In the real estate industry, it is most important especially in times of crisis to deliver transparency and maximize speed in all aspects of the Facility Lifecycle. The reason why: Business models are becoming most attractive when data is managed already in the planning phase in a way that enables it to be used easily later in the operating phase. It is essential that data is perfectly structured to be used instantly and smoothly at a later time.

Developers, owners and all real estate experts from the region are looking at new ways to inject new capital into their developments and to maximize their dividends from existing projects. They are able to do so when they can be sure that a building is not only planned excellently, but also that the operation phase can be made trouble-free. Plus, it is important that the profitability of an investment is planned sustainably. conject is positioned exactly here and is the only provider worldwide as an outstanding expert for the Facility Lifecycle Management (FLM).

Dr. Uwe Forgber, director of conject Dubai, knows: “We have several international clients who have not only achieved immense savings with our technology; they are also able to manage their database in the best way so that they can smoothly plan, build and run their projects in time and budget. These guys are the true pathfinders in the real estate industry."

"We implemented conjectPMpm. - Интернет-платформа для управления проектами в области проектирования и строительства недвижимости. and conjectCMConstruction Cost with conjectCM the core processes in cost management are automated and standardized. All project data are available at any time. in a matter of weeks. This helped us getting a clear ‘snapshot’ of our project anytime. conject allows us to keep all stakeholders and  the whole design team up to date and well informed."
(Menno Hilberts, Director of Development, citizenM hotels)

Involved Parties:
Developer and Operator: citizen Hotels
Contractor: John Sisk & Sons
Software Provider and Consultant: conject AG

Project Duration: December 2007 – May 2010

citizenM
Offers “affordable luxury for the people”. citizenM has identified the essential elements in a hotel experience and has re-invented them with luxury and simplicity in mind. Erasing common frustrations by designing functional hotels, based around the desires of today’s modern day travelers. The entire process has been simplified from making a reservation on citizenM.com, to the self check-in-out kiosks in the hotel lobby. Rooms are inspired by accommodations on luxury yachts and private jets. citizenM now has two hotels up and running in Amsterdam, one under construction in Glasgow, and three sites under development in London where they aim for five hotels. citizenM is actively looking for sites in Manhattan, New York, and for opportunities in Europe’s main cities.

The Project
citizenM Glasgow is located at the corner of Hope Street and Renfrew Street in the northern part of the city centre of Glasgow. A prominent corner location in the centre of the so-called Theatre District. The 8-storey building comprises 198 rooms on the upper floors. The  lobby, canteenM and the “living rooms” that are fully furnished with Vitra furniture are situated on the  1st floor whereas the 650 square meter commercial /retail space is developed at ground floor level.

conjectPMpm. - Интернет-платформа для управления проектами в области проектирования и строительства недвижимости. for document and plan logistics and communication: conjectPMpm. - Интернет-платформа для управления проектами в области проектирования и строительства недвижимости., the Internet-based project space connecting all project participants, enables effective infrastructure project management for citizenM: Anytime access to the latest project information, unlimited storage and number of projects, drawing management, professional project documentation and communication in context. Workflows with distribution groups, templates and Outlook integration support efficient process management.

conjectCMConstruction Cost with conjectCM the core processes in cost management are automated and standardized. All project data are available at any time. for budget controlling and contract management: With conjectCMConstruction Cost with conjectCM the core processes in cost management are automated and standardized. All project data are available at any time. all processes in cost management are automated and standardized – referring to best practice processes. The project responsibilities are clearly defined and enforced: On budget, contract and invoice level. For all project participants of citizenM all relevant project data is available and up-to-date at any time during all phases. Defined report formats are set-up and comply with the recurring reporting procedures. Additional analyses of the commercial management data can be executed by each user.

As an owner-operated municipal enterprise, the City of Paderborn’s building management is responsible for the many different tasks involved in the construction and maintenance of currently 365 city buildings. The tasks range from general refurbishment to the repair of a leaky faucet, through fire protection and regular cleaning, new construction and demolition, and on to maintenance management.

GMP’s aim is to make the value-added chain in the building lifecycle as efficient as possible. This requires transparent structures and data to ensure a comprehensive approach. GMP has found a working tool in conjectFMFacilities Management with conjectFM (CAFM) is practical, high-performance and easy-to-use software for all segments of real estate in which commercial and technical data are brought together in a functional manner. On this basis, it is possible to implement structured, targeted working methods which speed up decision-making processes at the same time.

Manage processes using conjectFM
For over five years conject has been supporting these complex tasks with the CAFM system conjectFMFacilities Management with conjectFM (CAFM) is practical, high-performance and easy-to-use software for all segments of real estate. Beginning with the standard module, the information system was extended to include the Energy Management and Rent Management Modules. Additional purchases are planned for Facility and Maintenance Management to further expand the master data and to profit from the synergistic effects.

Implementation in the various segments is as follows:

Area Management
With the CAFM system, data capture can be set up for structured and systematic Area Management: the central access to information on the type, scope, and cost involved in utilization of space makes it possible to optimize the degree of building and room utilization. Moreover, this module also offers the potential to improve and monitor the quality of cleaning and to reduce cleaning cost. All room data stored in conjectFMFacilities Management with conjectFM (CAFM) is practical, high-performance and easy-to-use software for all segments of real estate make it possible to create specific cleaning schedules through a combination of cleaning intervals, service directories, and cleaning contracts. At the same time, the data serve as the basis for contract awards.

Maintenance and Incident Management
The combination of conjectFMFacilities Management with conjectFM (CAFM) is practical, high-performance and easy-to-use software for all segments of real estate Maintenance and Incident Management and Project and Task Management forms the basis for budgeting and cost control of smaller construction measures, as well as maintenance and incident tasks involved in building maintenance.

Energy Management
With conjectFMFacilities Management with conjectFM (CAFM) is practical, high-performance and easy-to-use software for all segments of real estate Energy Management, GMP is able to allocate and assess energy amounts and cost according to area based on consumption. Evaluation of energy cost enables a comparison and objective assessment of consumption in conjunction with reference areas and/or types of use.

Rent Management
With conjectFMFacilities Management with conjectFM (CAFM) is practical, high-performance and easy-to-use software for all segments of real estate Rent Management, GMP is setting up administrative structures for apartment buildings (approx. 50 residential units). Also, ancillary cost accounting can be generated by the system and printed out on an internal form for each individual tenant.

Due to growing demand for Infrastructure Lifecycle Management around the globe, conject received new orders in Asia and Africa.

Especially Asia still remains well receptive to new real estate technology. conject has long had satisfied customers throughout the region, including IKEA in Japan, Festo in China, Millennium in Malaysia, and Banyan Resorts in Thailand. Now with an office on world famous Orchard Road in Singapore - managed by Peter Chirardis - conject is even better positioned to serve this market.

Plus: The African Continent – in particular Egypt and South Africa - is also waking up to the benefits of ILM.

In South Africa conject is teaming up with Omicron Online (Pty) Ltd  to create a conject presence in South Africa. The office is located in Sandton, the financial hub of Johannesburg. And also in Egypt there is one partner of conject – ENJAZ - who supports us to deal with the real estate and facility management market.

Philip von Ditfurth, conject co-founder and CFO, explains: “Thanks to conject’s solid financials and growing client base, we are able to confidently expand our sales and marketing reach. While many competitors are downsizing in the current economic climate, conject continues to grow.”

Who are the people behind conject? We are beginning a new series in this issue of Falcon Flash that will allow you get to know the people at conject a little better. What do they stand for? What are their plans for the future? We will present persons who are often in limelight as well as those who work on the Hotline or in Product Development. We begin with Philip von Ditfurth, CFO of conject.

When Philip von Ditfurth moved to Munich in the spring of 2000, he only had one thing on his mind: “To set up a lasting company with the right partners.” Lasting in the sense of not merely founding one of the typical start-ups which were sprouting up everywhere at the peak of the new economy, only to fail miserably a short time later. No, the mission was clear: it must be a software company for the real estate sector, initially placing more focus on the planning phase. More and more phases in the lifecycle of a property were integrated in the years that followed.

Philip von Ditfurth is a co-founder, one of twelve, and for nearly ten years has been responsible at conject for finance, HR and a part of the international business. Prior to that, he spent four years developing the technology for one of Europe’s leading logistics companies before he rolled out his extensive experience in IT strategy and strategic business applications for conject. In addition to key accounts such as Telekom in Germany and setting up business in the Benelux countries, today the computer scientist is focusing on markets in Asia: “The market there is very receptive to our products, which is why we are localizing our products further for the Asian region,”, says von Ditfurth, who also knows just how important the emerging markets in China and India are. But all in good time. Currently he’s in charge of projects in Thailand, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Singapore and is in the region often. There’s hardly any time left for sailing, one of his favorite hobbies.

His family in Munich must have a great deal of understanding for the almost tireless pace at which he works because the internationalization of conject demands a great willingness to travel: today in The Hague, tomorrow in the Gulf Region, and the day after in one of the emerging Asian countries. On his travels abroad, users often tell von Ditfurth about how logical and fun it is to work with conject. Efficient, fast, secure. For him that is also the main argument in favor of working with a platform like conject. “Without this technology,” he, who also spent five years working as a business consultant focusing on IT and organization, says, “it is nearly impossible to create sustainability in the real estate industry.” 

… with the mailbox enable function, conjectPM now makes it easier to gain an overview during the planning phase?

Project work is teamwork. Take advantage of this opportunity and enable your mailbox for selected project colleagues. The direct access to all messages for project colleagues allows you to

• Track drawing and document distribution, even in divisions for which you were not yet responsible. For example: What is the current status of drawing approval?
• Research drawings or contractual documentation which you do not have available
  For example: What was in the package that was sent to the architect yesterday?
• Gain an overview of the processes thus far within your team
  For example: Which variations were offered to the owner?

By enabling your mailbox, you can also make sure that colleagues always have access to all important messages, for example, if you’re away unexpectedly.

Example: Helmut Gassner has enabled his mailbox for two colleagues, Heike Sommer and Hans Singer.

You always have an overview of which participants have enabled their mailboxes for you and who is allowed to view your own mailbox.

If a colleague has enabled his mailbox for you, you can then see it in a separate view under “All mailboxes" in your Communication Module. (1) You have all your colleagues' messages and your own messages here in one list. Simply search to locate certain processes of your colleagues.

By clicking on “Participants” (2) you can find out who has enabled his mailbox for you:

Example: Heike Sommer is able to view and browse the list “All Mailboxes”.

Enabled messages are displayed differently:

Example: Heike Sommer is reading an enabled message from Helmut Gassner.

Of course, you can cancel rights at any time.

… there is a Treeview in Budgets?

The Treeview function was implemented in order to display a project budget in a hierarchical structure with levels and subtotals in conjectCMConstruction Cost with conjectCM the core processes in cost management are automated and standardized. All project data are available at any time.. With this, it is now possible to display the budget with the items it contains in addition to the familiar view, whereby all items are displayed equal to each other yet one below the other, in a second type of display. Based on the ordinal number, the budget items are divided into hierarchical levels. A subtotal line is inserted and highlighted in color for every hierarchical level.

The display of a Treeview is controlled in a field containing an ordinal number. This is stored in the Project Budget document in the tab “General”. The Treeview function supports the display of up to 5 hierarchical levels (e.g. 1.2.3.4.P or 11.22.33.44.PPPP).

The menu "Show levels" is available to either show or hide the hierarchical levels within the Treeview using the right mouse button. In addition, you can show or hide the levels individually by clicking on the “+” and “-” symbols.

If you want to use the standard view instead of the Treeview, simply place the checkmark next to "No hierarchy.”

… conjectFM can now be operated barrier-free?

In the new Release 7.5.g, you can operate conjectFMFacilities Management with conjectFM (CAFM) is practical, high-performance and easy-to-use software for all segments of real estate almost entirely using your keyboard, in addition to using the mouse. The new feature enables, amongst other things, navigating with the arrow keys and jumping in the 3-core windows using the tab key as well as activating functions with the enter keys. The same also applies for the input dialogs, tables and lists, of course.

After you have gotten accustomed to navigating with the keyboard, you’ll never want to go without it again. Whoever uses it frequently will save an enormous amount of time.

We have also made some adjustments in conjectFM for screen readers frequently used by visually impaired users. Our tests have shown good results so that whatever has been selected with the keyboard is now ready for to the user in an easy to understand manner.

Partnerships pay off! This is evident in the cooperation between conject AG and inform solutions GmbH. As a conject partner, inform solutions has been providing the product conjectFMFacilities Management with conjectFM (CAFM) is practical, high-performance and easy-to-use software for all segments of real estate to the commercial and savings bank market sector since 2004. The software solution is known here as InfoAccount buiSy inside and is meanwhile recognized as the standard software for financial institutions.

Why would inform be involved with FM / CAFM? Because financial institutions, amongst others, are required to document the security measures they employ in digital form. “That’s why we decided in 2004,” says Frank Becker, Product Manager of InfoAccount at inform solutions, “to deploy conject.” Before coming to that decision, many weeks were spent analyzing and comparing it with other systems, but conject clearly came out ahead…

The next step was to develop a specific solution for savings banks, and this has been successful for years since. A true sector solution, in which the standard version has characteristics specific to the banking sector.

What are the reasons for a partnership? On one hand, it's the knowledge and connections within the market segment. “It’s the way to stay on the cutting edge,” says Johannes Pütter, responsible for many customers in this segment: currently over 30 savings banks alone deploy InfoAccount, which are also setting up other FM projects. “But above all,” Pütter says with certainty, “inform with its nationwide sales network has enjoyed the trust of cooperative banks and savings banks for over 40 years.” This has also been reinforced through many years of cooperation with computer centers and associations, and which has led to InfoAccount being the first and only CAFM product deployed in the savings bank computer center. Today, for software to be involved with commercial and savings banks, various tests are necessary: documentation, security compared with other bank applications, conformity with the computer center … here as well, InfoAccount is the first and only CAFM system to receive the widely acclaimed OPDV certification in 2007.

Who is inform?

For over 35 years, inform solutions GmbH has been the solutions partner of financial institutions in the security sector with products in the video management, time and access monitoring segments.

conject has now taken an important step towards high-security cloud computing. The Munich-based company has now had TÜV Süd certify the qualities within the security environment and awarded “S@fer Website” certificate to conjectPMpm. - Интернет-платформа для управления проектами в области проектирования и строительства недвижимости. – the Internet-based Project Space which connects project managers, architects, investors and all participants of a construction project professionally and conveniently “With this certificate, we have managed to once again underscore the fact that security is our highest priority,” says Chris Brandt, CTO at conject AG: “Only a regular technical review can permanently ensure the trustworthiness of our Platform of the highest level.”

The first part of certification consists of a complex, three-phase audit, in which TÜV Süd examines the level of data security. This includes availability of the Platform, the unlimited security of conject customers’ data, as well as technical integrity. The second step of the “s@fer Website” test simulates external attacks on the platform (“hackdoor”, “backdoor”) similar to those often attempted by cyber criminals. Finally – in the third phase – the TÜV specialists also evaluated conject’s general safety conditions as a whole. “They meticulously examined whether we in the company act in accordance with all data protection regulations, whether the terms of use of conjectPMpm. - Интернет-платформа для управления проектами в области проектирования и строительства недвижимости. are consistent. Even our employees’ laptops were subject to intense scrutiny,” Brandt reported. “s@fer Website” is now part of conject’s company-wide security strategy.

Further information to the certificate.

With conjectPMpm. - Интернет-платформа для управления проектами в области проектирования и строительства недвижимости. you can organize the project communication and documentation in your real estate project and now even when you’re on the go with the iPhone or the iPod Touch.

With this application you can:

• Browse your project’s file
• Download and view documents
• Send documents via email to other project participants
• View your projects according to your position on a map
• Create Favorites for documents and files – you will then be notified automatically if the original has been changed on the server.

We show you exactly how this works in our iPhone movie.

Topic selection for the CONSENSE 2010 has kicked off. For the first time, representatives of the DGNB Program Advisory Council and the ILM Program Committee are now working together to organize the Conference. Just to refresh your memory: negotiations on the cooperation on the merger between the ILM Conference and CONSENSE were already completed this spring. As of next year, there will only be one major Sustainability Conference for the real estate sector in Germany, which will take place on 22/23 June 2010 in Stuttgart (Neue Messe).

The aim of the merger was and remains to enrich the themes of the conference. "Utilizing clear synergies, we wanted to provide the sector with an event providing a way to connect extensively and which is professionally viable at the same time," according to Martin Reents, member of the ILM Program Committee and CEO of conject.
The aim of the cooperation between the DGNB Program Advisory Council and the ILM Program Committee is to put together a more sustainable program in 2010 that will cater to both investors and owners, as well as architects, planners and facility managers – basically address everyone involved in the various lifecycle phases in the real estate process.
conject launched the ILM Conference series in 2005 and initiated the merger of both of these successful conferences this year. “The sector can look forward to yet another top-class event,” says Elke Tonscheidt, head of Corporate Communications at conject and involved in both committees.

Would you like to be keep up to date with the CONSENSE scheduling? With the CONSENSE Ticker you can receive information about the congress agenda, the sponsoring opportunities, news from the trade fair and lots more.