How to... increase profit margins through digital services

Looking at the benefits purely from the perspective of the end-user misses out part of the ‘story’. This is the case whether it’s a blue-chip brand such as a large hotel chain, or an ambitious privately owned small to medium sized enterprise (SME).

So, let’s make it clear: the move to digital, cloud-based building management services also makes commercial sense for those companies who support and enable it. We are talking here about our network of Priva Partners. Many of you are already helping to make the digital transformation happen – and then ensure it keeps on delivering afterwards.

What follows, then, is a series of points that you, as a Priva Partner might like to keep in mind when developing your interests in digital services… 

1. Digital services will mean an easier, more defined relationship with your customer.

Once a company has moved to digital services (in particular, cloud-based technologies) a lot of the unexpected challenges will be eliminated. For example, the time-consuming and ‘call out’ heavy responsibility of dealing with on-site hardware is bound to be reduced.   This is because our secure cloud functionality gives you the flexible ability for your technical site engineers to assist customers with any without the need to physically visit the site. 

The result: Your relationships with end-customers are likely to evolve into more tightly defined agreements in which a lot of the work can occur off-site. And it gives you as the partner the ability to handle multiple buildings simultaneously, keep a smaller responsive team and reduce your overheads. 

2. Financial margins are set to improve.

Migrating building services to off-site infrastructure will bring a lot of benefits for service & support companies like yours. With a lot of the ‘heavy work’ taking place in a data center elsewhere, there will be far less requirement on-site visits – scheduled or otherwise. A lot of the changes and day-to-day management will be able to take place at your headquarters or, in this brave new ‘work from home’ era, from the home of one of your employees.

The result: The time it takes to fix issues and resolve problems can be significantly reduced – thereby making a useful contribution to your profit margins.

Plus, your time on the road and fuel costs may well decrease too (which is great for sustainability and your project profit margins). This has to be welcome news when you consider the dramatic recent rises in fuel prices.

3. Potential problems can be dealt with more quickly.

Less travel and access to a more capable (ie. cloud-based) platform will mean there is more time for managing infrastructure remotely. This will increase the likelihood of potential problems being spotted at an early stage. And if issues are detected, it will be easier and quicker for you to resolve them.  For example, our Priva Building Operator software - in combination with Priva Notification Center - mean you will be notified of issues straight away – anytime, anywhere. You can easily navigate to the source of the customer’s problem in just a few seconds. 

The result: The entire process of running and managing your customer support contracts will be streamlined – which brings us back to the whole exciting opportunity for improved margins. 

4. Maintaining customer security will be easier.

Protecting companies against cyber threats is becoming more difficult. Types of threats – from ransomware to DDoS (distributed denial of service) attacks – are increasing all the time. Embracing digital services such as cloud-based building management technologies removes a big area of concern. Many of these services are founded on globally renowned cloud technologies – in the case of Priva Digital Services, Microsoft Azure.  

The result: With our cloud-based building management technologies your customer is assured of the highest level of protection against cyber threats. And this is backed up by dedicated teams who are always focused on finding and dealing with the next form of attack. 

To conclude, as well as offering improved margins and ease of project management, our Priva Digital Services – for example Priva Building Operator - which offers real-time insight into the status of building systems and allows you to make essential adjustments from any device - can deliver greater peace of mind for your customers and yourself.