Hemsö scales digital twins across the entire portfolio

Following a pilot project with Vyer, Hemsö is investing in digital twins for operations and facility management across its entire portfolio. Drawings for nearly 200 buildings have already been modernised, and extensive work is under way to connect the twins with data from other systems.

"We have now reached a critical mass where we can start working with the full power of a digital twin in earnest," says Fredrik Hörnsten, CDO at the property company.

Hemsö, with a lettable area of 2.2 million square metres, has several ongoing digital initiatives to streamline the company's information management. Over the past year, they have chosen to scale up their collaboration with proptech company Vyer on digital twins.

Digital twins for nearly 200 buildings are now available, and around 400 operations technicians and property managers have access to Vyer's platform, where they can access accurate drawings as well as up-to-date and relevant building information.

"We are taking a comprehensive approach to being able to manage properties more remotely and moving towards more data-driven ways of working to streamline operations and facility management," says Hörnsten.

The twins now serve as the hub for coordinating, structuring and sharing information that is critical for operations and facility management. Data is collected through imports and integrations with other systems, as well as through staff contributing their own knowledge — what is known as crowdsourcing of data.

Collective mapping of property data

This method allows local property managers — who have detailed knowledge of Hemsö's properties and know which information is most important — to quickly gather large amounts of data and keep it up to date.

"The digital twins help me become a more digital property manager. For some properties I can save up to four hours by avoiding unnecessary trips when the right data is in the twin — and we now have the ability to influence that ourselves," says Johan Tollbom, technical property manager at Hemsö.

This addresses challenges that previously existed around time-consuming and costly updating of drawings and documentation of other building data — spaces, equipment, planned maintenance and more.

"The digital twins provide a visual context that makes it easy for staff both to absorb information and to contribute to the mapping," says Hörnsten.

Connecting systems to create new value

Work is also under way to connect the twins with other systems. Data for thousands of rental units has been imported from Hemsö's rental administration system, giving the facility management organisation access to up-to-date information directly in the platform. The long-term goal is for the digital twin to serve as the primary interface through which staff access and update property information — regardless of which underlying system holds the data.