt newer standards of international organisations and adapt them to suit our region-specific requirements,” says Mahender Singh R, Director, IFMA, INDIA & South East Asia. Broadly speaking, these standards attribute importance to health and hygiene, the wellbeing of people and buildings, technological development and the advancement of managing flexibilities at work, including asset and human capital. As standards and regulations are precautionary and in a constant state of evolution, any regulation put in force or standards implemented are subject to change. Technology trends in the FM services market Business continuity is the key for any organisation. As a result, FM providers are changing their strategy to tackle pandemic-like situations. FM is evolving to learn newer innovations and adopt broad-based thinking to constantly ideate and meet the ever-growing demand from customers and organisations, shares Singh. The FM market is in reinvention mode. New trends are evolving as customers are looking to redefine office space, improve efficiency and consolidate. But all these must be underlined by technology, believes Ashutosh Jha, Managing Director, Orion Security Solutions. It's no secret that the number of connected workplace devices is increasing. There is an increased emphasis on data-driven decision-making, integrated facilities management, employee experience and flexible workspaces. The evolution of trends is rapid and started with ERP solutions; with IoT, AI, ML and Cloud computing coming in, the change has been massive, observes Rajendren. Other advanced developments in terms of technology solutions are the interface that provides contactless, paperless and real-time data for decision-making. IoT and AI are expected to play a large part in the integration of critical assets and gathering real-time data for condition-based maintenance practices to enhance efficiency and productivity. “I am quite excited to see disruptive technologies such as solutions that can help organisations with their sustainability goals, enhance everything that an employee interacts within a workplace including aspects of health, safety and well-being, and help with better space utilisation, cost optimisation and enhanced operations to enable decision-making,” shares Sethi. Security services in terms of electronic surveillance, non-personal communication and contactless services (parking, delivery of items, communication, e-payments, virtual shopping, e-learning, remote banking, etc) will ensure the safety and wellbeing of occupants, according to Rajendren. “These technologies are being extensively used in the commercial real estate (CRE) functional domain and will further be refined to ensure higher speed and quality of delivery with wellness as the primary objective.” “The segment has quickly pivoted to bring effective and meaningful technologies aimed at solving real-world problems, such as touchless technologies, tools to create safe and healthy workplaces like smart elevators, remote monitoring of critical engineering assets, monitoring indoor air quality in real time, smart cafeteria and transport operations, robotic UV disinfection and so on,” avers Sethi. Digitisation can help ensure healthy building and smooth infrastructure operations while reducing costs, improving productivity and making the premises more sustainable, says Jha. It also leads to better organisation of departments, less unplanned downtime and better overall business performance. Lala shares a few measures taken at ESPL to ensure the safety of clients and the community: Entry/exit: Automated thermal scanning devices, assembled by ESPL, allow for contactless temperature screening at the entrance through Cloud-integrated infrared thermal scanners. The system triggers an alarm when a mask is not worn or the person has a high body temperature. This allows for efficient contact tracing. Inside facilities: Smart restrooms have been created where Cloud-integrated sensors allow admins to check on occupancy, gas and bin levels. Sanitisers and awareness signage have been provided across lobbies and common areas. Food courts and engagement zones have been redesigned to meet the demands of social distancing. Stringent waste management procedures have been instituted for medical waste. Innovation for efficiency: As a response to the pandemic, aerial microbial disinfection or drone disinfection was launched in June 2020 to help the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) with disinfection of mosquito breeding grounds and other vector-borne diseases in areas that are usually inaccessible. These drones can fly over 500 m high for 12 hours while carrying over 15 litre of disinfectant; they can cover an area of over 50 acre in a single day. Future of sustainable and green FM services “With AI-driven and IoT-based building automation systems, FM services will play a pivotal role in supporting customers in their efforts to minimise the total environmental impact of their premises, especially in the areas of energy management, water efficiency, waste management, indoor air quality and carbon footprint,” believes Sinha. According to Rajendren, “The revolution in FM services was first brought about by automation, mechanisation and advent of technology for building management services but the next revolution in FM is and will be for sustainability and green services.” He adds that the focus will be on choosing sustainable materials, sustainability tools and sustainable processes that will have a direct impact on end-user perception, preserving the local environment and supporting communities. “In the post-pandemic world, responsible businesses will work with responsible organisations,” shares Sethi. Commitment to bring a positive change through real estate will be at the forefront of CRE strategy in 2021 and the function will be critical in achieving enterprise net-zero targets. “Recently, our CEO announced JLL’s ambitious Net Zero 2040 pledge, which covers not just our operations around the world but also all the sites we manage for our clients and our extensive global corporate supply chain.” Global commitments to net-zero doubling in less than a year provides a huge opportunity to shape the future of real estate for a better world. According to Sethi, almost all JLL’s clients have incorporated net-zero carbon in their real-estate lifecycle, which essentially translates to the following three things: Occupy or acquire net-zero carbon buildings through sustainability appraisal/due diligence Adopt sustainable design principles and specifications when looking to develop, refurbish or fit out assets Manage assets towards a net-zero carbon by optimising a building, e.g. lighting upgrades, HVAC replacement and much more. FM players are in demand to help companies adopt sustainable and green practices. Compliance with globally renowned certifications such as LEED, IGBC and BSC is a benchmark that define best practices, shares Lala. “From detecting the wastage of resources and energy to providing solutions on optimal utilisation and conservation of energy, FM services are regarded as the most appropriate advisors to all challenges that limit sustainability. For instance, at our Embassy Group-owned spaces alone, since 2017, we have reused over 16,20,864 kl of treated water for flushing, gardening and ancillary purposes, thereby resulting in approximately 45 per cent reduction in raw water consumption. On the energy management front, we have a solar power plant with 100-mw capacity in the Bellary district of Karnataka that supplies power to tenants across our business parks in Bengaluru. With the continued focus on going sustainable, facility managers will undoubtedly lead the way. Case studyType of project: E-Spectrum technology suite Services offered: Embassy 360, digital logbook, workforce management, smart metering, VMS, feedback tool, inventory management, diesel monitoring systems, digitised reporting modules Cost: Varies based on requirements, size, typology and portfolio Technologies used: Digital dashboards, IoT-based sensors, NFC, BEACON How did this benefit the client? Through the use of the E-Spectrum technology suite, clients foster a data-centric, transparent and digitised model of facility management. Apart from the ability to provide predictive styles of monitoring facilities, assets and workforce, it works in a completely digitised, paperless ecosystem that can be remotely monitored in real time from anywhere across the globe. This is extremely useful for clients with facilities across multiple geographies but a centralised team to manage facility operations. When the FM team has access to real-time monitoring of data related to asset performance, consumption, etc, they can prevent equipment failure, reduce resource utilisation, and predict requirements such as maintenance schedules and resource needs like water, fuel, electricity, air quality, etc. This is also critical to ensuring zero downtime of technical assets, which in case of failure can pose serious monetary loss to organisations. It is only with access to accurate data that consumption can be studied and utilisation reduced. “We also maintain a strong emphasis on people empowered with technology,” shares Pradeep Lala, MD and CEO, Embassy Services Pvt Ltd (ESPL). “The E-Spectrum deck does just that. In a world where everyone is moving toward AI and robotics, we ensure a strong focus on retaining people to oversee tasks and empower them with technology for better efficiency and accuracy. After all, FM is all about giving life to spaces and that would not be possible without people.” Technology at its best “We have been doing an extremely interesting piece of work for many of our forward-looking clients delivering exceptional transformational value in the process,” shares Sandeep Sethi, Managing Director, Corporate Solutions, West Asia, JLL. “It is a move to predictive and reliability-centric maintenance through the use of sensor-based technology. Traditionally, the scope of work for our engineering projects is the maintenance of transformers, chillers, HVACs, UPS, generators, distribution networks, etc, and the engineering services for facilities have been schedule-based. But with the use of sensor-based technology, we have shifted to a predictive maintenance model. In such instances, we have seen significant benefits of labour reduction of up to 40 per cent, energy savings up to 15 per cent and maintenance cost optimisation upwards of 20 per cent.” Talking about the office automation solution, Sathish Rajendren, Chief Operating Officer, Facilities and Asset Management Services, Knight Frank India, mentions that it is a bouquet of services, like visitor management, helpdesk services, access control, meeting room booking, workplace air-conditioning control, indoor air quality, lighting control, food ordering, parking management, electronic surveillance, etc. This solution is built on the platform of digital automation using IoT and AI technologies. Automation of office services would minimise human intervention and manpower cost and make operations agile with an optimum overall operational cost. Benefits for the client include a robust office experience with an enterprise-agile workplace. People safety and wellbeing is taken care of through controlled lighting, AC and indoor air quality. And security of the workplace is enhanced through efficient visitor management systems, access control and parking management. Big data, IoT and remote monitoring systems for FM services Information and communication technologies (ICTs) along with the establishment of the new paradigms of IoT and big data management are opening up innovative scenarios with respect to cognitive and decision-making processes related to the management of the built environment, shares Ashutosh Jha, Managing Director, Orion Security Solutions. The novel availability of information offered by these digital technologies can lead to the definition of strategies aimed at significantly reducing management costs and improving building performance and service quality. Although this potential is now widely recognised by the various operators in the sector, experimentations have not yet led to harmonisation and standardisation of procedures, processes and enabling technology applications. By allowing facility managers to detect present trends and forecast the values of the parameters of interest, making it possible to foresee the future behaviours of building components, these new operation and maintenance strategies inform and support decision-making processes both at a strategic and operational level. More and more software providers are now committed to innovation, making room for AI and robotics in FM. “We will also see automation features and wireless protocols that change the way we currently access our workplaces,” avers Jha. Near-field communication (NFC) technologies are already being combined with IoT networks to create an all-access pass. So it is becoming increasingly inevitable that FM software integrates with more such software platforms and tech devices and equipment. - By Praharshi Saxena