Facilities Management Turns to Data Analytics for Smarter Growth

As companies expand to new locations across the country and even the world, they’re looking for smarter ways to maintain corporate infrastructure through all the different buildings and properties owned and managed.

This is where facilities management comes in. It’s literally providing maintenance and care for the locations of companies in all sorts of different sectors from retail to corporate offices.

Harold Miller is director of operations and account management for Corrigo, a company that produces cloud-based software for facility managers and providers of service. Think of it as a unifying platform.

Miller said he’s worked in facilities management for a number of years after sort of stumbling into the industry. Previously, he was a call center manager on the late shift. Miller said he eventually learned that someone in facilities management needs to be detail oriented and a good communicator.

As for Corrigo, Miller said it was formed as a tech company founded out of garage, not unlike Apple. It came about in 1998, and Corrigo’s first app was for Blackberry smartphones.

The company leaders recognized early on the power of platform for facilities and property management, according to Miller. Data collected has value to it. Apply collected data with business intelligence, and it’s not difficult to see when something’s going or a new trend is being set.

Miller said the company just had a conference and really changed things up with business intelligence and analytics. This is where the product is going. Corrigo actually used business intelligence to create the entire conference.

“It was unlike anything. Even our service providers were like, ‘Wow,’” Miller said.

Corrigo showcased its technology and examined all the data within its platform. It looked at people that need service and people that provide service, then tied them together with efficiency. There was no trade show floor, and that was a big difference.

Miller said Corrigo used analytics, matching a provider that had indicated the services it needed with a requester that performed the needed work. In a way, Corrigo just broke data down and matched folks, a kind of business speed dating, according to Miller.

Service providers were impressed and said they’ve never spoken to so many customers who needed them. Corrigo also gave them books of data that showed their performance.

The conference showed where this technology is going, to artificial intelligence.

And AI is going to transform the way business is done, Miller said.

Companies already have systems in buildings that can alert technicians when there’s a problem. But AI can figure things out before the alarm goes off and provide data points to work on for things that are failing. Technicians can then be proactive and prevent any alarm from going off, according to Miller.

This is about creating a world where systems are talking to each other. Automated systems are talking to other automated systems.

Miller brought up an example where one Corrigo client uses an app that allows employees in one location to essentially tell the system, “I’m hot.” And then someone else might use the app to say the same thing.

The system uses the app to track where these people are in the building, and if enough people say they’re hot, it works to try to cool the area down. If people are still reporting the area as too hot, the system kicks off a work order for a technician to come look at it.

This is where facilities management tech is heading, Miller said.

Programmers are trying to create single apps that do everything. And Corrigo works with a lot of providers to do this. The company has an API that can talk to almost anything else out there with its own API, according to Miller.

He said Corrigo is working with providers to see who can come up front in this technology race.

“We pride ourselves on creating a fantastic facility management technology,” Miller said.

At its core, Corrigo is all about connection and integrating with existing systems, according to Miller.

Corrigo is a platform where, when products get deployed, the company sits down with customers, and learns what it is they’re doing, what locations they’re operating, and what data they’re tracking.

Then, Corrigo builds the product according to their client’s needs. They don’t pigeonhole anyone, Miller said. Lots of customers use Corrigo for different things. It’s very configurable.

The company has clients that range from corporate spaces to retail and restaurants, all tracking and managing different sets of data.

“We’ve made some critical strides with it,” Miller said.

For more information on Corrigo, click here.

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AI      SMART      Facility Manager       RETAL FACILITIES        Technology