SWG’s General Manager for North America, Kelly Widger, speaks to Canadian Facility Management and Design magazine about how access to accurate operational data increasingly defines service performance for FM and P3s.
In many PPP (public-private partnership) environments, facilities already contain huge amounts of operational data. The problem is that it’s trapped in digital pockets around the building. Connected buildings and digital twin environments are helping to bridge the gap between static building information and live operational data.
The cost of siloed systems
For FM teams managing complex PPP infrastructure, even routine tasks can become unnecessarily time-consuming when critical information is spread across multiple systems, spreadsheets and departments. A study from the International Data Corporation found that “data professionals are losing 50 per cent of their time every week” – 30 per cent of the time searching for, governing and preparing data, and 20 per cent duplicating work.
While FMs may not describe themselves as data professionals, access to accurate operational data increasingly defines service performance. As teams spend more time pursuing information, the limitations of siloed data become harder to ignore. Maintenance records sit in a CAFM system, performance data lives in a BAS, contractors store compliance documents in SharePoint, and building floor plans remain tucked away in a drawer – meaning fast, informed decision-making becomes almost impossible.
Often, it’s easier to duplicate the data – manually take the reading, repeat the measurement or carry out the inspection again – rather than waste time and mental energy in jumping through hoops to get it from the source. This is why more FMs are embarking upon a digitalisation journey, aiming to make an integrated, accurate single source of truth for all their building data. A rip-and-replace approach to upgrade existing systems to communicate with each other can be prohibitively expensive (and often unrealistic mid-contract) so many FMs are instead looking for best-of-breed integrations.
From reactive maintenance to predictive insight
Time sensitive environments like PPPs or healthcare FM contracts mean there is no slack when it comes to resourcing. According to the US Department of Energy, reported by IFMA, reactive maintenance costs around 20 per cent more than preventative maintenance, and the National Institute of Standards Technology found that those relying on reactive maintenance experienced 3.3 times more downtime and 16 times more defects. But planned preventative maintenance (PPM) also comes with its own problems.
Regular PPM schedules are more reliable than waiting for a fault to develop but they can use spares unnecessarily and waste engineering time where maintenance is not required. Over-maintaining can also shorten asset life, such as over-lubricating a bearing in a pump.
This is where connected sensors and real-time operational data are starting to change the picture. By monitoring factors such as vibration, temperature, energy consumption and runtime hours, facilities teams can gain a far clearer understanding of how assets are performing, rather than relying solely on fixed maintenance intervals. Combined with AI-driven analytics, this data can help identify patterns and early warning signs that would be almost impossible to spot manually across large estates or multiple buildings.
Reducing risk in performance-based or PPP contracts
Service providers are often penalised with deductions because they cannot adequately monitor or measure what they are doing. In the past, facilities managers used off-the-shelf software to manage all the operational contract elements. Now, a combination of building information modelling (BIM), the emergence of digital twins, and sophisticated CAFM, which offer in-built payment mechanism capabilities, provide extra layers of data integrity and auditability.
Integrated with BIM, organisations can streamline the transition from construction to building operation, with a wealth of asset and building lifecycle data as well as an intelligent 3D model. This allows contractors to remotely visit the site before arrival to assess what resources they may need, any permits required, and verify part serial numbers to check inventory. For large sites such as hospitals or universities, the model can even be used for wayfinding so tight SLAs are not failed due to contractors getting lost.
From building data to operational Intelligence
Unlike static BIM models, digital twins ingest live operational data from connected systems and sensors to create a real-time representation of building performance. This allows operators to move beyond simply viewing building information towards actively monitoring and analyzing how facilities are functioning day-to-day.
While AI is still sometimes viewed as experimental within FM, adoption is quickly accelerating. By combining lifecycle, maintenance and live operational data into a unified platform, AI tools can dramatically reduce the time spent searching for information or compiling reports manually. Instead of navigating multiple systems, FM teams can query the data conversationally to identify trends, investigate recurring faults or generate operational insights in seconds. Questions could be strategic – such as “which assets are developing faults most often and who is servicing them?” – or more operational, such as “the lift door won’t close properly, show me the steps to resolve this.”
Across large estates, AI can also detect recurring failures in the same asset type, potentially identifying defective components or systemic operational issues much earlier. It may even identify that mean time between failures consistently drops after a particular contractor services an asset category, helping operators uncover supplier quality issues that would otherwise remain hidden.
The sustainability challenge no single system can solve
Sustainability is now a top priority for Canadian PPP operators, but fragmented data is making it difficult to manage. Increasingly, facilities teams must demonstrate measurable improvements in energy use, carbon emissions and asset performance while maintaining ageing estates and delivering against long-term contracts that predate today’s sustainability targets.
This is where digital twin environments and integrated lifecycle platforms are starting to provide significant value. Rather than replacing every existing system, more organisations are creating integrated data environments that bring operational, asset and energy information together into a single view. By connecting live IoT sensor data with BIM and maintenance systems, FM teams can better understand how buildings are performing in real time.
For Canadian healthcare estates, campuses and civic infrastructure operating across multiple buildings and regions, this visibility is particularly important. Digital twin technology can help operators identify underperforming HVAC assets, ensure occupancy comfort, compare energy performance across similar facilities and model how operational changes may affect carbon reduction targets before implementation. AI-driven analytics can also help uncover patterns that would otherwise remain hidden, such as ventilation systems operating inefficiently during low occupancy periods.
Connected data. Better decisions
The organisations seeing the greatest success are not necessarily those replacing every legacy system, but those finding ways to connect the data already available to them.
Bringing together BIM, IoT sensors, CAFM platforms and digital twin environments into a unified operational view, can help FM teams move beyond reactive decision-making towards more predictive, informed and proactive management. Whether improving maintenance strategies, reducing payment disputes or supporting sustainability goals, connected data is becoming the foundation of smarter PPP facility management.
