{"id":1143,"date":"2023-05-14T17:34:07","date_gmt":"2023-05-14T14:34:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.apleona.com.tr\/en\/?p=1143"},"modified":"2024-05-29T08:28:27","modified_gmt":"2024-05-29T05:28:27","slug":"installation-of-building-technology-and-integrated-fm-for-ree-carre-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.apleona.com.tr\/en\/installation-of-building-technology-and-integrated-fm-for-ree-carre-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Apleona Increasingly Focusing on Integrated FM"},"content":{"rendered":"

Apleona Increasingly Focusing on Integrated FM<\/h3>
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  • Jochen Keysberg expects FM service providers to take on additional tasks in future in the context of digitalization.<\/strong>
    \nSource: Immobilien Zeitung, author: Florian Hartm\u00fcllerThe FM specialist Apleona is increasingly integrating more services into its range. CEO Jochen Keysberg reports strong interest from customers. Digitalization and political ESG requirements are contributing significantly to this development. To meet the demand, more staff are required. The fast-growing company is finding these employees abroad, too.<\/p>\n

    A shortage of skilled workers, digitalization, decarbonization: Several trends at once are speeding up the bundling of facility management at major service providers, says Jochen Keysberg, CEO of Apleona. Integrated facility management (IFM) with \u201coutput-oriented contracts\u201d plays an important role here. Such contracts now account for 25% of Apleona\u2019s total volume. \u201cThis is an extremely high ratio that is growing faster than average,\u201d says Keysberg, referring to both Apleona and the market. \u201cMore and more customers are deciding to do this increased outsourcing.\u201d<\/p>\n

    In addition to savings and transparency, IFM gives customers the opportunity to respond quickly to developments. This is because it enables a strategy to be implemented throughout the portfolio in a short time without having to talk to a large number of different service providers. \u201cIn the crisis, people can focus on their core processes,\u201d says Keysberg, describing the benefit. When it comes to IFM, he says, it is important for service providers to work across national borders and different types of services. \u201cA customer that gives you a contract like this wants to get everything from a single source and often thinks in terms of divisions of its own group rather than in regions.\u201d A \u201cclear key account structure\u201d is needed. Apleona has recently seen growing success with IFM with non-German customers. \u201cWe always seek to perform a relatively high proportion of services ourselves, whether in Germany or abroad,\u201d says Keysberg. In hard services, Apleona aims for a figure of around 80% here. For major IFM contracts, however, this target is generally to be achieved only after two years, as it is often necessary to find the staff for these extensive mandates first.<\/p>\n

    In view of the shortage of skilled workers, Apleona has increasingly focused on recruitment in non-EU counties since last year. 70 employees were thus brought to Germany in 2022, with a rising trend. The \u201ctarget range\u201d for 2023 is between 100 and 200 people. These will be technical employees, i.e. electricians, electrical engineers, and project managers. Promising countries for recruitment include Turkey, Iran, Egypt, and India. \u201cThis will not solve the shortage of skilled workers by itself, but it is an additional module,\u201d explains Keysberg. To take on the new employees in Germany, clear structures and experience in dealing with public authorities are needed. Apleona therefore has special \u201cwelcome managers.\u201d \u201cWe want to have people who want to integrate and work here on a long-term basis.\u201d There was no net increase in staff from Ukraine last year. Instead, some employees headed there to support the country during the war. Apleona also aims to counter the shortage of skilled workers by professionalizing the recruitment process. \u201cThere are very clear responsibilities and very clear time limits for how long an application can be left lying around,\u201d says the CEO. Companies that act too slowly here will lose a lot of good applicants, he says.<\/p>\n

    In general, professionalizing processes is an important topic for Keysberg. Apleona has been working on this \u201cextremely intensively\u201d for four or five years. For a sector that has grown substantially over the past 20 years and has \u201cdecentralized origins,\u201d this is \u201cnot a natural given.\u201d Additional efficiency is to be created by way of the four steps \u201cstandardize, optimize, digitalize, automate.\u201d \u201cIn my view, this is the only way to be able to grow sustainably.\u201d Optimizing operational processes is about having clearly specified maintenance times for certain parts of the building technology, for example. The relevant information is recorded digitally, meaning that the necessary replacement parts can be given to the assigned employee immediately and the employee has the right forms ready on a tablet. In view of the shortage of staff, it is also important to \u201cdeploy people in line with their training and skills.\u201d<\/p>\n

    In addition, modular products that can be used for different types of properties, but that Apleona can also implement with the existing staff, play a key role. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t help me if I make specialized products but there are only ten people at our company who can implement them. We have many technicians on site, but not all of them are able to control complex heating systems, let alone upgrade them.\u201d With hydraulic balancing, for example, it is necessary to \u201cfind sensible simplifications\u201d with which a large part of the effect can nonetheless be achieved. For example, balancing can be carried out by building section rather than by room. \u201cIt is better if I get 100% of my portfolio to 80% than if I get 10% of it to 100%.\u201d<\/p>\n

    With regard to decarbonization, Keysberg thinks that the increase in energy prices as a result of the Ukraine war has had more of an impact on institutional FM customers than regulation. \u201cWe are seeing enormously high demand for transparency services and simple measures to reduce CO2<\/sub>.\u201d He does not expect major construction measures involving high investments to be implemented to a significant extent in the next two to three years. However, Keysberg anticipates that resources will be \u201cextremely scarce\u201d then. Facility managers that already operate in the properties and know them well would therefore take on additional tasks.<\/p>\n

    When it comes to transparency with digital tools, customers\u2019 requirements are increasing \u201cdaily,\u201d according to Keysberg. Apleona meets these with its own internally developed digital platform, in which various solutions can be integrated. This is now in use at the 200 biggest customers. There are already more than 5,000 users on the associated app, and the numbers are rising \u201calmost exponentially.\u201d According to Keysberg, it is difficult to sell an individual application. He therefore thinks that the facility manager should in future act as the \u201cintegrator\u201d for all digital solutions in a building. A wide range of information could then be called up on a dashboard. For example, \u201creal-time reporting\u201d shows directly whether an order has been placed too late by the customer or performed too late by the service provider.<\/p>\n

    This will change the relationship between asset, property, and facility managers, predicts Keysberg. Particularly when it comes to ESG, the current division of responsibilities based on different areas of expertise and possibly interests is not helpful, he says. \u201cDecarbonization and digitalization will play a part in bringing an end at some point to the governance model in the form it exists in today.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Apleona as a whole is also changing and steadily growing. Organic growth of the overall group has recently been at \u201cwell over 10%,\u201d reports Keysberg. \u201cWe expect to grow at a similar rate next year.\u201d In addition to IFM, regional business in Germany still plays an important role. Major contracts from the logistics sector, for example with Mileway and Prologis, contribute to this. Partly because it is possible to grow along with the customers, Keysberg calls this \u201ca very rewarding sector.\u201d Last year, Apleona also acquired companies in Austria, Poland, the United Kingdom, and Ireland. The strategy of targeted purchases is to be continued. Internationally, this will only involve companies that perform hard services and integrated FM services. Keysberg would like to make Apleona the market leader \u201cin one European country or another.\u201d And there is potential in Germany, too: \u201cThe fact that we have not yet purchased a company in Germany doesn\u2019t mean that we don\u2019t have anything in the pipeline there yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Florian Hartm\u00fcller and Lars Wiederhold<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div><\/section><\/p><\/div>