ASC-RO – Taking Archibus Beyond Retail FM

Archibus Solution Center Romania – Archibus As More Than Just A Solution For FM In Retail

This latest Retail blog post will concentrate on the approach taken by our partner in Romania, ASC-RO. Archibus Solution Center – Romania is the leading provider of integrated workplace management systems in their country. They also play a crucial role in supporting Archibus activities across the whole of Eastern Europe and have done since their inception in 2007.

ASC-RO has used Archibus as a platform to develop two key products to meet the needs of the retail market as they define it.  Like our other partners they provide solutions to traditional retail chains as well as shopping centres and strip malls. However, ASC-RO has expanded the definition of “retail” to include many other customer fronting organisations with properties such as banks and insurance companies, telecoms, pharmacy; in fact, anyone with a “retail” presence.

“Interruptions in the supply chain can cause huge damage and cost. We deliver wide-ranging solutions to alert stakeholders and to help to minimise losses.” – Anna-Maria Linek, ASC-RO

This is important because the scope of a retail solution becomes wider.  ASC-RO supports the typical retail functions that can be seen in our earlier blog posts: lease management and finance, maintenance management, cost recovery and compliance. In fact, ASC-RO has created an application in Archibus called Lease to Cash to enhance the transactional capability of the software for this purpose.

But they have shown that the solution can include many processes that are transversal across retail outlets, offices, and residential properties as well as industrial assets. These processes can also span the whole supply chain outside of traditional facilities management. ASC-RO has introduced Archibus and associate technologies to make this happen. What is clear is that the risks and cost associated with some of these processes is of a different level to those encountered in “traditional” FM. Therefore, the business impact of the solution can be even greater.

An exercise in electricity consumption benchmarking was used by ASC-RO to help one client manage the cost of production in stores where foodstuffs and other items were finished locally. Their IoT hub, working in tandem with Archibus provided detailed analysis of the production processes and the associated power required. This was achieved by linking Archibus to smart meters through the IoT hub.

Another example is the project undertaken by ASC-RO to help manage the chain of refrigeration from supplier to supermarket shelves. This was once again facilitated by use of the IoT hub but enhanced by the Graphical Workflow Engine. This provides for temperature range monitoring through integrating IoT and sensors. The Graphical Workflow Engine provides automated workflows to produce real time alerts and notifications issues.

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While it seems that players in the retail environment share a common business model, ASC-RO has experienced significant difference when it comes to supporting Malls. These arise in anything from cost recovery and service chargeback to lease management or insuring compliance or performance warranty. Even with maintenance management it is not just about managing ticket flows.

In the required analysis there are many stakeholders and consequently many variables. This results in a range of calculations and algorithms that require constant analysis and not just a year end reconciliation.

Archibus Partners- Constantly Innovating

Once again, we see that our partners can combine business and market knowledge with state-of-the-art technology to provide real value for their clients. The story of the Archibus partner ecosystem is one of building close relationships with clients and bringing a high level of innovation to bear. This innovation allows our partners and clients to get the very best out of the technology, and ASC-RO and their clients are no exception.

Our final blog post on this subject will summarise the impact that our partners have had on this important market sector. Watch this space!