Buildings4People, it’s a program that is currently looking for startups that can help Facility Management Innovators to solve critical challenges across all business areas and functions, like cleaning, energy management, food services, workforce inclusion and diversity, maintenance, and security and access control of the new workplace.
The program aims to find startups which have already launched an interesting solution to the market and wish to adapt it to the FM industry, gaining access to a market worth 1,3 trillion USD globally. Buildings4People is seeking a wide variety of startups to invite them to pilot and test their solutions in the industry. Therefore, the main module of the program consists of applying the solution in a real operational setting.
HELP IN THE INDUSTRY REVOLUTION
Leading facility management corporations have come together to create a digital platform and launch a corporate pilot program to the global entrepreneurship community to boost innovation in the sector.
Global influences such as demographic and social changes are contributing to shift the way a workplace is viewed and what people expect from it. This year, Gen Y will make up half of the global workforce. People are also ageing differently and many might work for longer. Organisations will have to balance the needs of different generations of employees converging together in one building and their FM departments are at the heart of this task. For corporations, facility management has always been considered primarily a cost centre and not a value-driven service. It is now transforming its mission into creating ideal outcomes for end-users and fomenting positive work experiences for its own employees.
Buildings4People is the first collective open innovation initiative in the facility management industry directed towards startups from all over the world and it is promoted by the Global Alliance of Facility Management Innovators. Buildings4People is the venture client unit of the Global Alliance of Facility Management Innovators. This means that FM Innovators become a client of a startup at an early stage of product commercialisation.
Ignasi Casamada, co-founder and CCO of one of the main members of the alliance, says: “A rise in people-centric technologies is globally redefining customer and employee experience, and the facility management industry does not want and can not be excluded from this process.”
Buildings4People is an enabler of change for an industry that works “behind the scenes” of any facility we attend in our daily lives. Whether we’re talking hospitals, football stadiums or office buildings, facility management workforces are there to care. Therefore, the impact of an innovative solution can be huge; the industry employs millions of people around the globe and affects the quality of life of many more.
Startups at a growth level and of any nationality are invited to apply to the program from the 24th of February to the 24th of April. Selected startups will be invited to present their solutions at the FM Innovation Fair held in Barcelona in May, where many stakeholders of the industry will be attending. Immediately after, winners will enrol in the pilot program. Once ready to go to market, the Global Alliance of Facility Management Innovators will promote the startup and its solution in the whole industry to boost further commercialisation.