About four years ago, Spotr came into contact with housing association the Alliantie. The Alliantie program manager Fred Jak saw many opportunities to benefit from the use of Spotr in collaboration with maintenance partners. One of those maintenance partners is Logchies Renovation & Maintenance. Logchies is now one of the most frequent Spotr users. Paulina Logchies, general manager, and Jan van der Kolk, ICT manager at Logchies tell us about their Spotr journey: “For us, Spotr is a development we strongly believe in. By having the correct data and visualizing it, we can work more efficiently and effectively.”
Ever since 2013, the Alliantie has been working with long-term maintenance partners. The Alliantie went from more than 30 partners for maintenance and renovation, back to 18 permanent partners: the so-called ‘co-makers’. In 2019, the Alliantie continued to develop this success formula by entering into an even closer collaboration with 12 co-makers for roof installation, interior and facade. Logchies is one of those partners for systematic and daily maintenance.
Programming maintenance plans together
Paulina Logchies explains how this has changed the collaboration in recent years.
“Our cooperation with the Alliantie is now about much more than being a partner that can get the operational job done. We are asked to strategize with them. Important pillars for strategizing are a new customer approach, high quality data, innovation and joint programming. For example, we inspect buildings much earlier together. This way, we know what to do with estates on time and can bring preparations forward. This helps us to prepare maintenance plans years ahead.”
All data and images in one place
Specialists from the Alliantie, Logchies and other co-creators meet every two weeks to discuss the estates they’ll be working on until 2050. The input for these meetings comes from, among others, Spotr.
Spotr maps the real estate portfolio of the Alliantie with all kinds of data, for example satellite, aircraft and drone images. All data and images are collected in one place. This way, the Alliantie and its co-makers always have the same, up-to-date data. What does the estate look like, what’s its current state, what are maintenance requirements? Which homes need a paint job? Where are too many leaves in the gutter? Which houses are at risk of subsiding and which roofs include fall protection?
All parties working with the same measurements
Working with images took some getting used to, but now the co-creators are the most frequent users of Spotr.
Paulina: “When the Alliantie suggested to start working with Spotr, we immediately thought it would be a good idea. But it’s of course the operational team that has to work with it in the end. We therefore started by simply experiencing what it’s like to receive the data from Spotr. Is it complete? Does it work well? What data do we actually need?”
“For example, with Spotr we can determine measurements very quickly. Square meters of masonry, square meters of flat roof, square meters of window frame. How many linear meters of gutter, how many doors an estate has. In the beginning we measured everything ourselves as well and the measurements from Spotr turned out to be correct. Which is great, because as co-makers, we can now rely on the fact that we’re all working with the same measurements.”
Confusion is a thing of the past
IT Manager of Logchies, Jan van der Kolk, saw enthusiasm increasing in the team. “In the beginning it was difficult to imagine that a drone could deliver better measurements than us. But when we noticed that Spotr’s measurements are almost 100% reliable, we immediately thought: why not use it? Another advantage is that measurements are now unambiguous. Co-makers usually all measure slightly differently. That used to cause confusion and discussions, but with Spotr’s measurements this is now a thing of the past.”
Easier discussion with visual data
“What we’ve noticed is that it’s much easier talking about our portfolio when we’re looking at actual visual footage of the buildings. We quickly get a picture and feel of a certain estate and can give better advice. During consultation sessions, in which we develop the maintenance program together with the Alliantie and other co-makers, we use the images to explore possibilities. Having these images leads to a common agreement very quickly. They also provide input for asking better questions to our subcontractors at a much earlier stage. For example asking the scaffolder: 'How would you build the scaffolding here?”
Smarter, better, faster
Jan knows: it’s an evolution, not a revolution. “This is the new way of working. It’s a matter of gaining confidence step by step and learning and thinking together. Originally, we didn't want the mobile phone either, now we can't live without. It’s the same for data and images to determine and monitor the quality of real estate. You can see more, work faster, smarter and compare data. And more importantly: the client can monitor quality and maintain control. This way, we have more time doing what we were born to do: build and maintain properties.”
Turning into a data-driven company
Paulina: “Some companies might be afraid of losing business due to the increasing importance of data. But data and technology always go hand in hand. You need knowledge of real estate maintenance to interpret Spotr's data and create scenarios with it. In fact, using Spotr saves time, allowing our specialists to focus on the things that matter most.”
“I also see it as an opportunity for our hiring process. Becoming a data-driven company sets us apart. We’ve supported people in our organization to become data experts. We are creating different jobs in the construction industry that are interesting for new groups of jobseekers.”
Looking ahead
“For us, Spotr is a development we strongly believe in,” Jan continues. “By using data and making data visual, we can work more efficiently and effectively. And clients are more able to monitor the quality of maintenance.
“That’s also an important development if you look at the shortages on the labor market,” Paulina adds. “With Spotr, you can quickly see how the property is doing, what the pros and cons of maintenance are and, for example, what the most effective way is to achieve sustainability goals.”
Opportunities and solutions
“Within two or three years, we hope to be able to translate Spotr’s data directly into maintenance scenarios. The collaboration with Spotr is very pleasant. Even though some things might not be possible right now, we’re still working on making them possible in the future as a company. Spotr is like that as well. We both think in terms of opportunities and solutions. And the communication is fast and clear. If we need anything, Spotr immediately goes to work to get it done.”
Read more in the Alliantie casestudy
The Alliantie went from 5 real estate inspectors to 1 drone pilot. Read the full interview here with Fred Jak, program manager, and Paul Loos, drone pilot at the Alliantie.
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