STRABAG Property and Facility Services (STRABAG PFS) and Microsoft will work together over the next few years to develop industry solutions under the name “Real Estate Services 4.0” for the control, management and operational provision of facility management services. Core of the partnership is the development and implementation of a new IT platform that will allow, among other things, the fully integrated and largely automated processing of all orders of STRABAG PFS as well as the automated assignment of service technicians.
This integrated order management solution running on the Microsoft Azure cloud service creates the right conditions for further strategic innovation projects in the fields Internet of Things, big data analytics, artificial intelligence and sensor technology for predictive maintenance, among other things. STRABAG PFS is also introducing the Microsoft HoloLens mixed reality glasses. Microsoft HoloLens is the first fully holographic computer enabling the STRABAG PFS service technicians to work with digital content and holograms. This will change the way in which e.g. maintenance schedules and instructions are read: The mixed reality functions and Skype for HoloLens will allow the service technicians to receive directions and instructions via the glasses. Skype for HoloLens lets the technicians keep their hands free so they can work effectively on projects while communicating with off-site specialists.
STRABAG PFS is also planning to use hardware and software from Microsoft to develop additional applications, such as video documentation of the maintenance works. Prototypes shall be tested in pilot projects at STRABAG PFS clients and be developed into marketable products.
STRABAG PFS chose its new partner because of the reliability and security of Azure as well as compliance aspects of sovereign Microsoft Cloud Germany. Microsoft Cloud Germany offers client data storage in Germany under a data trustee model. The data trustee controls access to the client data and is an independent company headquartered in Germany and subject to German law: T-Systems International GmbH, a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom. Without approval of the data trustee or the client, Microsoft has no access to the client data. Even if approval is granted by the data trustee, Microsoft can only access the client data under supervision by the data trustee and only for a limited time.
“In Microsoft, we have found a partner who can offer us not only software and hardware from a single source but, above all, years of development know-how, proven expertise, solidity and the willingness to develop long-term industry solutions on a partnership basis,” say Martin Schenk, Managing Director, and Marion Henschel, Vice Chair of the Management Board of STRABAG PFS. “The cooperation between STRABAG PFS and Microsoft is trailblazing and shows how industry and technology experts can work together to create innovations. In our expertise, we complement one another perfectly – and we are pleased that innovative products and services are being developed on the basis of our platform to enable STRABAG PFS clients to achieve more,” says Dorothee Ritz, General Manager of Microsoft Austria.
KEY NOTES
• Entry into Real Estate Services 4.0
• Partially automated order management by 2018
• Introduction of Microsoft HoloLens mixed reality glasses for technical maintenance
• Microsoft Cloud Germany: data storage in Germany, control of client data access by German data trustee
