Tobias Hamberger is Manager of our Subdivision Key Accounts Germany. In an interview with Immobilien & Finanzierung, he talks about current challenges and opportunities in facility management and why, for us, these are inextricably linked to building technology services.
Mr Hamberger, what is facility management today - and how does it differ from property management?
In the past, facility management (FM) was often reduced to cleaning and janitorial services. However, this has little to do with today's reality. Today, we are talking about highly complex technical systems in buildings, compliance with operator responsibility, predictive maintenance, energy efficiency, user comfort and value retention. FM ensures that not only commercial properties, production facilities, data centers, power plants or telecommunications infrastructure are operated in an energy-efficient, legally compliant and economical manner. This also includes issues such as supporting certifications, carrying out necessary audits and, in particular, complying with real estate-specific BaFin requirements in the banking sector. Property management focuses on commercial responsibilities such as lease management, property accounting and the preparation of service charge statements, which can also be assigned to commercial facility management. Ultimately, the management of the property portfolio remains with property management, a term that has become established for these tasks among institutional clients.
What trends will shape the industry in the coming years?
Clearly, decarbonization and digitalization are the biggest drivers. Only if we digitalize buildings can we record, analyse and sustainably reduce their energy consumption. With rising CO2 taxes, the pressure to decarbonize portfolios is growing in order to avoid losses in value. Properties with a high carbon footprint are more expensive to operate, more difficult to let and can become stranded assets. At the same time, regulatory requirements are increasing. One example: BaFin prescribes business continuity management (BCM) and now ICT business continuity management for banks with their own data centers in order to ensure operations in the event of a crisis - such as cyber attacks, technical faults or staff shortages. These are classic tasks of technical facility management, for which we develop emergency plans that are regularly put to the test in stress tests. Due to the increasing interdependencies between building technology, operational safety and energy-optimized management, we are seeing growing demand for integrated services in infrastructural and technical facility management as well as in the area of technical building equipment.
How is this change affecting the competition?
The market is on the move. International investors and private equity companies are entering the market. New contracts are often priced too tightly and do not cover essential services. This leads to a loss of quality and a poor reputation for the FM sector. We therefore consciously rely on a data-based approach in order to create realistic and reliable offers. A solid analysis of the building structure and technical systems is the basis for reliable offers and sustainable management, which goes hand in hand with our quality promise as a company.
STRABAG PFS has recently acquired several companies in the field of technical building services. What is the strategy behind this?
We see ourselves as a one-stop store for building services. This means that facility management and technical building services are inseparable for us. Only those who understand buildings holistically can operate and optimize them efficiently. The integration of our technical building services expertise enables us not only to maintain systems, but also to modernize and commission them. This enables us to offer solutions for buildings from a single source: from planning to ongoing operation. Acquisitions of TGA companies enable us to expand this expertise quickly and comprehensively in the countries in which STRABAG PFS is active. In Germany as well as in Austria, Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Luxembourg. As a result, our customers benefit from short decision-making paths and holistic solutions.
How do you integrate the IFM, TFM and building technology services in day-to-day operations?
We introduced our Digital Service Platform - DSP for short - in 2019. It digitally maps all operational processes in facility management and property management. From preparing quotations to order management, digital service feedback and documentation to invoice preparation. The platform is based on Microsoft Dynamics and can be connected directly to the various customer systems. Customers can call up cloud-based consumption data, maintenance plans, system overviews or documents in real time. Data that they are usually unable to integrate into a system themselves or in some cases do not even have. The DSP is therefore a real added value for our customers, especially for ESG reporting. Additional software, for example in the area of systems engineering, can also be easily integrated.
How important is in-house work for your customers - i.e. services that are not outsourced but are provided internally?
A high proportion of in-house work is a priority for us, especially for building technology services. This enables us to ensure fast response times, consistent quality and the availability of qualified specialists. Today, many clients explicitly demand a high proportion of in-house services in their tenders. Through our acquisitions, we can continue to meet this requirement and offer our customers services from a single source without having to add margins from external partners.
STRABAG PFS is active in several countries. What are the challenges here?
Each country has its own regulatory and economic framework conditions. In Germany, we work heavily with institutional investors, large industry and banks, in Austria more with medium-sized owners. In Eastern Europe, the management of buildings and large portfolios is often organized more regionally. It is important that we network our expertise across locations. This is why it is also essential to be organized locally in the countries and at the same time ensure our transnational quality standards.
How do you deal with customers' growing demands for flexibility, speed of response and individualization?
Speed of response is a key quality feature in facility management. We have set up our own fault reporting centers - our STRABAG Operation Centers - which are available around the clock and coordinate faults immediately. This enables us to react quickly and reduce downtime.
In addition, institutional customers today expect more flexibility in contract and portfolio structures. A fund can change, properties can be sold, purchased or revalued. Our contracts are designed in such a way that they can "breathe". We dynamically adapt personnel and service packages without having to draw up new contracts every time. This saves time and maintains operational reliability. The basis for this is always a partnership-based collaboration with the customer.
Keyword sustainability: what role does facility management play in decarbonization?
A decisive one. We have positioned ourselves as a decarbonization general contractor (GC). This means that we create transparency about the property's CO2 consumption, reduce energy consumption based on data, replace outdated technology and optimize building envelopes and system operation in order to minimize the CO2 footprint or even achieve climate neutrality. With our eco2solutions portfolio and the eco2state navigator, we can record consumption data, analyze it using AI and derive specific measures to reduce emissions. Institutional customers can immediately see which steps have the greatest effect and can demonstrably achieve their ESG goals.
And what challenges arise when digitizing older building stock?
As I just mentioned, energy consumption can only be reduced efficiently if this is done on the basis of data. However, many existing buildings do not have integrated building management systems or signaling systems. The prerequisite for recording consumption data automatically and controlling buildings digitally. Here we rely on pragmatic solutions, for example through the targeted installation of sensors that measure the most important operating data such as temperature, humidity, CO2 or energy consumption. This means that older buildings can also be digitally upgraded. This is a quick and cost-effective way to optimize building operation and take the first steps towards data-based energy management.
The industry is becoming increasingly technical and data-driven. What risks do you see in this development?
Cybersecurity is one of the key issues of our time. Especially in the financial sector, with its sensitive data and systems, the security of the technical infrastructure is crucial. Many institutions therefore do not want to allow external access to their building technology. Every additional interface means a potential attack surface. We respond to this by deploying specialist I&C technicians directly to the customer who have the necessary qualifications to securely manage building technology systems and data centers. At the same time, we support our customers in expanding and securing their alarm systems. The failure of building management systems can cause enormous economic damage. That's why we appeal to owners of critical infrastructure in particular to regularly check their systems for susceptibility to faults and to modernize them. Cybersecurity is not a marginal issue, but part of operational safety.
What would you like to see from the FM market, politicians and regulators?
Above all, clarity and uniformity. Different ESG certifications, national requirements and unclear definitions - for example in the EU taxonomy - make planning difficult for investors and operators. Different certification systems mean that even experts often no longer know what exactly needs to be complied with. Uniform standards would create planning certainty.
In addition, a legal obligation for open installation systems would make sense. In building automation, network protocols such as BACnet already offer a standard for cross-manufacturer compatibility, but are not binding for all manufacturers. Some providers deliberately rely on closed systems in order to be able to offer maintenance and repair exclusively. This harms competition and makes repairs more expensive in the event of a fault; open interfaces would be in everyone's interest. For owners, operators and ultimately also for sustainability.
Where do you see the greatest opportunities in the coming years?
The energy-efficient refurbishment of existing buildings. The building stock in Europe is outdated. 55 percent of buildings were constructed between 1949 and 1990. 85 percent were built before 2011. Upgrading them in terms of energy efficiency and digitalization is a huge but worthwhile task. Because every modernized building saves CO2 and retains its value. For us, this means that FM and technical building services are becoming central levers for the digital and sustainable transformation of real estate and are crucial for the profitability of the portfolio.