Chatbot meets cloud scout

Blossoms, bouquets, cloverleafs… the housing industry and its projects figuratively bloom in the diverse concepts that are cast on the wall. At the centre of attention are tenants and owners, whose interests the participating housing companies take into account in manifold ways. Clients and communication are the keys to a successful strategy for the future. At this year’s Workout, to offer its clients a well-rounded vision of the state and future of the art, Datatrain has granted its partners, too, an expanded forum.

Initiating communication saves stress. As Bettina Harms of Analyse & Konzepte shows, posing questions to customers can deliver important insights and prevent problems from escalating. And tenants and owners are likely to respond when they are already in the process of communicating with the administrator – for example, while submitting an enquiry via tenant app. Concise, timely questions posed at important points during this client contact can yield response rates of up to 50 per cent. Analysis of these responses provides information about management shortcomings and successes, and about what exactly can be optimised.

Datatrain’s Sabine Wiedemann demonstrated how this can be realised by means of cloud-based applications: In the Questionnaire Cockpit, the user prepares and administers questions which are sent out either in a targeted attempt to gather information or when triggered by a particular event – e.g. a contractor’s notification of the completion of a job. On the basis of the criteria recorded in the ERP system, the user defines the desired target group in the integrated Canvassing Cockpit and can link each individual enquiry with its own corresponding email template. This keeps the ERP system free of burdensome data redundancies. Respondents remain anonymous, but can be grouped by district or housing unit. User-friendly monitoring functionality affords an overview and facilitates evaluation.

When queries are answered by chatbots, artificial intelligence is at play. As Sabine Wiedemann reported, Datatrain’s Tenant Cockpit now gives tenants the option of chatting as well. In this case, the user is directed through a questionnaire, his or her answers automatically analysed and the corresponding information immediately delivered. Even tenants who don’t use the Tenant Cockpit are entitled to chat: via their own smartphone’s messenger, they can send out or receive information, which is stored in the ERP system for further automated processing.

Both solutions – contact via messenger or the new Tenant Cockpit chat – are based on a cooperative venture with AT Estate. Project partner Matthias Opitz presented his company’s messenger solution, which accommodates all of the usual instant messengers, such as WhatsApp and Telegram. At important interfaces, the employee can personally take over the interaction with the customer. Even though the bots reveal themselves to be virtual assistants, everything appears seamless.

The basis of innovation for current and future developments in the context of digitalisation is the SAP Cloud Platform – a strategically indispensable technology for the intelligent company of tomorrow. Stéphane Borg of SAP described its characteristics. The cloud platform allows real-time response, he explained, and holds services at the ready which are vital to central functionalities of modern applications, such as mobility or monitoring.

Key functions and features of Datatrain’s cockpits wouldn’t have been possible without the SAP Cloud Platform. Jörn Beckmann of Datatrain named some examples: the platform’s two-factor authentication ensures the highest security; partner applications – e.g. the chatbots from AT Estate, Pixometer for meter readings or KIWI for keyless building access – are integrated via cloud services; and future functionalities such as speech recognition, invoicing service, big-data analysis and schedule coordination are also only conceivable on a cloud basis.

At the centre of it all lies Datatrain’s API Hub – a multidirectional ‘interface hub’ on the SAP Cloud Platform which creates the various required connections between SAP on-premise systems and/or customer or partner extensions and/or third-party applications. The API Hub has now been put into operation by Berlin’s municipal housing companies for the first time, where it brings together the respective companies’ ERP systems with the new flat-exchange portal of the Berlin Senate Administration. It likewise enables existing applications from service providers, estate agents, insurance companies, etc., to be connected with ERP systems.

Mark Finley of Datatrain announced that the firm is embracing the logical consequence of these developments and in the future, accordingly, will offer its cockpits only in the cloud-based version – while providing uncomplicated, low-cost solutions for migrating existing middleware systems.

Christian Gebhardt of the GdW, Germany’s federal association of housing and real estate companies, illuminated general trends, with reference to a study just published by the GdW which foresees continued increasing demand for affordable housing. Tenants of tomorrow, however, will be more willing to compromise on the size or location of their apartment than on its equipment and furnishings. Possible future business models include service and micro-apartments and the temporary leasing of furniture. Digital technology will, in any case, be considered absolutely standard. The main hurdle to digitalisation, according to Gebhardt, is the lack of a strategy. The GdW therefore recommends to its members practicable process steps, including best-practice examples, and views the involvement of company employees as imperative.

According to Jörn Beckmann, the tenant app is the key pillar of a successful digitalisation strategy. Datatrain has deployed its Tenant Cockpit with the tenant apps of two other providers and partners – the Covivio Customer App from facilioo and the GBG Mannheim Tenant App from DIT. Datatrain integrated both apps in the ERP systems of their shared clients and additionally implemented the user management function of the Covivio Customer App via the SAP Cloud Platform. The three providers all have their own areas of emphasis.

The focus of Datatrain’s Tenant Cockpit is housing companies and the comprehensive automation of their processes. It operates on the basis of an open platform approach – allowing the integration of all kinds of applications via interfaces and the appropriate tools, and thus opening up numerous options for the future. One improvement to the cockpit has great potential for other applications as well: with its event-driven transmission of messages, the communication channel can be used to send information proactively. Via push, e-mail or SMS message, the housing company can directly inform concerned tenants about, for example, emergencies or breakdowns, thereby pre-empting enquiries.

Christian Urban of Gewobag showed where and how cloud-based Mobile Quality Assurance facilitates company processes. Relieved of media disruptions, paper-shredding and redundant trips, quality managers can now save a great deal of time. Data security is ensured through the two-factor authentication of employees and the automatic deletion of old data sets. In the near future, services are to be realised in further arenas, e.g. the mobile inspection of green areas or the mobile transmission of defect notices. Christian Urban’s presentation was followed by a live demo of the Datatrain app, which can be deployed both online and offline.

At the conclusion of the Workout, a Datatrain consultant showed the clients the door – in this case, a portable demo piece that was opened and closed by the KIWI digital door entry system. This partner application is incorporated in the Cockpit for Partners, which has additionally been expanded to include the self-monitoring of reaction times. KIWI now affords external workers keyless building entry: within a specified interval, they are authorised to enter a code they have been sent and to open entry doors equipped with smart locks. KIWI can also be integrated in the Cockpit for Staff or the Tenant Cockpit to facilitate building entry for the housing company’s own service personnel or for building residents.