The Real Estate industry has witnessed explosive growth over the past few
years. From churning out signal free expressways out of patchy highways to
building 'green' offices and intelligent homes that are high on the use of
technology, to postulating yet another kind of outsourcing-facility management;
this industry has seen it all. Being a late adopter of IT, they've done a
commendable catching up
We're all intimidated and awestruck at the same time by the sheer size and
variety of commercial complexes and residential condominiums being built
nowadays. The magnanimity and quantity of real estate projects is a pointer to
the rising economic wealth of a nation. So, it doesn't come as a surprise that,
synonymous with the economic boom of this decade, we see a sudden spurt in
construction activity across the country. A lot of innovative commercial office
complexes, multi-leaved expressways, high-rise condominiums, ports, multi-level
automated parking lots and airports are seeing the light of the day.
Both technologies and human capital play a big role in ensuring that we see a
lot of innovation. Right from the stage a concept is mooted, to the actual
simulation of the model, to carrying out the construction of individual
components, to maintenance, repairs and interior décor; technologies play a
vital role. In fact, were it not for the availability of all algorithms and 3D
modeling software, a single bridge would take up to eight years to complete!
However, even with so much money being pumped into this sector, and looking
at how IT drives it, you'll be surprised that even 0.5-0.8% of the total
investment for IT equipment and implementation, is considered good enough. The
meagre investment in IT is partially understandable as bulk of the capital goes
into raw material procurement, labor costs and operations management that
require co-ordination amongst people spread across remote locations, uninhabited
and difficult terrains, and areas with minimal communications infrastructure.
Moreover, bulk of the time and resources are spent on projects that span over
quite a few years. Similarly, as these projects involve a massive amount of raw
material, spiraling costs of the projects are what the management is constantly
looking to control. However, with increasing investments and a more demanding
customer, things are set to change for the better. ASSOCHAM projects that the
real estate industry will grow at a whopping 30% in the next 10 years,
attracting an FDI of over USD 30 billion. Riding on such massive investments,
the domestic real estate sector that currently stands at 14 billion dollars is
expected to spiral to 102 billion dollars during the same period.
IT@Hiranandani
Group |
What role has IT played at Hiranandanis?
As far as Hiranandani is concerned it has been a two-way traffic. We
have provided good IT backup infrastructure place in various locations,
especially in Powai and Thane wherein we have provided a lot of space in
terms of highest level of quality of infrastructure for the IT industry.
Secondly, we have provided a lot of backup connectivity with the sites in
terms of large bandwidth and communications. On the other side IT's role at
Hiranandani's has been to greatly improve the intercommunication amongst
various departments and making project management easier.
|
Niranjan Hiranandani
Managing Director |
Real estate is dominated by middlemen. How
can IT be used to create transparency between the customer and the
developer?
Customers can directly communicate to us through the our website. Also
in the real estate business, once a transaction has taken place, customers
interact with the developer directly on post-sale issues.
How can IT be used to alleviate problems
faced in the real estate business?
Increasingly, as we put projects across the country and the world, we
have to see that there is instantaneous information flow amongst project
sites, architects, designers, various departments of the company and the
developer. Also, redressal of customer grievances, reducing paperwork and
decreasing the time for clinching a deal are priorities. |
IT/ITES industry has been in the forefront of consuming space in metros and
many of the second-tier cities. And with the disposable incomes of the suave,
urban executives increasing, aided in no insignificant terms by the availability
of affordable home loans, the demand for world-class luxury apartments has seen
an upward spiral. No longer are customers content only with the basic amenities
such as power backup, 24 hr water supply, round-the-clock security and the
availability of household services; they want value for money.
Move
Over Highways, it's the Age of Expressways |
The state-of-the-art Delhi-Gurgaon
Expressway has nine flyovers, four underpasses and 2 foot-over bridges on a
27.7 kilometer stretch. DS Constructions commenced work in January 2003 and
the project envisaged conversion of the Delhi-Gurgaon Section of NH-8 into
an access controlled 6/8-lane highway with service lanes across certain
sections. Of course a lot of 3-D modeling software have been used for
designing the beams and the columns and other structures in this colossal
project, but the technologically intensive 32 lane toll plaza at the Delhi-Gurgaon
border is the one to make headlines.
|
The 32-lane toll plaza on
the Delhi-Gurgaon border is the second biggest in Asia and among the 5
largest in the world |
IT knowledge and the will to implement
advanced solutions in the Construction industry is amongst the lowest for
any industry. In fact going by the current figures, most companies spend
only around 0.5-1% of the total capital on IT. This makes the job of an IT
head even more thankless. The biggest challenge vice president-IT, CR
Narayanan faced on joining was the lack of coherence amongst legacy systems.
This was aggravated by the lack of enthusiasm amongst employees in adopting
new technologies. As he rightly quips, 'Not long time back the only thing in
IT people knew was Tally, the accounts package.'
The stakes were right there in front of him.
One option was to integrate all the existing systems and bring them to a
level so that they would be usable across the organization or go for a
standard application. The company decided to implement SAP, as experience
suggested this to be the most successful ERP package in similar industries.
The entire implementation was over within a period of five months. As of
now, they've implemented the core modules that can be easily integrated in
future with SCM or CRM apps as when the business scales up.
|
C R Narayanan Vice
President - IT, D S Constructions |
Although the company has a rich experience in
infrastructure development across India-expressways, ports, parking lots,
SEZs, etc; they find tolling to be a different baby altogether. As Narayanan
points out, 'The Delhi-Gurgaon expressway is very busy with more than five
hundred thousand vehicles using this expressway and over one hundred and
twenty thousand vehicles paying toll. Not that the company wasn't smart
enough to introduce the right technologies from the start, such as RFID
based 'Smart tags.' These small devices are meant to be stuck on to a
vehicle's windscreen and are instantly recognized from a distance of 20 mtrs
from the toll gate. At about 10 mtrs, the handshake takes place, ie the
system checks for available balance, verifies the authenticity of the
vehicle using the tag and so on. In case of fraud, the tag is invalidated
and the next time the vehicle tries to cross the plaza the boom bar at the
toll gate won't let the vehicle to pass through. Kapsch, the worldwide
leader in tolling systems, has provided the entire tolling infrastructure.
The system has been so designed as to record three shots of each vehicle
passing through the toll plazas. High-res cameras have been placed at
vantage points at each toll gate to record images of the driver, vehicle's
number plate and a whole body shot of the vehicle. The efficacy of the
system can be gauged from the fact that even though a vehicle might be
traveling at 80 kmph, the image rendering software can take pretty accurate
images. When asked about future projects by the company, Narayanan talked
about the ongoing automated car parking at KG Marg, Delhi as the next unique
development. The parking lot would have the capacity to handle 1600 cars
with only two operators, and even those could be dispensed with. It's
estimated to take around 24 months to complete. |
So, we see innovations in the form of automated power management with
emphasis on 'green' principles; automation in interior décor; remote management
of the essential aspects of building operations such as power control,
air-conditioning, servicing of equipment, security and so on. In addition to
commercial buildings and residential apartments, the same trend can be seen in
the construction of expressways. No longer are these condemned to be stretches
of unpredictable potholes or inadequate lighting or for that matter bumpy rides.
Round-the-clock illumination, innumerable signboards, state-of-the-art
technology in building roads and flyovers, and the latest in tolling systems,
all this promises to leap frog India to superpower status in 2020.
Remote facility management
We've seen outsourcing of manufacturing processes, software development,
BPOs and call centers. This has now been further extended to outsourcing of
legal processes, financial transaction processing and publishing and media. So
what's the next step? Outsourcing the management of high-end services related to
commercial and residential complexes. A lot of companies have entered this
segment and in the latter part of this article we've presented a case study on
one of those-Ngenox. They're managing the power management, air conditioning,
equipment repair and maintenance, and the routine facility services such as
accounts and administration, through custom-built software from their facility
in Gurgaon. Such kind of remote management has its own set of benefits. For one,
the management of the commercial or residential complex offloads a part of its
responsibility to an outside vendor, who may have an expertise in facility
management.
This way companies can focus on their core competency rather than spending time
attending to periodic control of equipment and attending to user queries. Remote
facility management is slowly but surely becoming a rave as managements of large
buildings prefer handing over this monotonous yet extremely critical task to
specialists. The latter on their part have developed the necessary
infrastructure to keep a continuous eye on their client's facility.
Homes have just become smarter
Most of the times the term 'smart home' is confused with homes that are high
on electronic gadget usage or the ones that employ renewable energy resources
such as solar heaters or light panels and deploy water conservation techniques
such as rain water harvesting, allow more of natural light and employ
biodegradation of wastes. What is not known to the majority are the security and
power conservation potential of these homes. Information and communication
technologies have ensured round-the-clock access to information, while at
office, home or on the move. We work on our notebooks and PDAs, navigate our way
through GPS devices, access Internet on our mobile through GPRS, however, have
we ever thought of sparing some time from our hectic schedules to 'see' what's
happening in our safe havens-our homes, behind our backs? Yes, this is what
smart homes should allow. For roughly Rs 3.5 lakh for a basic 2-3 bedroom
apartment to upwards of Rs 25 lakhs for premium properties, you can get access
to technology that was unthinkable even five years back! You can have smart
cards that provide access to your home and even better, authenticate you before
you insert the key to open your door. And if someone tries to force through the
door, the system would send an emergency alert SMS on your mobile. Once you've
entered the premises, an intelligent system (based on your set preferences and
the time of the day) would control the amount and the intensity of light to be
switched on and in the rooms that you are most likely to frequent. Similarly,
electronic sensors could control the air-conditioning of the home based on the
number of family members present at a point in time. On your way back home you
could even configure the system to switch on the air conditioning and the geyser
or boiler to provide you with optimum cooling the moment you enter the house and
adequately warm water to have a nice, relaxing bath. And it's not as if there
won't be a system in place to alert you on any malfunction in the electrical
equipment. A fault at any stage, be it a short-circuit, leakage of current, gas,
etc could be picked up by electronic sensors and an emergency alarm raised in
the neighborhood, thus enabling a fix before the situation goes out of hand. The
owner too would immediately receive an SMS alert over his mobile device.
Remote Facility Management@Ngenox |
A joint venture company of
Vipul Ltd and Laing O' Rourke plc, UK, Ngenox specializes in high-end
facility management of large commercial complexes in the UK
You've heard of business processes outsourcing
in manufacturing, publishing, banking and finance and legal processes. But
the kind of outsourcing we're going to talk about here is probably unheard
of-facility management. These days we see a lot of emphasis on employing
green technologies to save on power and reduce carbon footprints. This
essentially means deploying a lot of modern equipment for air-conditioning,
lighting, heating, communications, water purification, etc. Along with this
comes the additionally responsibility of service and maintenance of all
these equipment. The traditional building services & facility management
department in a complex might be good at house keeping, janitorial, pantry,
plumbing and electric repairs but they don't have the expertise to handle
such equipment. This is where companies like Ngenox step in. Based out of
Gurgaon, the company's Remote Facility Management (RFM) solutions entail
online management and advisory support for building services from a central
command center. Such a solution guarantees reduction in facility operations
costs and anytime, anywhere monitoring by a team of experts.
|
On Nergy dashboard you get
real time alerts on the status of different equipment and their service
requests |
The equipment on the client site contains
electronic sensors that gather information on critical parameters across the
complete electro-mechanical infrastructure setup and send it via a secure
tunnel on the Internet to the company's facility in Gurgaon. This
information is fed into customized software to analyze the status of
equipment in the facility, energy consumption patterns, optimize energy
usage across the entire complex and carry out preventive maintenance.
Additional business benefits can be derived by looking at indicators to
improve asset life cycle cost and availability of resources to support
business needs of the enterprise and compliance to health and safety
standards, now and in the future.
The company's energy analyzer software, Nergy,
fetches data from real time archived database of various parameters for
analysis and presents reports on energy consumption patterns and the
performance of various electro-mechanical equipment across a facility. It's
built on Microsoft technologies and has a customized dashboard to provide a
one shot glance of all the critical parameters to the user. Moreover, you
get real time alerts the moment something goes amiss. The various features
of this software include: Energy auditing through various forms; Real time
customizable Energy Dash-Board; Single window environment; Segmentation of
energy information at a glance; Energy analysis and benchmarking; and Remote
diagnostics and updates.
|
On the Ecofice dashboard,
you can find statistics on greenhouse gas emissions from a particular
facility |
For managing the routine facility operations
such as finance and accounts, administration, helpdesk facility, material
management and storage, etc, Ngenox has developed Facility Maax, a Computer
Aided Facility Management (CAFM) software. It is a user-friendly management
tool that helps you to manage & operate tactical & strategic aspects of
complex facility management functions. Similar to Nergy, this software too
has a customizable dashboard where all the important facility management
modules can be placed upfront for prompt redressal of service requests. The
key modules included in the software and their functionalities are:
Contract Module: SLAs, Contact
details, details of OEMs and service providers and other critical
information pertaining to all contracts are stored in this module.
Helpdesk Module : Generation of
service requests, work orders and job cards along with associated hazards
and safety instructions are taken care of.
Asset Module: The details of all
assets, equipment, preventive maintenance schedules and asset tracking are
achieved using this module.
Human Resource Module : Details of
employees like name and contact details along with their specialization and
skill levels are stored in this module. Routing of service requests based on
the same is done from here.
Finance Module : Facility related
budgeting, creation of invoices and recording of costs under various heads
is achieved through this module.
Reducing carbon emissions during construction
and subsequently during the operation and maintenance of a facility has not
only become mandatory through law but is also a part of the construction
industry's social responsibility and as an added incentive goes a long way
in saving on power and money. The company's third facility management
solution, Ecofice, is a carbon footprint monitoring software which allows
building owners and facility managers to analyse and predict Green House
Gases (GHG) emission impact from buildings and large facilities. It utilizes
data captured through user definable, web formats and real time information
through an online monitoring system for calculation of GHG. This would
indicate GHG emissions during construction and building operation services.
The inbuilt intelligence of the software can identify any deviation from
defined parameter values and alert the users of anomalies.
Ngenox currently manages buildings in the UK
and has plans to expand its services to the US, UAE and APAC region. The
centre and its business processes are ISO-9000, ISO-14000 and ISO-27000
certified by BSI, UK. |
The same technology could be used to keep a continuous vigil over one's
premises to prevent any unauthorized access to premises and the security of
valuables inside. Nowadays you have plenty of video cameras, door phones,
intruder alarms available, through which you could monitor the entry and exit of
people across your premises. You have a lot of IP based cameras available that
can send images of people trying to enter the premises to your computer screens
and mobile devices via the Internet. You might as well block access to your
place by simply sending an SMS to the security system or even configure the time
slots when you're away, so that nobody can break open into your home. Such kind
of a security setup has a particularly important application for the security of
senior citizens and children. For example, you could place IP based surveillance
cameras at strategic locations in your house and keep a constant eye on their
activities. We could continue endlessly on how more and more technology can be
used in homes and offices but the core message is that technologies are changing
the way we live in our homes and the extent to which we can ensure its security.
Right now these technologies are being implemented in posh office complexes and
luxury apartments. However, with broadband connectivity available outside
metros, and with technologies getting cheaper and an increasing awareness
amongst the masses, time is not far when we'll see such solutions percolating
down to budget residential complexes.
The communications conundrum
When we quizzed IT heads of some large construction companies on the
critical problems they face while implementing technology, the lack of
communication infrastructure in remote locations came out as the common grouse.
The real estate story is moving beyond metros to tier-2 & 3 cities where there
is plenty of space and at affordable prices. Even within these cities, bulk of
the action is on outskirts, where connectivity options are limited. Even worse
is the case with companies involved in the construction of expressways, SEZs,
ports and so on. GSM based mobile networks are virtually non-existent and unless
there is a semblance of habitation, telecom service providers are not willing to
lay extensive networks. DS Constructions has setup its own WAN at remote sites.
They use the RailTel network, taking bandwidth from the nearest railway
stations. The communications between the mast at the remote office and the
railway station takes place over radio links. The setup is a bit costly but
sturdy and worth using at such places.
Hindustan Construction Company too faces similar problems. But their
connectivity solutions depend on facilities available at a remote site. If
available, they use terrestrial options such as point to point lease-lines (VPN)
amongst different locations. However, if terrestrial options are completely
unavailable they go in for VSAT and radio frequency communication. In fact, at
some sites VSAT is used even for audio connectivity. Gammon India has a
centralized structure for data transfer and communications. Information from
remote sites as well as the head office is stored on the central server in the
datacenter, which is located in Mumbai. The company has deployed SiTE, an
integrated suite of business applications that provide end-to-end coverage of
the specific needs of engineering and construction companies. As 80 per cent of
its project sites are in remote areas, Gammon uses lease lines from the head
office to the service provider and from there they use VSAT for connectivity to
remote sites.
Taking on the Seas |
Hindustan Construction
Company's ambitious project, the Bandra-Worli Sealink, has witnessed usage
of state-of-the-art technology
Hindustan Construction Company is an eighty-year-old company with a current
portfolio consists of 6 Hydel Project contracts, 4 Nuclear Project
contracts, 20 Transportation Project contracts and 4 Water Supply and
Irrigation Project contracts amongst many others. The company's CIO, Satish
Pendse attributes a large extent of HCC's success to IT. Right from
centralization of data to connectivity and remote-site monitoring.
|
Bandra-Worli Sealink is the
first bridge in the open sea, linking Bandra and other western suburbs
with Worli and downtown Mumbai |
Innovation being a verb at HCC, the company
has initiated a new way of communicating with its employees both in the HO
as well as remote sites through “Digital Notice boards”, which were
implemented in March 2007. These notice boards are controlled from the HO.
Information about projects, messages from
Chairman, happenings in construction industry are put in audio-visual format
on these notice boards. HCC has data communication infrastructure which has
been created for SAP, email, Internet etc. The same infrastructure is also
leveraged for digital boards. The network, which remains less utilized at
night, is used to program news then. The news can be customized according to
various locations. For eg, in road sector projects the people involved would
be interested to know about updates in other road projects. It is controlled
through one PC at HO from where news is disseminated to other locations.
Its mammoth project Bandra-Worli Sealink (BWSL)
has witnessed use of breakthrough technology throughout including the much
talked about Asian Hercules. It is the first bridge in the open sea, linking
Bandra and other western suburbs with Worli and downtown Mumbai. Equipment
worth Rs. 170 crore has been utilized in this project. The main area of work
is in the sea. Both manpower and material needs to be supplied frequently
from land to sea where work is happening at different points. All the
transportation is facilitated through barges.
These 12 to 15 barges keep on supplying
material at various points on need basis. These barges are either at Bandra
end or Worli end. If the barges take longer time then the entire cycle time
gets affected. Inside the sea the work starts when the barges supply the
material to the specific point. If they do not follow proper path or get
delayed by an hour the work also gets delayed. To solve this issue, HCC
deployed imported GPS & GPRS based tracking devices on 5 of the barges. The
device keeps tracking GPS co-ordinates as to their positions alongwith time
and date. This information is updated on the intranet wherein it is mapped
on a Google type of map. It helps in knowing the exact status of a barge. If
at all, there is demand for a barge at any of the supply locations then the
central point can see which is the nearest barge and communicate to them to
go to the needed place thereby reducing the time. If some barge is stuck at
some point of time, then another could be sent. “Literal movement is visible
through these devices, as movement being critical to the overall cycle
timing. HCC started using it about a month back and after successful trial
has decided to deploy it in all barges”, states Mr. Pendse.
Another technology over which created much
hype was Asian Hercules, a crane to lift launching truss, which is used to
put blocks on the pillars, had been deployed. There are only eight such
cranes in the world. The company hired the crane from a Singapore-based
firm, Keppel and Smit, at the rate of approximately Rs. 12 crore for two
months. Apart from this, IP cameras were also deployed at BWSL site for
remote-site monitoring. Using Wi-Fi they were connected to project manager's
cabin and also to the head office using lease lines. Remote site monitoring
using IP cameras would also be implemented in other two projects.
How did you
centralize information to share it amongst various departments?
To centralize information and use it among various departments, HCC
deployed the SAP ERP solution in 2006. It is located at the central
server in head office, from where all sites and departments access
information. For document sharing, HCC uses a document management
system, again provided by SAP. It is currently being used for selected
departments and will later be extended to other departments. Document
sharing amongst project sites and the head office, and the document
repository is done through it.
How are HCC's remote sites connected to the main office?
HCC's remote sites are located in places like Kargil, Baramullah and
Assam. None of these sites provide quality connectivity options. The
company prefers terrestrial connectivity which is point to point
lease-lines (VPN) and then gives preference to VSAT and radio
communication. At some sites VSAT is used even for audio connectivity.
Do you outsource IT to handle any of
your projects?
In this era of outsourcing, HCC outsources a part of its IT
activities, which are held lowly in the IT value chain. Also, activities
which are strategically not important from IT perspective are
outsourced. Hardware management, facilities management and coding is
also outsourced. Core parts like systems architecture and functional
business process mapping are not outsourced. |
|
Satish Pendse
CIO |
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Adeesh Sharma and Jasmine Desai