FMJ Facilities Management magazine providing industry-specific intelligence to FM and property professionals
Leeds-based Hark Systems Ltd has been appointed by NHS Property Services (NHSPS) to provide expertise and consultancy to design its Smarter Buildings Program across its £3 billion estate.
The contract, confirmed for an initial three months, will be focused on designing the Eco-System of technology to enable the connectivity of buildings and assets across over 3,600 National Health Service facilities.
Having grown enormously since its establishment in 2013, NHSPS has one of the largest property portfolios in the UK. Owning this many properties has challenges, like gaining access to the critical data needed to improve efficiency of systems and industrial assets. The Smarter Buildings Program aims to implement an ‘Eco-System’, designed by Hark, which will be a central technological enabler, allowing NHSPS to collect, input, archive, analyse and report on its estate information in a consistent and efficient way. This Eco-System will allow NHSPS to react to facility and management information in real time and control buildings remotely through a digital twin environment by integrating software into their Building Management Systems.
Internet of Things (IoT) sensors, building management systems, artificial intelligence (AI), and augmented reality are amongst some of the technology that will be included to enable NHSPS to control and optimise estate performance in the future.
NHSPS is in the initial stages of its Smarter Buildings program and requires assistance to write the architectural design that will be used to build the Smarter Building platform, the central intelligence hub of the project. Hark are helping NHSPS by offering the provision of technology consultancy services to aid them in the discovery phase of this project.
Hark is an energy analytics and industrial IoT business with a wealth of experience in digital transformations, especially relating to facilities management and energy. The kinds of topics Hark will be consulting on include: IoT standards, asset connectivity, IoT platforms and dashboarding, reporting & alerting, data ingestion, data storage and more.
Cameron Hawkins, Head of Energy and Environment, NHS Property Services commented: “As owners of 10 per cent of the NHS estate, we play a key role in reducing emissions, helping the NHS adapt to climate change and building healthier communities. Our Green Plan is our commitment to reducing our environmental impact and promoting sustainable healthcare. As part of our plan, we recognise the important role data and technology plays in helping reduce the environmental impact of the NHS and creating greener, healthier communities. Hark’s excellent approach to systems design clearly aligns with this, demonstrating the power of their capabilities in the smart buildings environment and enabling us to support the NHS deliver excellent patient care both now and in the future.”
According to Pitney Bowes Parcel Shipping Index, worldwide parcel volume is likely to double in the next five years, with the UK showing the highest increase in carrier revenue of all 13 countries in the Index.
Alongside a huge uptake in the volume of parcel volume and spend, post pandemic, the adoption of hybrid working patterns means that FMs need to find ways to enable staff to book / host collaborative meetings in available workspaces and to find desk, office and parking spaces by utilising automation and data capture to enable site governance.
Yet a recent survey by FMJ in partnership with Pitney Bowes found that 20 per cent of recipients are still using manual paper-based visitor systems, which doesn’t fit with their top priority – to maintain a safe and operational environment.
This overwhelming reliance on paper-based systems is causing many respondents bottlenecks, resulting in a lack of efficiently in logging and tracking packages and people coming into the organisation.
In this webinar, Gary Abbott Director of Business Development and Stuart Bushaway, Head of Dealers Operations and FM Relationships at Pitney Bowes will outline the main findings of the two surveys and what this could mean for FMs. This will be followed by a discussion, chaired by FMJ Editor Sara Bean comprising Wayne Young – Facilities Manager, Just Eat Takeaway.com & Simi Gandhi-Whitaker, Strategic Technology Director, Connected Workspace, Mitie.
Register for the webinar here.
