Facilities management company Cloudfm and university of the year, University of Essex, have formed a technology-driven partnership to bring state-of-the-art artificial intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT) capabilities to some of the world’s most recognisable brands.
Following a £195,000 award by the UK government’s innovation agency, Innovate UK, Cloudfm will form a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) with the University’s leading AI academics. Together, they will research and build advanced monitoring, control and prediction solutions, to implement across complex estate assets. The partnership will support Cloudfm’s ambitious IT development programme, in which the firm is investing £3m per year, and that will see the company realise its goal to provide the most proactive and efficient FM solution in the market.
PizzaExpress, one of the most popular casual-dining brands in the UK, is working with Cloudfm to implement IoT in its estate of restaurants. Siobhan Fagan, Group IT Director at PizzaExpress said: “The Internet of Things offers the potential for truly transformative gains in business. The scope for organisations to simultaneously reduce costs, increase quality and control risk is tremendous – not for nothing have these technologies been identified as a key element of what some have called the Fourth Industrial Revolution. This initiative extends our long-standing partnership with Cloudfm, building on the company’s cutting-edge facilities management technology platform, to bring new efficiencies to this and other key processes in our business.”
As part of the KTP, Cloudfm has appointed two full-time associates to pioneer the innovation. Steven Corbett, Chief Information Officer at Cloudfm said: “We are delighted to be working in partnership with the University of Essex. Environmental sustainability is at the heart of our innovation programme; delivering a solution that enables our clients to run smarter, more energy efficient buildings. Through intelligent, connected devices our clients can reduce waste, improve financial sustainability and minimise their carbon footprint.”
