Digital Twins in Property Management with Alecta Fastigheter

Alecta Fastigheter is investing in data coordination through digital twins to enable better analysis and data-driven decisions across its property portfolio. To make data from the physical properties accessible, the company collaborates with external facility management contractors, who also have the opportunity to use the tool to streamline their own work.

"We use the twins for our systematic fire safety work — it saves time and you can really feel confident that you've checked everything."
— Joel Forsberg, operations technician at Retta

Better oversight and control, as well as efficiency gains and cost savings, are among the primary drivers for property owners investing in digitalisation.

"By taking control of our data and making it accessible so that everyone in the organisation can see how our properties are performing, we can identify problems at an early stage and take the right measures to reduce costs and create a better long-term experience for our tenants."
— Mattias Bergström, Head of Technology Development and Safety at Alecta Fastigheter

Alecta Fastigheter is running a project in which digital twins are being built in proptech company Vyer's platform, with the aim of achieving a real-time overview of the properties that supports analysis and decision-making.

"We chose Vyer because it's the best fit for where we are today — it's easy to work with and doesn't lock in our data. There's also a genuine responsiveness to us as a property owner when it comes to adapting and developing the platform."
— Mattias Bergström

He emphasises that a prerequisite for data-driven working is that information collected across different systems can be made accessible and used freely across platforms and services.

"Our goal is to become a leader in digitalisation within the property sector. Owning our data is critically important. One advantage of being a relatively new company is that we've been able to start from scratch — we're not locked into a range of legacy systems, and we can choose the ones that are most suitable, have good APIs and are easy to integrate with from the outset."
— Mattias Bergström

Collaborating with external contractors to centralise data

The digital twins make it possible to map and visualise business-critical information in digital floor plans, as well as connected outdoor environments.

Fixed geometries, structures and components are drawn from BIM models, while dynamic data for spaces, technical equipment, processes and routines is retrieved from integrated systems and through ongoing mapping and updates by staff in the field.

Since Alecta Fastigheter uses external contractors for its facility management operations, it is also important to bring those partners along on the digitalisation journey, Bergström notes.

"We work with several facility management companies, and they have solutions that vary in how easy they are to integrate with. Today it's sufficient that we can extract data from their systems, but I also think that suppliers with their own platforms have a journey ahead of them in adapting to property owners' digitalisation needs."
— Mattias Bergström

Retta is one of the companies that was asked to use the tool as part of Alecta's digital twin rollout.

"It's very important for us to bring them along on the digitalisation journey. Retta working more digitally is an advantage in making as much property data as possible accessible."
— Mattias Bergström

Increased control and confidence in fire safety management

As an external service provider, Retta is responsible for inspection and maintenance, reactive maintenance, operational optimisation, and preventive and statutory rounds across its clients' properties.

"We do a lot of rounds, so there are quite a few checks over the course of a year. We round our plant rooms once a week, go through common areas, carry out sprinkler and systematic fire safety checks, among other things."
— Joel Forsberg, operations technician at Retta

For Retta, the focus has been on inventorying and mapping technical equipment and fire safety components, as well as planning and conducting systematic fire safety rounds with support from the twins.

"We hadn't had a dedicated programme for systematic fire safety or component inventory in these properties before. It's very easy to miss things without a checklist — that's the biggest difference."
— Joel Forsberg

Joel Forsberg, operations technician at Retta, conducting a systematic fire safety round with support from a digital twin. Photo: Vyer

In Vyer's platform, the facility management team can now follow a checklist of control points for systematic fire safety, while simultaneously seeing the location of each point in the property's digital twin.

"It saves time and you can really feel confident that you've checked everything. Anyone can easily see what needs to be done using the map on their phone — it also makes it easier to cover for colleagues when someone is off sick."
— Joel Forsberg