How can data and technology change public property?

Ahead of the Smart Asset & Estate Management Conference on 8th December, we are speaking with our expert speakers to find out their thoughts on the current issues that are affecting the sector.

In this blog, we asked our speakers "How will the increased use of data and technology affect the public property sector?"

Tim Warneford, Director of Warneford Consulting 

"We are now afforded a far greater opportunity to create more flexible and scalable systems that collect, collate and analyse data. 

 We should be providing our clients with a much more bespoke and tailored offering than the simple transfer of existing templates used in other sectors. 

 What is appropriate for social housing data collection and presentation is very often different to what is required for a school estate. It needs to be more bottom up than top down."

Michael O’Doherty, Project Director at Local Partnerships

"Increasing usage of data to monitor desk and meeting space utilisation and to facilitate smart booking of desks and meeting space. Productivity monitoring software potentially drive a source of tension"

Simon Pettett, Assistant Director of Programmes at Salix Finance

"The increased use of data and technology can have a large impact on the way buildings are managed. Fundamentally, accurate data is critical to understanding where the largest opportunities are to reduce the carbon footprint and financial costs across the estate. For example, a well implemented Building Management System (BMS) in the public estate can improve the management of the building in many ways; improving building user wellbeing, increasing the energy efficiency and reducing the carbon footprint. An effectively managed BMS can become a core asset for the management of the property, used to inform and enable the installation of other technologies such as smart metering and cloud-based monitoring systems."

Colin Cassé, Estates and Locations Director at HMRC

"The challenge with now having an estate largely made up of new build office accommodation each with their own Building Management System, Energy Management System, BIM model, etc., is the wealth of data available. Add in looking at occupancy monitoring to assist with understanding how the space is being used, and smarter ways of working are being adopted, the issue is making sure we don’t get swamped in so much data it is counterproductive. The data available, such as utilities usage and plant running information, is all brilliant and part of the fine tuning of the new buildings. It is just a case of ensuring you are not collecting data for data sake and making sure you just gather that which is going to help drive the efficiency of the facility."

Join us for this year’s Smart Asset & Estate Management Conference on December 8th  2022 at the QEII Centre in London.  Smart 2022 is the ideal place for all public sector property professionals to get the latest policy updates and discover new initiatives around estate management, sustainable buildings, smarter working and the technology that enables them.