On 28 February, senior RD Group executives addressed the 10th Property & Facility Management Congress, which this year had the theme of "Management of the Future", including new approaches and trends in digital and other innovative technologies.
The PFM Congress brings together market leaders in commercial real estate management and operations. This year's speakers included ECE Russland COO Alina Strelkova and RD Management Business Development Director Alexander Ustinov.
At Session 1, on property management, Ms Strelkova talked about how shopping centers have changed, and what their visitors want today.
"Shopping centers are no longer simply places to shop: they need to offer customers as enjoyable an experience as possible and to provide a comfortable environment for leisure and recreation. Sensitivity to the requirements of the target audience makes it possible to enhance visitor loyalty and, hence, the shopping center's success," she said.
In addition, she shared her company’s international experience, including in creating a shopping center of the future using digital technology.
"An integrated approach to providing the services needed by the customer at the right time enables the customer journey to be made as comfortable as possible, and digital technologies play an important role in this today. A shopping center visitor starts their 'journey' while still at home, with the Click&Reserve mobile app, with which they can select products from various stores and then come and pick them up from a collection point. When they reach the shopping center, parking is paid for automatically via the Easy-to-Park system. Once they are inside the shopping center, the 3D-Wayfinder helps them to easily find the store they need on an interactive map. They can also download a special app that works like a sat nav, plotting the route to the store or restaurant they need. When the customer leaves, the CarFinder programme helps them to easily find their car in the car park," explained Ms Strelkova.
RD Management Business Development Director Alexander Ustinov addressed Session 3, at which Facility Management professionals discussed the development of common standards for the industry.
"The market has clearly long been in need of a frank and open-minded discussion involving Property&Facility Management professionals, and the third session of the congress gave us the opportunity for such an open conversation. During the discussion, we were able to agree that there was certainly a need to establish industry standards, and set in motion the process of creating terminology, a classification of services, and common assessment criteria for management companies. Most importantly, it is necessary to know the market: industry standards are needed primarily by commercial real estate owners, as they will help to ensure the right choice of FM partner for the property," said Mr Ustinov.
Other speakers at the congress included representatives of CBRE, JLL, Cushman & Wakefield, Sawatzky Property Management, Becar Group, Zeppelin, and more. The event was being organised by IM Events.