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Lendlease enhances its mall operations and security through smart technology

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Lendlease is introducing housekeeping and security robots at its  shopping malls – 313@somerset, Jem®, Parkway Parade and PLQ Mall. By utilising these robots, the  malls will be able to adhere to safe distancing requirements, and also greatly boost the efficiency of  cleaning and facility management employees through optimal resource planning. This underscores  Lendlease’s constant push in innovation to build a skilled workforce aided by technology, whilst tackling  new challenges ahead for the post-pandemic shopping experience. 

Lendlease has made investments in other smart technologies such as RFID (radio-frequency  identification) tagging and IoT dashboard monitoring for waste management. These have greatly  boosted sustainability efforts at Lendlease’s malls and constitute part of the Group’s mission to offer  both shoppers and staff better standards of health, safety, and operational efficiencies. 

Jenny Khoo, Head of Asset Operations, Singapore, Lendlease said, “Lendlease has always been a  big believer in innovation. It is more important than before to stay ahead of the curve in ensuring that we  continue to provide a safe and unparalleled shopping experience. The use of different forms of smart  technologies – robots, AI-enhanced interfaces – can help us realise the vision with customers at the  heart of our approach, adding value for them and Lendlease.” 

Aside from adopting robotic technology, Lendlease will be participating in the National Environment  Agency (NEA) and Enterprise SG’s Sustainability Open Innovation Challenge (SOIC), to crowdsource  for innovative sustainability solutions and build a more sustainable future for the world. 

With Covid-19 accelerating technology use across different industries, malls alike must consider delivering better and safer solutions with the well-being of shoppers in mind. This is also in line with the  digital transformation of Singapore’s retail sector, a key pillar for the nation’s long-term economic growth  strategy. 

SensorFlow Raises US$2.7 Million to Create Smart Hotels Across Southeast Asia

SensorFlow Raises US$2.7 Million to Create Smart Hotels Across Southeast Asia

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SensorFlow, a Singapore-based, smart energy management startup, announced recently that it has secured a further US$2.7 million of Series A funding to accelerate its regional growth and achieve its mission to make Asian hotels smart and energy efficient.

The company’s performance enhancing solutions deliver up to 30 percent in energy savings and up to 40 percent reduction in maintenance costs. The funds raised will boost SensorFlow’s rapidly expanding operations enabling the company to meet the needs of a growing customer base of major hotel chains in Singapore, Indonesia and Hong Kong. It will also help drive the company’s entry into new markets including Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and the Philippines which will bring the company closer to its goal of 800,000 smart hotel rooms by 2022.

The new funding is led by private investor Pierre Lorinet followed by Playfair Capital, Cocoon Capital, Entrepreneur First, 2be.lu Investments, Aurum Land and Insitu Asia Holdings. This brings the total funds raised till date to US$3.5 million. Last year’s initial seed funding was led by Cocoon Capital and followed by SG Innovate and SparkLabs under the Entrepreneur First accelerator programme.

Co-founder and CEO of SensorFlow, Saikrishnan Ranganathan, said, “With this investment we are in an even stronger position for market expansion to help more hotels within the region reach their sustainability goals. We look forward to building partnerships, pursuing opportunities with synergistic companies and working with local sustainability schemes across the region to further champion energy efficiency and make smart green hotels a standard practice in the industry. We also have our eyes set on entering Sri Lanka, India, United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia within the next two years.”

Over the past year, SensorFlow started deploying property-wide solutions for The Uncharted Co’s 5footway.inn in Singapore and completed trials in three Alila Hotels & Resorts properties in Bali, driving a 30 percent reduction in energy costs. The company also tripled its staff and made key executive appointments in operations, engineering and sales. The team is currently in the midst of securing contracts with hotels and property developers in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand.

The SensorFlow solution solves three key challenges that earlier prevented hoteliers from implementing effective, integrated energy management solutions. The first is the large upfront costs for hardware followed by the inconvenience of a long installation period. The last key challenge has been the lack of integration options with existing systems.

“With energy consumption accounting for more than 60 percent of utility costs, hoteliers constantly seek to improve their energy efficiency. However, they often grapple with the challenge of incurring high costs and disruptions when implementing new energy solutions. This is why we created an innovative, retrofit solution that is easily installed in a matter of minutes and which seamlessly integrates into existing infrastructure. We use wireless sensors to collect real-time data and artificial intelligence (AI) to automate decision-making. This is offered in a zero-upfront cost subscription model – catering to hotels that are unable or unwilling to tap into larger capital expenditure budgets,” added Ranganathan.

According to the International Energy Agency, Southeast Asia’s energy demand is expected to grow by nearly 60 percent by 2040. With the building sector accounting for approximately 25 percent of Asia’s overall energy consumption, there is great potential for solutions that can create more sustainable energy consumption.

2018 McKinsey Global Report Shows Smart Solutions Can Help Boost Quality Of Life In SEA Cities

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Southeast Asia’s future is tied to the fate of its cities. Today the region’s urban areas are home to one-third of its total population but generate more than two-thirds of the region’s GDP. Urbanisation is fueling economic growth, but the breakneck pace has left many cities struggling to provide adequate housing, infrastructure, and services to meet the needs of a surging population.

While the urban challenges across Southeast Asia have been growing in scope, new technologies that could tackle some of these issues have reached maturity. Smart cities in Southeast Asia, a new report from the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI), in collaboration with the Centre for Liveable Cities in Singapore, finds that cities across the region can incorporate data and digital technologies into infrastructure and services—all with an eye to solving specific public problems and making the urban environment more livable, sustainable, and productive.

The research, which studies dozens of current applications, finds that cities in the region could use digital solutions to improve some quality- of-life indicators by 10-30 percent. It expands on global research released last month by MGI on how the current generation of smart city technologies can perform in a variety of urban settings worldwide.

Smart Cities are Poised to Have Significant and Broad-based Impact in Southeast Asia
Cities across Southeast Asia are primed to take advantage on smart solutions. Dozens of smart solutions are available today focusing on every domain of city life: mobility, social infrastructure, the built environment, utilities, security, community, and the economy.

As they begin their smart transformation, each city is setting its own priorities regarding which ones to deploy. MGI finds that smart cities could have a substantial impact across Southeast Asia to deliver a better quality-of-life. Among its findings:

  • Smart solutions could remove up to some 270,000 kilotons of greenhouse gas emissions annually.
  • Some 5,000 lives lost each year to traffic accidents, fires, and homicides could be saved through mobility solutions, crime prevention, and better emergency response.
  • Intelligent traffic and transit solutions could save up to 8 million man-years in annual commuting time.
  • Deploying smart healthcare solutions for the urban population could reduce the region’s disease burden by 12 million disability-adjusted life years—in other words, not only extending overall life expectancy but adding years of good health.

By creating more efficient and productive environments for business and hiring, Southeast Asia could add almost 1.5 million jobs. Residents could also save as much as $16 billion annually as smart solutions contribute to better housing options and lowering energy bills.

The current generation of smart applications can help cities make significant or moderate progress toward meeting 70 percent of the Sustainable Development Goals.

“Urbanisation can propel Southeast Asia to the level of economic and human development, but only if growth is managed well,” said Jonathan Woetzel, Senior Partner and Leader of McKinsey’s Special Cities Initiative. “Cities need to act now to address growing environmental stresses and particularly to combat climate change and improve their resilience.”

Rooting Digital Solutions in Southeast Asian Realities
There is already a wave of innovation across the region. It includes digital citizen apps, homegrown ride-hailing apps, data-driven transit planning, intelligent traffic systems, data-driven disaster risk assessment, advanced construction techniques, smart energy meters, and much more.

Low-income cities may be able to jumpstart progress by creating open data portals, which make raw information available for private-sector innovation that does not require any public investment.

The report notes that private-sector companies that find ways to contribute to the public good and expand choices for urban residents can find substantial market opportunities across Southeast Asia. MGI estimates that smart mobility applications could create up to $70 billion in value, while opportunities to make the built environment smarter could be worth more than $25 billion.

But the report cautions that companies with aspirations to become urban solution providers need to navigate a dynamic and complex ecosystem. Companies need an intimate understanding of a city’s context so they can anchor their offerings and value proposition to the real needs of residents, and they may need to add new government relations capabilities.

Bold Action Required by Public and Private Sectors
A smart city starts with a smart strategic vision and goals. While it is important for city governments to outline a vision for the future, the rapid pace of technological change means that they have to retain some flexibility to experiment and recalibrate.

Taking a data-driven approach that continually measures progress against clear quality-of-life goals can guide that process. Cities also need to consider how to pair smart technologies with complementary policies and investment in hard infrastructure.

“Cities facing tough budgetary choices will have to prioritise the practical over the flashiest new technologies,” said Mukund Sridhar, Partner and Leader of McKinsey’s Infrastructure Practice in Southeast Asia. “Installing digital systems behind the scenes to manage traffic, coordinate networks of hospitals, or cut down on bureaucratic paperwork may yield more impact than highly visible touchscreens on the street.”

Neither the public nor the private sector can build smart cities alone. City governments will have to continue providing many critical services, but they do not have to fund and operate every type of service and infrastructure system. Smart cities will change the parameters of how cities across Southeast Asia approach public-private partnerships.

Despite their varied starting points, priorities, and capabilities, cities across Southeast Asia can cooperate to deploy smart solutions on a much bigger scale. The most advanced cities may be able to assist others in developing technological capabilities and specific apps, but it will also be valuable for the region’s lower-income cities to share with each other what they are learning about where digital innovation can yield the greatest impact. Green shoots are already visible, and the recently launched ASEAN Smart Cities Network can provide a vehicle for accelerating progress.

McKinsey Global Institute Media release | Page 3 The report will be available for download at www.mckinsey.com/mgi