EverComm Singapore clinches IoT Award for hospitality and leisure in first-ever SBR Technology Excellence Awards

EverComm's AI-driven digital assistant can help simplify businesses' complex and time-consuming daily operations.

EverComm Uni-Tech Singapore Pte Ltd (short for EverComm Singapore) initiated the use of an AI-driven digital assistant who can help simplify the complex and time-consuming daily operations for hotel facility managers and engineers, thus reducing energy wastage and improve overall productivity.

This remarkable and highly lauded innovation, which pioneers AI-enabled Asset Performance Management, has changed the future of the hotel industry and has garnered EverComm Singapore the IoT Award for hospitality and leisure in Singapore Business Review’s recently concluded Technology Excellence Awards (TEA).

Customising emerging technology for the traditional industry

Effective management of critical equipment, such as chillers, boilers, pumps and air handlers, is key to hotel operation. The aggregated activities required to keep a building under control can be labor intensive and costly when management is outsourced to a third-party vendor. Some common challenges for the management team include equipment oversizing and ageing, maintaining legacy systems and the lack of supporting information to enable further cost optimisation.

All these aforementioned also lead to unnecessary energy wastage.

To solve this industry-wide challenge, EverComm Singapore partnered with Pan Pacific Hotel Group (PPHG) and Nanyang Technological University for the Singapore Tourism Board’s Hotel Innovation Challenge. The partnership focuses on developing cost- effective AI-enabled digital services for the hospitality industry and commercial buildings.

Emerging technologies such as IoT combined with AI can be instrumental in helping traditional enterprises unlock the next-level of competitive advantage, by centralising the management of hundreds and thousands of critical equipment, and hence effectively scale operational best practices to the region. This significantly reduces the need to manually vet through thousands of pages of individual equipment operating records per building. For PPHG, this amounts to more than 30,000 pages of records per year, from over 30 hotels in the region. Furthermore, the various equipment profile being established in real time by the digital assistant will generate recommendations to simplify vendor management and assist operators in making the most optimal operational decision that can lead up to 30% in CAPEX reduction and energy saving.

“As one of Singapore’s largest home-grown hotel management companies, we are committed to sustainability. We work with Singapore’s top innovators not only to help us better transition towards the digital future, but also to contribute to local capacity building in alignment to Singapore’s smart nation vision. Our journey with EverComm started in their incubation stages. We are proud of how far they have come and continue to be committed to supporting local entrepreneurs,” said Wee Wei Ling, Executive Director (Asset & Lifestyle), Pan Pacific Hotels Group.

Local capability development & digital services scalability

Guided by their core values and brand philosophy to conduct business with sincerity and integrity, both EverComm Singapore and Pan Pacific Hotels Group are not just committed to sustainability initiatives for themselves, but have taken significant steps to develop cost effective digital transformation tools and best practices for the local ecosystem. The partnership aims to co-develop over 50 digital talents by working closely with local academic institutes as well as creating automated sustainability measurement benchmark in alignment to the United Nation’s Sustainability Development Goal (SDGs). For example, compared to five years ago, PPHG’s properties in Singapore have collectively achieved a 24.8% reduction in energy and water intensity per guest night.

To ensure new digitisation services can address industry pain points in a scalable manner, EverComm Singapore used AcBel Polytech Inc’s Automated Meter Reading (AMR) technology and their Head-End System (HES), as well as partnered with local SME practitioners, such as G-Energy Global and Elixir Technology to launch a subscription-based business model.

Edwin Low, Director of Accreditation@SG Digital, Infocomm Media Development Authority, said, “It is heartening to see a homegrown startup break new ground in the AI and IoT space, and we are pleased to see that our accredited company, EverComm Singapore is fully dedicated in assisting big enterprises in Singapore to transform and stay ahead of the digitalisation curve. We look forward to support EverComm Singapore in their digitalisation efforts for the various industry verticals.”

The company’s AI-driven digital assistants have ushered in a massive industry transformation, throwing an opportunity to build new digital skills in scale and increasing employment opportunities aligned with Singapore’s Smart Nation objectives. It also encourages collaborations between multiple sectors, such as energy services companies, institutes of higher learning, technology service providers, and government agencies. This sector convergence uplifts the overall industry’s performance and creates a shared future that spells brilliance, quality and innovation.

Recognising Singapore’s leading companies in technology innovation, the Technology Excellence Awards lauds outstanding companies that have pioneered groundbreaking IT products and solutions as well as avant-garde technology initiatives that made have an impact in their business.

The Technology Excellence Awards, presented by Singapore Business Review, was held on 30 May 2019 at the Conrad Centennial Singapore.

This year’s nominations were judged by a panel consisting of Cheang Wai Keat, Head of Advisory, Ernst & Young LLP; Darwin Thio, Director, Cybersecurity & Technology Services, Nexia TS; Daryl Pereira, Head of Cybersecurity, KPMG; Evelyn Lim, Executive Director, Tax Advisory, BDO LLP; and Jonathan Kok, Co-Head of Technology, Media & Communications Industry Group, RHTLaw Taylor Wessing LLP.

Check out the event photos during the awards night here.

If you would like to join the 2020 awards and be acclaimed for your company’s exceptional technology innovations, please email Julie Anne Nuñez at julie@charltonmediamail.com