How does SILA leverage technology to enhance facility management services for its clients?
At SILA, we have adopted a tech-driven approach to drive significant efficiency gains across a diverse set of managed real estate assets, setting new standards for innovation and value creation in the process. This includes employing advanced machinery, digitalized processes and even developing dedicated technology platforms, all in a bid to streamline our service operations and uphold our high facility management standards. Our workforce management app SILA Connect is one example of our technology focus, helping generate paperless job checklists for our facilities staff, managing their attendance and payroll, auto-generating service invoices and even featuring a feedback and escalation mechanism.
Employing robotics, automation and IoT technologies, SILA Connect not only supports us with real-time process tracking, but also ensures optimum inventory & asset management while providing our clients with a tailored dashboard to review all operations. It represents a new era of facility management and has been instrumental in helping us utilize our expert workforce, to efficiently manage more than 150million sqft of prime real estate spread across 125+ cities around the country today. We believe that increasing technology integration remains key to managing real estate more efficiently, all the while exceeding the ever-evolving expectations of tech-savvy Gen-Z and millennial tenants.
Can you provide examples of smart building technologies that SILA incorporates into its facility management solutions?
As workplaces evolve to accommodate a hybrid work culture, there is a need for workspaces to be both flexible and responsive to changing organizational requirements. Balancing these needs while delivering efficient facilities management has necessitated deploying a whole host of smart building solutions, enabling us to implement data-driven space management and utilization strategies in order to maximize real estate efficiency.
This includes using motion and light sensors to detect human movement, installing smart metering solutions to track energy consumption and performing detailed data analysis to uncover insights on how to further optimize space and energy usage. Furthermore, replacing old building equipment with semi-automated and energy-efficient modern substitutes has helped in reducing human involvement during maintenance operations, while also resulting in energy savings and sizeable reduction in a facility’s carbon footprint.
As a result, facility managers can achieve higher levels of energy efficiency and improve sustainability by deploying smart building technology solutions. With climate change emerging as the biggest threat to the environment and society at large, we at SILA are committed to implementing smart building technologies and green practices, helping reduce greenhouse gas emissions and minimizing the environmental impact of properties under our management.
What role does IoT (Internet of Things) play in SILA’s facility management approach, and how does it benefit clients?
To better understand how building spaces, assets and equipment operated on a real-time basis, it is vital to deploy IoT devices that can measure actual performance and relay them instantaneously for facility managers to assess. These include smart metering devices, automated visitor management systems, temperature and humidity sensors as well as smart climate control systems; interacting with our proprietary building management platforms to ensure all spaces are performing at an optimum comfort levels.
At the same time, live energy monitoring supports in identifying energy-intensive operations or space, unravelling further opportunities where the use of green solutions can result in energy and cost savings. At SILA, we believe in leveraging IoT technology to transform how building occupants interact with each other and their surroundings, often using innovative building applications to improve productivity levels and energy utilization.
On the maintenance front too, smart devices can facilitate the added functionality of automating repetitive maintenance functions such as robotic cleaning, supporting us in slashing response times, eliminating human errors and even the need for manually performing maintenance or compliance checks. Ultimately, these initiatives have translated into as much as 30% savings in monthly energy costs for our clients, with our sustainability focus ensuring we keep raising the bar continuously.
Are there any specific software platforms or tools that SILA employs to streamline facility management processes?
Our proprietary technology platform SILA Connect serves as the digital backbone of our facility management operations, helping us streamline hundreds of time-critical processes with relative ease. With SILA Connect, our facility managers can allocate tasks to the frontline staff, monitor their progress and also support them in case of any need.
The network of connected devices, equipment and tech-enabled personnel enables us to maintain building operations seamlessly, with minimal interference in working or living spaces at all times thereby ensuring world-class levels of occupant comfort and convenience.
In addition to the above features, our workforce management app also includes cloud-based visitor management and occupancy monitoring, providing us and our clients with in-depth insights on human movement and space utilization levels on a daily basis. By using advanced technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), robotic process automation (RPA) and other digital tools, we are able to leverage this information to create and maintain a healthy ecosystem at all managed facilities, always prioritizing the well-being of our clients and employees.
How does SILA ensure data security and privacy when implementing technology solutions in facility management?
Recognizing the importance of data in refining operations, we at SILA observe a strict data privacy and security policy to ensure uninterrupted access to our technology-enabled solutions and services. Protecting employee and client-level data is important to us and we ensure that all personal information is handled in compliance with applicable laws on data privacy protection and data security.
SILA does not share this personal information with any external party and does not install any software applications on client terminals, choosing instead to transfer them to cloud-based platforms for further analysis or sharing with relevant internal stakeholders.
To combat data fraud, cyber-criminal activity and protect the rights of our clients and business partners, we have taken adequate security measures to safeguard all information from unauthorized access, destruction, use, modification, or disclosure. What’s more, all our vendors who may access personal and non-identifying information are required to protect them in accordance with our stringent policies, using them only to improve our service delivery levels and meet all set objectives.
What is SILA’s approach to providing training and support to clients and their facility management teams in using technology solutions effectively?
At SILA, we believing in building sustainable communities for a better tomorrow by supporting our clients in harnessing the full potential of technology solutions implemented at each site. This involves providing facilities staff with hands-on training on the various equipment and systems used in facility management, with certification levels provided to each one of them based on their technological proficiency.
Moreover, our facility managers monitor each employee for their on-job performance and step in to mentor those who need additional training or skill support whenever required. Apart from these training and support initiatives, SILA has been at the forefront of conducting upskilling programmes and promoting diversity at the workplace, all in a bid to empower our 20,000+ workforce in rising up to take up larger job roles within the organization.
