MACS: How do you use IBM TRIRIGA in the “new normal” workplace?

Utilizing IBM TRIRIGA, you can adapt to any circumstance with the support of MACS

By Rebecca Simm

In a year where we have had to be both adaptive and responsive in the way we work, MACS can use the knowledge we have gained to improve your working environment for your organization. Utilizing IBM TRIRIGA, you can make confident decisions and adapt to any circumstance, with the support of MACS.

As we find ourselves navigating the COVID-19 pandemic, business managers are likely wondering what will happen when things return to the “new normal”. The latest research from Gartner shows at least 41% of employees will continue to work remotely, at least part of the time after working environments reopen fully…

IBM TRIRIGA can help businesses in real estate and facilities to manage their buildings effectively. Having one central database, you’ll have actionable insights to determine occupancy requirements, and how well you’re using your available space.

To secure a safe working environment for their staff, Space Planners and Facility Managers are facing a set of unique challenges. While floor plans and furniture layouts may not have changed, the new need for social distancing has. Spaces that previously had an occupancy of 20 people, are now restricted to 3-4 employees…

IBM TRIRIGA can assist you in the day-to-day running of your workplaces, ensuring all staff are safe. Making the right decisions with an intelligent real estate and facilities management solution could save your organization money and time, and most importantly, create a safe workplace for all employees…

[Admin: This post is related to the 06.25.20 post about workplace strategies for safety that you can use today.]

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How do you bring floor plans to life with indoor mapping?

IBM TRIRIGA and Esri ArcGIS Indoors partnership means you can add interactive indoor maps

By Lisa Barclay

Even as our workplaces are changing, there’s always the desire to take building management to the next level. Take space, for instance. There’s helpful information in every floor plan, especially as you look for ways to keep people safer…

That’s why IBM partnered with the global market leader in geographic information systems (GIS), Esri. This partnership gives you the combined power of TRIRIGA’s comprehensive IWMS for real estate and facility management with Esri ArcGIS Indoors’ complete indoor mapping system.

The result: Smart building mapping that brings TRIRIGA floor plans to life.

Imagine adding interactive indoor maps into the experience for employees and visitors as well as building management and maintenance staff. Envision the new ways you could engage with building occupants. It’s a great opportunity for improved wayfinding, productivity, and workplace experience in your facilities…

When you leverage the building data and floor plans in TRIRIGA and visualize it with Esri ArcGIS Indoors smart building mapping, you have the power…

[Admin: This post is related to the 06.25.20 post about workplace strategies for safety that you can use today.]

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Axxerion: Connecting IWMS and CMMS to Human Resources Systems

Axxerion Integration with the Workday HR System

By Mehdi Khalvati

With Axxerion’s out-of-the-box and API integrations connecting your IWMS and CMMS to an HR system like Workday is both easy and effective. Axxerion implementation specialists specifically configure the Workday integration into the IWMS/CMMS according to each company’s needs. This eliminates the tedious manual processes of dual data entry into separate systems.

Further, it allows for streamlined tasks between facilities and HR departments, and decisions are made based on current and accurate shared information. While there are many different ways Axxerion can configure this HR integration for its users, here are some specific features of the IWMS/CMMS integration with Workday:

• Workday File Imports
• Employee Onboarding and Offboarding
• Roles and System Access
• Single Sign-On (SSO)
• Floor Plan View
• Employee Moves
• Tracking Occupancy
• Work Orders and Timesheets
• Collaboration and Space Planning

In addition to Workday, Axxerion’s powerful and flexible IWMS and CMMS solutions offer many different integrations… The system also offers seamless transitions from:

• Accruent
• IBM Maximo
• IBM TRIRIGA
• Trimble Manhattan
• Yardi
• And more!

[Admin: This post is related to the 08.17.20 post by Axxerion about IWMS+, and the 08.01.16 post about the CAFM, CMMS, EAM, and IWMS competitors of IBM TRIRIGA. To see other related posts, use the Axxerion tag.]

What workplace strategies for safety can you use today?

Learn how to ensure the safety of your places and your people as you consider reopening facilities

By Laura Langendorf

Where and how we work has never seemed so complicated. As organizations grapple with when to ask employees to return to the workplace, some things are obviously out. Gone for now, are tightly packed seating arrangements, cozy collaboration spaces and crowded elevators.

Now, your “return to the workplace” strategy has to ensure the safety of your places and people as you consider reopening facilities. If you’re looking for advice on how to build your own “return to the workplace” strategy, join “The journey back to work: Business continuity and occupant well-being across your facilities“.

This session on the pragmatic “return to the workplace” is part of the TRIRIGA Academy. It’s a free and on-demand online learning platform. We know that the way you need to manage your real estate and facilities has changed. So we’re changing the way you can learn more about it.

TRIRIGA Academy replaces our annual face-to-face experience and gives you the real estate and facilities management knowledge you need… anywhere, anytime.

[Admin: This post is related to the 04.18.20 post about monitoring space with your existing wireless network, and the 03.22.16 post about the former Watson IoT Academy, now moved to the Skills Gateway.]

How does IBM reimagine the workplace experience?

By Laura Langendorf

2020 was poised to be a banner year for “workplace experience“. IBM, with 78M square feet of space spread across 110 countries, was hard at work creating that engaging environment… Then, almost overnight, the world changed. Suddenly, an unprecedented 95% of the IBMers found themselves working at home…

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How does EY expect the unexpected disruptions?

By Laura Langendorf

Ten years ago, Ernst & Young (EY), took an in-depth look at their workplace… EY realized that how and where people were working was changing… They also put an emphasis on technology to make people more mobile. The result was EY@Work, and the transformation of more than 150 locations around the globe…

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How does IBM TRIRIGA fit as a part of IBM Watson Works?

Give your employees the confidence to return to work

As we plan for the return back, how we manage our buildings and our spaces, and how people engage with that space, is critical. IBM can help. With IBM TRIRIGA as part of Watson Works, you can create safer spaces, focus on occupant well-being, and control costs. You can consolidate essential information into a “single source of truth” to make faster, more confident decisions and adapt to any circumstance.

Key benefits:

• AI-driven insights to ensure dynamic space planning
• A safer environment that considers new protocols and processes
• Improved efficiency and reduced operating costs
• Easy access to enterprise-wide data for critical space decisions
• On-time, on-budget projects

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What is IBM’s Watson Works?

By N.F. Mendoza

Watson Works is a new curated set of workplace products from IBM that embeds Watson artificial intelligence (AI) into the return-to-workplace issues that the enterprise must overcome in order to figure out when to safely send employees back to the office. Some of the key items that the models and applications will address include space allocation and facilities management, which are essential in a post-COVID-19 pandemic environment.

With Watson already in play, IBM began to look at its underlying product technology to extend the scope of artificial intelligence. When the pandemic sent employees to work from home, “we began to focus on how we could bring these together,” said Kareem Yusuf, general manager of AI applications at IBM…

One of the many safety issues to consider when planning the return to the workplace post pandemic is occupancy monitoring, which ensures social distancing amongst co-workers, Yusuf said. IBM started with “lightweight things like existing Wi-Fi,” and contemplated how “to build those instrumentations. That was a starting point. Now flip that into the COVID era.” With location detection already available, IBM knew it applied to how employers had to consider certain levels of occupancy, and apply the same logic to social distancing, he said…

[Admin: This post is related to the 06.25.20 post about workplace strategies for safety that you can use today.]

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How can you monitor space with your existing wireless network?

IBM TRIRIGA and Cisco partnership provides scalable workplace utilization and occupancy monitoring

By Kendra DeKeyrel

IBM TRIRIGA and Cisco have teamed up to give you the tools you need to deploy location sensing using your existing WiFi network infrastructure. This solution helps you scale quickly and get faster, more accurate occupancy insights, to enable you to reimagine and streamline your connected spaces…

With this partnership, IBM TRIRIGA’s IoT and AI-driven insights application, IBM TRIRIGA Building Insights, now natively integrates with Cisco’s DNA Spaces cloud service. If you’re a space planner or manage facilities, you can quickly take advantage of these insights. With a lower cost to entry, you can understand how facilities are being used based on data coming in from an existing network…

If you need to quickly address new occupancy demands, please attend an IBM/Cisco webinar. Designed for space planners and facilities managers, we will explain how true occupancy insights enables you to make strategic space management decisions. Register today.

Join us on May 13 for IBM TRIRIGA Academy

Soon, we’re launching IBM TRIRIGA Academy. This is a new virtual learning platform designed for real estate and facilities professionals who want to create a smarter business. Participate in our sessions, schedule a demo, and interact with subject matter experts…

[Admin: This post is related to the 01.28.20 post about enhancing TRIRIGA UX Perceptive apps with artificial intelligence, and the 03.22.16 post about the former Watson IoT Academy, now moved to the Skills Gateway.]

How can you enhance TRIRIGA Workplace Services Apps with A.I.?

Introducing the TRIRIGA Assistant: Enhancing TRIRIGA Workplace Services Apps with Artificial Intelligence

By Alex Melamed

Wouldn’t it be nice if your office started to act more like a team player? For employees, that would mean effortless engagement with workplace services. For facility managers, that would mean more engaged and delighted occupants who provide feedback to keep the workplace not just humming but evolving.

IBM TRIRIGA just announced numerous enhancements to the workplace experience in the latest release (10.6.1). Among these enhancements, the all new TRIRIGA Assistant. The TRIRIGA Assistant is a smart, conversational A.I. assistant, which is the same frictionless technology that we all have in our homes, and which is another way to meet the ever-growing expectations of the workforce. This A.I. assistant can help users find and reserve meeting rooms, report maintenance issues correctly, and even locate where a colleague sits. And that is just the beginning.

With the introduction of the TRIRIGA Assistant into the facility management portfolio, IBM has invited Watson to the office. The TRIRIGA Assistant is powered by IBM’s Watson Assistant platform. It’s robust and able to be extended to support custom A.I. skills and capabilities within an enterprise-grade secure cloud…

[Admin: Although it’s not an official IBM offering, here’s an intriguing avatar POC demo from the same Assistant team.]

How can I make my facilities even smarter?

By Kendra DeKeyrel

A.I. also helps deliver a more engaging workplace experience. That’s why we included TRIRIGA Assistant in this new release. It’s a smart, conversational A.I. assistant that allows users to engage with the spaces around them. Imagine how much time employees can save by simply asking an app to reserve a conference room, order catering, submit a service request or locate an office. It’s the same frictionless technology that we all have in our homes, and another way to meet the ever-growing expectations of your workforce…

How does University of California ensure buildings are performing?

How does the University of California plan to manage their property assets across 10 campuses? By implementing an impressive new program called ICAMP – the Integrated Capital Asset Management Program. We caught up with Rich Powers, of the University of California Office of the President (UCOP) to find out how ICAMP enables visibility and integration across campus systems, and promotes efficient asset lifecycle management, too…

Defining the key elements of ICAMP

The ICAMP solution contains three solutions, all of which come together to support better decision-making:

•       IBM TRIRIGA Cloud
•       RSMeans
•       FieldFLEX Mobile.

UCOP chose the TRIRIGA platform to bring together all of their asset data into one integrated system. TRIRIGA lets you create a building inventory and location hierarchy. It has the capabilities required to manage those buildings throughout their lifecycle. Crucially, it supports facility condition assessment, or FCA. This is how they access every building component, from floor to ceiling, for health and performance. By using TRIRIGA, Rich’s team can overlay their building inventory with the FCA data to see which assets are most at risk, or in need of maintenance.

By combining this information with industry data from RSMeans, the team is able to estimate potential repair costs, then kick off opportunities from within TRIRIGA. UCOP also built a mobile FCA application with FieldFLEX Mobile that makes TRIRIGA available to technicians in the field. This carries the advantage of a streamlined inspection and assessment process. It allows architectural, electrical, and mechanical inspectors to look at their respective inventory elements and access asset data with ease. The application supports storing floor plans, uploading photos and videos, geo-tagging buildings and assets, and cross-referencing lifecycle data to help inspectors make better real-time assessments across the portfolio…

[Admin: To see other related posts, use the Cloud tag, FCA tag, RSMeans tag, or FieldFLEX tag.]

Verdantix: Accruent to be acquired by Fortive for whopping $2 billion

On July 31, 2018, industrial technology solutions giant Fortive announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Accruent, a real estate and facilities management software provider, from private equity firm Genstar Capital. Fortive will pay $2 billion in cash and expects Accruent to generate revenues of $270 million in 2018. This will come from its suite of software products used by Accruent’s 10,000 customers. Upon completion of the acquisition, Accruent will become part of Fortive’s portfolio of Field Services solutions alongside other brands such as Fluke, Gordian (RSMeans), and Industrial Scientific. Verdantix finds this is the biggest deal to date in the $4.9 billion market for real estate and building management software, which we define further in our recent report…

What does the deal mean for the broader real estate and building management software market? The deal shows the market is consolidating at a rapid rate. The largest real estate software vendors MRI, RealPage and Yardi have been locked in an arms race of acquisitions to further bolster their scale. Meanwhile, IWMS vendor Planon has pursued targeted acquisitions to support international expansion. This latest deal also highlights the emerging push by software vendors to make greater linkages between software used during the construction and operational phases of buildings. Witness Elecosoft, a construction software provider, acquiring Shire Systems, a CMMS vendor, to offer the construction firms and property investors it engages with a maintenance management solution…

[Admin: This post is related to the 08.01.16 post about CAFM, CMMS, EAM, and IWMS competitors. To see other related posts, use the Verdantix tag or Accruent tag.]

Planon: From Smart to Learning Buildings with Machine Learning

Organisations and more specifically, their facility and real estate managers are constantly looking to improve our work environment and the buildings that we work in. They want to be cost-efficient, increase productivity, and create a healthy and attractive workplace for their employees.

The Internet of Things and Smart Buildings are providing interesting opportunities to improve our work environments. Achieving this, however, is a big challenge for organisations. What Smart Building solutions are organisations looking for? What is the real value to organisations? How will organisations realise these benefits?

From a reactive to a proactive approach through “machine learning”

The ability of buildings to measure every action or change in behaviour by the building or its occupants is changing rapidly. Nowadays, affordable sensors are available that measure for example space occupancy, air quality, usage of specific spaces or the state of building installations. Data collected from these sensors provides information about these items. We can use this data to make improvements to the work environment, building or user experience.

For example, when sensor measurements show that a meeting room that was reserved is actually not in use, it can immediately become available for a new meeting. In addition, when sensor measurements show that a specific toilet area is used less than expected, the cleaning schedule can be adjusted. However, these useful examples are based on an “If This Then That” scenario, meaning that if an event occurs we react to that event. This is a reactive approach rather than a proactive approach, so can we really call this “smart”?

[Admin: This post is related to the 11.01.17 post about designing smarter buildings that learn. To see other related posts, use the Planon tag or Smart Buildings tag.]