Nemetschek Group Introduces ‘Spacewell’—Brand Encompasses Building Operations and Management Segment

The Nemetschek Group of Germany has announced the introduction of the Spacewell brand, a new overarching brand for the building operations and management segment of the company’s various subsidiaries focused on the FM market.

Spacewell—A Nemetschek Company

“With the acquisition of Axxerion and the expansion of our offering, we felt the need to create a new, more encompassing segment brand,” said Koen Matthijs, CEO of Spacewell.

“The name Spacewell evokes our mission to help companies create healthier, happier and more productive spaces. By connecting to the Internet of Things (IoT) and leveraging real-time data from sensors and user devices, building management is becoming much smarter,” continues Matthijs.

01 – Nemetschek Spacewell, a new umbrella company within its holdings is focused on the FM market with IoT at its heart.

Spacewell says that their solution portfolio will enable clients to create smarter and healthier spaces with improved occupant well-being. “The whole sector is in a state of flux and we’re excited to launch Spacewell at this pivotal time,” said Matthijs. “It becomes the umbrella brand in the Nemetschek management segment, covering the Group’s activities in the rapidly evolving building operations market.”

Ambitions for Leadership in Management Segment

“When we acquired MCS Solutions nearly six months ago, the ambition was to become a leader in the building management segment, as Nemetschek did before with BIM in design and construction,” says Patrik Heider, Spokesman, and CFOO of the Nemetschek Group. “The launch of Spacewell is a milestone in our road to realizing this ambition; it creates the foundation for further opportunities and will fuel the expansion of the management segment. From a building life-cycle perspective, Spacewell is the final link for driving digitization through the entire building life cycle and closing the feedback loop from the usage phase back to building design.”

Products Under Spacewell Brand

Multiple Nemetschek subsidiary companies provide products under the Spacewell umbrella brand. These include now:

• Smart building product lines (Monitor/Assist/Transform), powered by the COBUNDU™ IoT platform
• MCS IoT-enabled IWMS, including a range of mobile apps for both FM teams and building occupants.
• Axxerion workflow-based SaaS for property and facility management
• iX-Haus software for commercial and technical real estate management
• O-Prognose long-term maintenance software
• Advisory services by independent consultants with deep domain expertise in smart working, facility management, maintenance, catering, cleaning, and security/risk management

These solutions, sub-brands, and products form comprehensive solutions under the Spacewell brand.

To learn more visit Spacwell online here: http://www.spacewell.com

Architosh Analysis and Commentary

The Nemetschek Group appears to be taking a slightly different approach to the management of its daughter companies with the emergence of Spacewell. The new brand not only consolidates its smaller companies—namely Axxerion and MCS Solutions—and total listings of daughter companies but reforges its brand-awareness under a completely new brand name. Spacewell does conjure up the notions behind occupant comfort particularly well and at the same time the use of the word “space” ties into BIM platforms allowing AEC professionals to take more stock in value and use of the space-defining object in BIM parlance. 

02 – Spacewell offers a range of products for FM professionals and apps for building occupants.

The press release made the note that the whole industry is in a state of flux. There are new rapidly emerging areas of IoT and FM that will begin to tie in AI (artificial intelligence) systems into building occupancy. These systems will have two major areas for advancement, both somewhat non-obvious to their compatibility, but we will see how AI will address that issue down the road. 

The first area is the use of AI-driven optimization, where sensor-based IoT systems will smartly adjust the building’s systems to holistically optimize the building’s energy consumption, for example. Such AI-based systems can tie into weather data and be anticipatory. With the emergence of occupant devices and sensors for occupant well-being, building FM systems can capture data that can help tighten responses to weather ahead of such events to prepare buildings optimally for environment-induced change (eg: preparing a building for a cold front ahead of work hours and optimally  raising heat levels while dialing them back as a building feels up with more employees who bring their own heat into the building.). 

This leads to the second path for IoT and AI, and that is occupant customization, systems that affect change in buildings (like turning lights on or off, adjusting temperatures, fenestration, AV systems, etc) and even set in motion appliances or machinery in buildings based on individuals needs. This path will have more importance where customization of occupancy experiences bear out in specific building types—like high-end hotels and individual residences. 

Spacewell appears to set up to move in both of these directions as this market matures and advances.