Compass Immobilien takes processes into its own hands and makes it self independent of measurement services

As a full-service property management company, Compass Immobilien takes over the commercial and technical management of residential and commercial properties in the area of Osnabrück. As an owner-run, future-oriented property management company, the team of administrators has long relied on innovative, digital technologies like the management platform casavi or the rental platform Everreal, and from now on, they will handle their measurement services independently with KUGU.

The Problem

As an early adopter in real estate management, it is important for Compass to critically question established processes to realize unused potentials. In the analysis of existing processes, the collaboration and service performance of conventional measurement services in the preparation of heat cost bills has been found to be inefficient. What stood out were the usually tedious, manual processes, which often only led to error-free bills after several weeks. In addition to the high costs for the measurement service provider itself, these processes have thus also led to high internal costs.

The Solution

For Compass, the solution to the identified problems has been found in the cooperation of casavi and KUGU. Since Compass is already using casavi, KUGUs platform can be seamlessly integrated into the existing company structure. Besides, the team of Compass Immobilien is profiting from KUGUs modular structure and automated processes of billing heat and hot water costs as well as monitoring smoke detectors.

"We were looking for new approaches to take processes back into our own hands, but at the same time we wanted to have a partner at our side whose technical know-how would always be there if we needed help."

Before the start of the project, all technical and organizational details were coordinated. Of particular interest were questions regarding the technical implementation in the building, the reading of the meters, financial apportionability and KUGUs APIs to existing software. Also, a business case was developed to determine the scope of profatability for the project.

In a first project, the new technology was used in two new buildings in Bad Iburg. Compass decided on using open radio standards (OMS) as measurement technology, so that the new measurement technology could be used by conventional measurement service providers if necessary.

Data is collected by KUGUs data collectors, which transmit the encrypted data via mobile network to the KUGU portal. From here, the data can be retrieved and used for preparing the heat cost bills. In the portal, all process steps are automated as far as possible. Thus, the bills can be completed in just a few minutes. Because radio technology is used, it is not necessary to enter the property to read the meters, which is not just quicker but also eliminates the need for coordination with service providers or residents. This enables Compass to design the billing process efficiently and flexibly. The process for monitoring the smoke detectors is technically structured like the consumption recording. Here, too, data of the smoke detectors is collected and transmitted via the data collector and retrieved in the KUGU portal. In case of low battery levels or other error messages, the team of Compass is automatically notified.

Another special feature for residents and owners is the monthly provision of individual consumption data via casavi. With the resident app, KUGU also offers its solution for this service, but a second app was not considered to be useful, as the number of platforms for residents and owners should be kept as low as possible.

"As a medium-sized property management company, we are trying to set new standards in the use of digital technologies. We believe that this is the best way to meet the challenges of the future, especially when keeping in mind the changes that digitization will trigger in residential and commercial real estate.”

The result

In conclusion, the first project went more than positive for Compass Immobilien. In cooperation with KUGU, the provision of measurement technology and smoke detectors as well as the reading and billing service can be carried out much more cost-effectively if compared with conventional measurement service providers. The savings realized this way are seen as an additional income, through which Compass would like to increase its ability for long term investments.

"We consider the recording of consumption and the monitoring of smoke detectors to be only one further step towards a truly holistic digital building management. Next, we would like to move on to the digital monitoring of heating systems and automated leakage detection.”

The independent provision of measurement technology and smoke detectors as well as the independent billing of heat and hot water costs will be offered to owners of newly constructed buildings as well as to owners of existing buildings. By doing so, Compass will reduce the dependency on established measurement services even further.