IT’S all too easy to envision fixed property assets as just that: immutable, set in time and place, and unmovable. But modern buildings are about function as much as form and cutting-edge, customised technology ensures they are dynamic, constantly speaking to their internal staff and external service providers.
"Facilities management is a specialised area and has only started maturing in SA now," says John Keramianakis, MD and shareholder of Asset Control, a company that grew out of an earlier entity, Verang, just a few months ago.
"Facilities management is about proactively maintaining and managing property; SA is only now coming out of an era of reactive property maintenance — the ‘fix it when it’s broke, collect the rent and phone-someone if something breaks’ model.
"Often, after a property had gone through an eight-to 10-year lease cycle, it would go back to the owner vacant and significantly deteriorated."
Keramianakis started as a software developer in 1990, writing systems for property management.
Verang was started by the same people who started Asset Control. In 1998, Keramianakis took an assignment out of Verang, only to return in 2000 as a shareholder, introducing a new division.
"Facilities management really started to grow in about 2012 here, which is quite late in the day. Anything that trends in the US is about seven years ahead of SA."
While the old-fashioned property manager is about collecting the rent, facilities management is about keeping the lights on, keeping the building and the systems within clean, secure, utilised to their maximum potential and well maintained.
It ensures all assets associated with a property, such as air-conditioning, electricity, lifts, escalators, fire-detection or prevention systems, generators, UPS systems and access control, are fully functional, 24/7.
"It could even be taken a step further with specific industries. In retail, for instance, there could be catering equipment and specialised refrigeration," says Keramianakis.
Broll — a South African and, increasingly, international leader in property and facilities management — has been working with Asset Control since 2012.
Verang did a lot of work for WSP, a global engineering firm. Broll acquired WSP’s facilities management division and thus, what would become Asset Control, as a client. Asset Control describes itself as a technology partner with Broll.
"As many of our clients specialise in various property asset classes, such as retail, business and industrial, hospitality and education, we cannot offer a professional, value-adding service without customising our IT solutions platform," says Broll Group CEO Malcolm Horne.
"Each client defines their focus areas and we need to measure ... our performance in a proactive manner, and have found rigid, off-the-shelf products difficult to implement, easily leading to client dissatisfaction.
"This is why we outsourced this function to a boutique business specialising in these systems."
Asset Control’s software solutions offer computerised, web-based instant access to a property’s systems.
"The building management system may be a single system talking to the cooling or fire system, or there could be multiple building-management systems for each component," says Keramianakis. "Often these can report a fault — but a beep on a panel or an SMS is not a formal report and also doesn’t indicate what action needs to be taken."
...
COMPUTER-AIDED management was the next step that Asset Control has pioneered in SA with their Concept Evolution system.
"Integrated business management systems pick up an alarm, know where it’s coming from, what the alarm means and, most important, who needs to attend to it," says Keramianakis. "The system assigns a resource to that call, the correct person is notified electronically and the clock starts ticking.
"The minute a call originates, it needs to be recorded and the correct resource assigned, so the right contractor in that area, with the right skills, will get there on time."
This is planned maintenance, rather than reactive maintenance and is what keeps a building "fluid".
What really sets Asset Control’s solutions apart is its contractor management portal. "It is the first in SA. I don’t even think any company is doing this internationally; I haven’t seen it," he says.
"The contractor could be any person offering a service to Broll and its customers. The customer logs on and requests a supplier, or a supplier can be added as the portal includes a vetting process.
"When a call comes in and a contractor is assigned, that contractor is remotely notified and is able to speak to the system — to notify when he’s completed the job and even upload his invoice. The details on the invoice, in terms of hourly labour rates and costs of materials, for example, are captured on the database, so it’s benchmarking that is being paid for, and if it’s acceptable, in real time."
The difference this system has made to Broll’s ability to service its customer proactively is immense.
"The portal is a completely standalone and unique software package developed for Broll, which allows for a seamless integration with the contractor, reduces the need for paper trails and allows for a three-way communication channel between Broll, the contractor and the client, allowing both client and contractor to fully understand the procedure and to know exactly how far they are along the path of invoice submission to payment, at the touch of a button," says Horne.
The portal is so user-friendly it can be used offline — if a contractor doesn’t have access to the internet or Wi-Fi — and the information is uploaded when he or she connects.
One of Broll’s clients is Parliament, through the office of Public Works in Cape Town, says Keramianakis. "BEE-approved small contractors on the portal can use computers put on site, at Parliament, where they can log on, scan their invoice and submit it.
"They don’t need to have their own computers — the invoice can even be written by hand and then photographed using their phones," he says.
The portal processes up to 10,000 invoices a month. Everything is centralised and customised, from quote, contractor allocation and auditing the work done remotely to submission, approval and invoice payment.
Asset Control, which has 10 employees, is expecting to increase to 20 within the next 18 months, in no small part due to their relationship with Broll.
"What I like about Broll’s approach is that they have faith in building customer solutions.
"They had a vision and knew they needed something that would differentiate them in the market — and they put their money where their mouth is. I would describe the relationship we have as symbiotic," says Keramianakis.
Horne describes the relationship between the two companies as "a co-dependency partnership model, where both parties gain and lose by our performance or nonperformance".
"Broll’s diverse portfolio and the resultant exposure Asset Control has to our business intellectual property creates the environment needed to allow Asset Control to bring innovative design and technology to the forefront which, when implemented, allows Broll to be a leader in facilities management."
Keramianakis cites finding and, especially, retaining skilled staff as the biggest obstacle to growth.
"Good skills are hard to find and, being a small company, it can be hard to compete. If I take a guy from college, give them skills and work experience, it won’t be a year before he’s poached by a bigger organisation," he says.
Having a number of significant blue-chip clients on its books — and with one of Broll’s clients operating throughout Africa, Cyprus and moving into India — Asset Control’s product will go global soon. Keramianakis now has his sights on the smaller players.
"Small customers are contractors with one or two vehicles who need tools to manage their workforce and business," he says.
"We can scale our portal down to suit their needs so that if a contractor — vetted, approved and captured on the system — gets an SMS, and if he has three or four subcontractors to manage, he can assign the job, see it gets done and send an invoice, all undertaken remotely.
"We’ll ensure he has the technological tools to create a functional, small business. These small guys are, potentially, our future. It will be creating not just jobs but pockets of entrepreneurial contractors, working and contactable remotely, who clients will know are sound as the same system that gives them remote connectivity will have vetted them.
"I’m calling it the Bakkie Brigade!"
Asset Control MD John Keramianakis and Broll Property Group CEO Malcolm Horne talk facilities systems at the BD-TV Studio in Rosebank. Picture: FREDDY MAVUNDA
IT’S all too easy to envision fixed property assets as just that: immutable, set in time and place, and unmovable. But modern buildings are about function as much as form and cutting-edge, customised technology ensures they are dynamic, constantly speaking to their internal staff and external service providers.
"Facilities management is a specialised area and has only started maturing in SA now," says John Keramianakis, MD and shareholder of Asset Control, a company that grew out of an earlier entity, Verang, just a few months ago.
"Facilities management is about proactively maintaining and managing property; SA is only now coming out of an era of reactive property maintenance — the ‘fix it when it’s broke, collect the rent and phone-someone if something breaks’ model.
"Often, after a property had gone through an eight-to 10-year lease cycle, it would go back to the owner vacant and significantly deteriorated."
Keramianakis started as a software developer in 1990, writing systems for property management.
Verang was started by the same people who started Asset Control. In 1998, Keramianakis took an assignment out of Verang, only to return in 2000 as a shareholder, introducing a new division.
"Facilities management really started to grow in about 2012 here, which is quite late in the day. Anything that trends in the US is about seven years ahead of SA."
While the old-fashioned property manager is about collecting the rent, facilities management is about keeping the lights on, keeping the building and the systems within clean, secure, utilised to their maximum potential and well maintained.
It ensures all assets associated with a property, such as air-conditioning, electricity, lifts, escalators, fire-detection or prevention systems, generators, UPS systems and access control, are fully functional, 24/7.
"It could even be taken a step further with specific industries. In retail, for instance, there could be catering equipment and specialised refrigeration," says Keramianakis.
Broll — a South African and, increasingly, international leader in property and facilities management — has been working with Asset Control since 2012.
Verang did a lot of work for WSP, a global engineering firm. Broll acquired WSP’s facilities management division and thus, what would become Asset Control, as a client. Asset Control describes itself as a technology partner with Broll.
"As many of our clients specialise in various property asset classes, such as retail, business and industrial, hospitality and education, we cannot offer a professional, value-adding service without customising our IT solutions platform," says Broll Group CEO Malcolm Horne.
"Each client defines their focus areas and we need to measure ... our performance in a proactive manner, and have found rigid, off-the-shelf products difficult to implement, easily leading to client dissatisfaction.
"This is why we outsourced this function to a boutique business specialising in these systems."
Asset Control’s software solutions offer computerised, web-based instant access to a property’s systems.
"The building management system may be a single system talking to the cooling or fire system, or there could be multiple building-management systems for each component," says Keramianakis. "Often these can report a fault — but a beep on a panel or an SMS is not a formal report and also doesn’t indicate what action needs to be taken."
...
COMPUTER-AIDED management was the next step that Asset Control has pioneered in SA with their Concept Evolution system.
"Integrated business management systems pick up an alarm, know where it’s coming from, what the alarm means and, most important, who needs to attend to it," says Keramianakis. "The system assigns a resource to that call, the correct person is notified electronically and the clock starts ticking.
"The minute a call originates, it needs to be recorded and the correct resource assigned, so the right contractor in that area, with the right skills, will get there on time."
This is planned maintenance, rather than reactive maintenance and is what keeps a building "fluid".
What really sets Asset Control’s solutions apart is its contractor management portal. "It is the first in SA. I don’t even think any company is doing this internationally; I haven’t seen it," he says.
"The contractor could be any person offering a service to Broll and its customers. The customer logs on and requests a supplier, or a supplier can be added as the portal includes a vetting process.
"When a call comes in and a contractor is assigned, that contractor is remotely notified and is able to speak to the system — to notify when he’s completed the job and even upload his invoice. The details on the invoice, in terms of hourly labour rates and costs of materials, for example, are captured on the database, so it’s benchmarking that is being paid for, and if it’s acceptable, in real time."
The difference this system has made to Broll’s ability to service its customer proactively is immense.
"The portal is a completely standalone and unique software package developed for Broll, which allows for a seamless integration with the contractor, reduces the need for paper trails and allows for a three-way communication channel between Broll, the contractor and the client, allowing both client and contractor to fully understand the procedure and to know exactly how far they are along the path of invoice submission to payment, at the touch of a button," says Horne.
The portal is so user-friendly it can be used offline — if a contractor doesn’t have access to the internet or Wi-Fi — and the information is uploaded when he or she connects.
One of Broll’s clients is Parliament, through the office of Public Works in Cape Town, says Keramianakis. "BEE-approved small contractors on the portal can use computers put on site, at Parliament, where they can log on, scan their invoice and submit it.
"They don’t need to have their own computers — the invoice can even be written by hand and then photographed using their phones," he says.
The portal processes up to 10,000 invoices a month. Everything is centralised and customised, from quote, contractor allocation and auditing the work done remotely to submission, approval and invoice payment.
Asset Control, which has 10 employees, is expecting to increase to 20 within the next 18 months, in no small part due to their relationship with Broll.
"What I like about Broll’s approach is that they have faith in building customer solutions.
"They had a vision and knew they needed something that would differentiate them in the market — and they put their money where their mouth is. I would describe the relationship we have as symbiotic," says Keramianakis.
Horne describes the relationship between the two companies as "a co-dependency partnership model, where both parties gain and lose by our performance or nonperformance".
"Broll’s diverse portfolio and the resultant exposure Asset Control has to our business intellectual property creates the environment needed to allow Asset Control to bring innovative design and technology to the forefront which, when implemented, allows Broll to be a leader in facilities management."
Keramianakis cites finding and, especially, retaining skilled staff as the biggest obstacle to growth.
"Good skills are hard to find and, being a small company, it can be hard to compete. If I take a guy from college, give them skills and work experience, it won’t be a year before he’s poached by a bigger organisation," he says.
Having a number of significant blue-chip clients on its books — and with one of Broll’s clients operating throughout Africa, Cyprus and moving into India — Asset Control’s product will go global soon. Keramianakis now has his sights on the smaller players.
"Small customers are contractors with one or two vehicles who need tools to manage their workforce and business," he says.
"We can scale our portal down to suit their needs so that if a contractor — vetted, approved and captured on the system — gets an SMS, and if he has three or four subcontractors to manage, he can assign the job, see it gets done and send an invoice, all undertaken remotely.
"We’ll ensure he has the technological tools to create a functional, small business. These small guys are, potentially, our future. It will be creating not just jobs but pockets of entrepreneurial contractors, working and contactable remotely, who clients will know are sound as the same system that gives them remote connectivity will have vetted them.
"I’m calling it the Bakkie Brigade!"
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