Change in the Asset and Facility Management industry is now accelerating at an exponential rate forcing industrial leaders to become business revolutionaries, even disruptors to prosper.
Increasing innovative technologies and the demand for greater business intelligence due to underpinned staffing led many companies to seek out ways to become more efficient and meet management expectations with less resources. The industry also saw the need to use more third-party service providers to reduce work order volumes, but it increased cost factors as bringing in external service providers takes time and this justified the need business intelligence (BI) to offer insights and recommendations for effective provider management.
The recent trends within the Facilities Management (FM) industry saw a greater demand for using analytics over raw performance data for driving business decisions. While data has always been vital to the role of the FM mission, today’s BI makes it push-button easy to automate, analyze, and present it to FM stakeholders. FM teams can keep working while all the data updates on schedule in real time, identifying time and cost-savings, underperforming service providers, and assets needing replacement.
FM experts cited that investing in Internet of Things (IoT) technologies to improve asset lifecycles where physical devices and sensors can be used to communicate with FM teams via the Internet to generate performance data to alert managers of potential breakdowns remotely.
These are also used to provide real-time insights into operations. Specifically, IoT combined with a FM software, like a computerised maintenance management system (CMMS), identifies problems (e.g., uncomfortable office temperatures), and automatically creates and assigns work orders without human touch and tracks them through completion.
Technology can help predict asset failure before it happens. These applications relieve facilities managers of repetitive tasks and alert them to problems resulting in cost optimization. This can be attained by predictive analytics and predictive maintenance software along with cloud[1]connected sensors which were developed to identify and carry out preventive maintenance.
Studies by the U.S Department of Energy revealed that predictive maintenance is highly cost-effective in the long run, saving roughly 8%-12% over preventive maintenance and up to 40% over reactive maintenance.
FM was also seen moving towards higher cost efficiency by mitigating inflation and business disruptions with the advent of the convergence of rising inflation and supply chain disruptions which drove increases in material and
labour costs. The critical need was to adopt new strategies to keep to stricter budgets, ensuring uptime, and capturing efficiencies from the use of technology.
Inflation and related issues like supply chain disruptions along with labour and material cost cannot be reduced overnight. Seven interest rate hikes in 2022 by the U.S. Federal Reserve were announced to curb inflation, but it will take multiple quarters of economic recovery before conditions improve. This trend of closely managing costs and pursuing operational efficiencies will extend well into 2023 and likely beyond.
Traditionally, FM can be defined as the tools and services that support the functionality, safety, and sustainability of buildings, grounds, infrastructure, and real estate but today, it has evolved towards enhancing asset quality lifecycle and asset lifecycle through the use of scalable technology and sustainable measures which not only allow for a more lucrative bottom line but creates a long-term secure environment.
It has been predicted that how well firms embrace technology to flex their data analytics and distribution muscle will determine which will prosper to clinch large market share in the years ahead.
Key global leaders have dug deep to transform the industry’s nature and structure over the coming years with technology and sustainability being vital across the new business model. The belief is this period of reinvention will accelerate rapidly on new opportunities to create alpha companies and restore margins.
Many would think that the Asset and Facility Management industry is capitalised by the west, but there is a key Malaysian player making leaps and strides which has garnered a global presence.
BusinessToday spent some time exploring the future of the industry with UEM Edgenta Berhad, Managing Director / Chief Executive Officer, Syahrunizam Samsudin who was tasked with reconstituting the value proposition of the company and formulate a new agenda typified by its core business at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Some three years ago, the board and shareholders of UEM Edgenta entrusted Syahrunizam with a mandate to prepare a thirty-day plan to streamline the value proposition of the company. He then broke down the offerings of the company under the decree to protect and preserve; to safeguard the lives and livelihoods of people working on the assets, while ensuring business continuity, not knowing when it would end.
UEM Edgenta is an asset management and infrastructure services company, with a presence in 6 countries and growing. The Company is disrupting the asset and facilities management scene by integrating digital and tech-enabled solution and sustainability programmes across all its core businesses.
Centred on four main strategic pillars, UEM Edgenta’s main business focuses on Healthcare Support, Property & Facility Solutions, Infrastructure Services and Asset Consultancy.
As Malaysia’s foremost infrastructure maintenance specialist, Edgenta Infrastructure Services offers industry leading expertise on Highway Network Maintenance and Asset Management, including innovative Pavement Works and Solutions services.
These business units co-exist in parallel with its subsidiary, Edgenta NXT Sdn Bhd (Edgenta NXT), which conducts end-to-end digital transformation which offers a suite of technology-enabled solutions across the healthcare, infrastructure, facility management and asset management consultancy sectors and enabled through the Edgenta NXT Cloud.
With its growing repertoire of technology-based solutions, the company’s Healthcare Solutions division focuses on hospital support services in 250 healthcare institutions across Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan, whilst in the integrated facility management sector, its Property & Facility Solutions business arm manages over 500 building assets in Malaysia and in the Middle East.
UEM Edgenta continues to deliver services which touch many facets of everyday life – from ensuring the cleanliness and safety of the highways to maintaining top notch healthcare delivery services at the hospital facilities, enabled by technology solutions such as the Asseto platform, through Edgenta NXT that provides real-time, IOT data analytics. This allows for the use of predictive maintenance and early detection of anomalies to manage clients’ assets more effectively. Sustainability solutions such as energy performance contracting and Green Building Index certification is also part of the application to ensure long-term sustainability of the assets.
Syahrunizam said the main point of the company is to protect the interests of the 16,000 employees and to respond and contribute to the government’s efforts in combating Covid-19 challenges.
“Under this strife, the answer came in the form of rapid acceleration of innovation. People were working from home as opposed to onsite. We also had the technology to deliver a whole suite of solutions to support the government, ranging from the use of our assets. We established the Vaccination Centre for Adolescents and Booster Shots housed at the UEM Edgenta’s Learning Centre in Petaling Jaya at which over 78,000 individuals received their vaccination shots.
Edgenta NXT was the key enabler for the nation’s first Private COVID-19 Assessment Centre (CAC) which was equipped with a Polymerase Chain Reaction mobile lab which also deployed the Home Quarantine Monitoring System (HQMS) using RFID e-bracelets which enabled continuous 24-hour monitoring for COVID-19 patients.
“We also built modular fabricated hybrid ICU units within a short period of time, which can house up to 20 beds. Some 17 units have been deployed across Malaysia to address the dire shortage.”
Syahrunizam added UEM Edgenta also implemented the digital tracker for Haj pilgrims for the purposes of testing, isolation (if required) from the general population and digitally tracked them throughout their quarantine period to monitor their movements and health statuses.
He explained these experiences have amplified the need to protect and preserve assets, “we need to have a forward view of how people are going to respond, and how are you going to change some of the SOPs to support a decision,” and critically to apply the use of technology which became more than a daily necessity.
DIGITALISATION AND EXPERT TECHNOLOGY
The prime direction of the company is to scale-up technology to surpass high delivery standards so that the nation and its people benefit well into the future. UEM Edgenta strives towards resilient growth through tech-enabled solutions and sustainability programs across its business operations while continuing with digital transformation through Edgenta NXT to provide the wider market with end-to[1]end services and technology solutions across Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Taiwan, United Arab Emirates and
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.UEM Edgenta’s Command & Contact Center, IOT sensor technology, digital twin and their digital platform, Asseto, provides insights on the health of all asset of the facilities, enable real-time statistics and data analytics on the functioning of the assets with high rate of proven cost savings for its customers.
Edgenta NXT has embarked on the development and commercialisation of various FM solutions, namely Asseto and UETrack with proven achievements through strategic partnerships. Work is also never static to accelerate the delivery of digital and smart solutions in new markets with partners like Alibaba, ITMAX System Berhad, Sumitomo Corporation, SoftBank Corp and Disrupt-X to address new demand for new solutions which are technology enabled with IoT, Big Data, Sustainability along with advanced connectivity driving efficiency for both service suppliers and clients, addressing intelligent buildings and reduction of total life cycle costs.
These strategic partnerships will further enhance UEM Edgenta’s service offerings and technology solutions to offer an end-to-end smart and sustainable cities solution that encompass the cloud, Internet of Things and AI in optimising energy consumption, predicting asset failures and automating work order assignment based on machine learning and timely data.
Customers will be able to accelerate their business and digital transformation by drawing on the parties’ complementary capabilities, from consulting, technology deployment, and operations management to overseeing their assets and facilities.
UEM Edgenta also realised its ongoing vision of growth through various business partnership agreements sealed during the Arab Health 2023 exhibition at the Dubai World Trade Centre, strengthened the Company’s position in the Healthcare Industry in areas of digital healthcare and emergency patient care services (WAS, First Ambulance and Optima Technic). Through its partnership with Optima Technic, UEM Edgenta will be able to provide better access to safe and affordable patient care, and this is in line with the Company’s drive to develop and upgrade the healthcare infrastructure, especially in rural and remote areas where the communities lack basic access to essential health.
SUSTAINABILITY – STRENGTHENING INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS FOOTPRINT
UEM Edgenta’s keen focus on sustainability stems from providing Asset Management and Infrastructure Solutions with programmes and services built on technology and knowledge of its people, determined to preserve the economic value and benefits of critical infrastructure and other assets under our care, making it sustainable for our future generations.
Syahrunizam said we’re proud to help our clients to have harnessed positive impacts, leveraging on our deep expertise to assess their risks and opportunities and we ensure the highest standards of QHSSE, regulatory compliance, diversity, capacity building & training of our people. Our sustainability agenda is driven by digital and technology in a way that makes organisations more resilient, agile and sustainable – supported by a growing suite of in-house products and software solutions will be able to reset and pivot faster in the new business normal.
Through our very own digital ecosystem, Edgenta NXT, we have accelerated strategic partnerships with various partners directly or via UEM Edgenta as a group to expand the Edgenta NXT addressable market, internationally.
We have been embedding Sustainability Principles in our business operations and solutions offerings, namely in Predictive Maintenance, Road Asset Management System (RAMS), Services Mechanisation, Recycled Asphalt Pavement (RAP). We have also introduced programmes which enhances sustainability such as Energy Performance Contracting, Green Building Certification, Rain-Water Harvesting, Waste Management, Renewable and Clean Technology management.
ESG EXCELLENCE
UEM Edgenta, on part of realising distinct ESG measures, have achieved a significant improvement in FTSE4Good Rating to 3.1, which surpassed FTSE’s threshold of 2.9 in the December 2022 rating review. The company has also been awarded with the “2022 Malaysia Outstanding ESG Impact Corporate Excellence by the KSI Strategic Institute for Asia Pacific.
CORPORATE EXCELLENCE
Syahrunizam adds: “Our sustainability agenda is driven by digital technology in a way that makes organisations more resilient, agile and sustainable. We are dedicated to enhancing measurement & monitoring mechanisms of our carbon footprint to support the nation’s net zero emission target which encapsulates the overall effort to infuse meaningful values, in the way we do things down to ground-level where we have a presence.
“It is crucial to us here in UEM Edgenta to strike a balance between our economic aspirations and our commitment to environmental, social and governance responsibilities for sustainable performance.”
GLOBAL PRESENCE
Backed by UEM Edgenta’s quality service delivery and robust in-house tech capability, the Company recorded strong orderbook wins in FY22 with 62% of new wins coming from international markets and over 60% of this were new healthcare contracts.
The company continues to harness its strong market position in the existing operating markets while capturing market share in the high growth markets. The Company’s international business expansion is strengthened through the recent strategic acquisitions and business partnership for example, the MEEM for Facilities Management Company, an acquisition to focus on Smart and Integrated Facilities Management services across the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA).
The 60% stake acquisition in MEEM came as the company solidifies its footprint in the KSA as the new growth market. MEEM is the first of the many collaborations and partnership opportunities between UEM Edgenta and MASIC, with a focus on Integrated Facilities Management (IFM) and Healthcare Projects where UEM Edgenta’s strong credentials will be deployed coupled with its leading-edge position in technology enabled and sustainability-driven facility management solutions.
