How does Planon anticipate and integrate emerging technologies and industry trends into its solutions?

Planon is constantly looking for new ideas and creative solutions to enhance our products and services. Our customers are one terrific source for these. Each year, Planon devotes a large portion of our research and development budget to implementing ideas from our customer base. By actively seeking customer input and following a formal, documented process to assess their recommendations, Planon aligns our product roadmap with actual client needs.  

In addition, Planon invests significantly in research and development to stay ahead of technological changes and industry shifts. This includes everything from analyst interactions to participation in industry groups to independent research that feeds our development processes. 

Our dynamic partner program is a third important component of Planon’s innovation strategy. Planon actively collaborates with technology and industry partners, including our recent alliances with Schneider Electric and SAP, as well as more than 40 technology and services companies that provide complementary solutions integrated with Planon offerings. Leveraging Planon’s open platform, our partners bring their expertise and capabilities to areas that stretch the scope of Planon’s vision and provide real-world solutions to customer needs. 

All of this is supported by the highly successful Planon Live! release program, instituted in 2018. This program replaced the traditional practice of large, annual software releases with monthly releases, which include new features and capabilities, technology updates and corrective actions. By releasing a new version on the first of every month, Planon brings its new, innovative features to market as soon as they are ready, allowing customers to take rapid advantage of these capabilities. Planon recently released its 100th version of Planon Live! 

What exciting plans or aspirations does Planon have for the future in terms of growth, sustainability, or further enhancing its services?

The year 2024 will be remarkable for many reasons. Our strategic alliance with SAP will reach fruition with the release of Planon Real Estate Management for SAP S4/HANA, an SAP-endorsed application that combines the capabilities of both companies’ industry-leading solutions. This collaborative offering introduces Planon to a huge market of companies that utilize SAP’s renowned financial expertise to offer smooth, seamless, end-to-end business flow. In addition, our strategic relationship with Schneider Electric, known as the world’s most sustainable company, continues to mature as our companies collaborate extensively on solutions for smart, efficient, and sustainable management of the built environment. 

Planon continues to explore the emerging landscape of smart building technologies and the Internet of Things (IoT), leveraging our embedded IoT platform to integrate with building automation systems, sensors for occupancy and environmental conditions, and other connected devices. 

Additionally, we expect strategic acquisitions of complementary solutions to continue to enhance Planon’s ability to serve our global markets. This extends a pattern begun several years ago that has led to acquisitions such as Reasult, Axonize (which subsequently was transformed into Planon’s IoT platform), and Ubigreen. 

Sustainability is becoming increasingly important in business. Could you elaborate on Planon's sustainability initiatives and how they align with the brand's overall mission?

It is widely recognized that buildings contribute about 40 percent of the world’s production of greenhouse gases. So it has always been logical that Planon should focus on measures to move toward net-zero greenhouse gas production. We do so by offering tools to monitor energy consumption, track improvements, and otherwise inform our clients about the environmental impact of their facilities. Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) extends far beyond building-related measures, but buildings remain an important component because of their outsized impact. 

In the past few years, governments around the world have begun instituting ESG reporting requirements, adding urgency to our clients’ efforts to measure and document their current metrics and improvements. 

Organizations have embraced the movement, seeking new ways to create engaging, healthy, safe, and resilient workplaces that create social connections and put sustainability at the heart of their plans and activities. We are committed to providing them with the actionable and meaningful insights they need to transform the future of the workplace and build better connections. 

Alongside developing smart, sustainable building management software to support our clients on their journey to net-zero buildings, we also are investing in improving the sustainability of our own operations. In addition, employee satisfaction and lifetime employability are our top priorities. Through our hybrid working model and focus on well-being, we provide our people with flexibility, autonomy, and a healthy work/life balance. 

In 2022, Planon formed an internal ESG Taskforce comprising representatives from several departments involved in ESG and sustainability-related topics. The Taskforce defined focus areas, scope, and priorities based on requirements from customers, society, and Planon itself. In 2023, the Taskforce released Planon’s first Sustainability Report, establishing a baseline for documenting progress.  Planon is committed to supporting our customers and playing a major role in our collective journey towards more energy-efficient, sustainable buildings.