Speech by Minister Desmond Lee at the official opening of AETOS's Integrated Command Centre

Wednesday, 16 March 2022

A very good morning. First, I would like to congratulate you on the official opening of AETOS’s new Integrated Command Centre or ICC.

For almost two decades, AETOS officers have played a part to keep Singapore safe and secure. You have also expanded beyond security, to provide Facilities Management (FM) services.

Need for Transformation

The COVID pandemic has put a lot of strain on many sectors, including the security and the FM industry. Our security officers stepped up to ensure that Safe Management Measures (SMMs) were implemented at various locations. And many companies had to cope with increased workload, despite manpower disruptions. I’m sure AETOS is no exception.  

I would like to thank all our security officers, both in AETOS and in all parts of Singapore for contributing to our fight against COVID-19. Your contributions are recognised and deeply appreciated by all of us.

Even as we continue to grapple with the pandemic, we need to press on with our longer-term transformation of the security and Facilities Management industries.We will face manpower constraints, as our society ages and our workforce growth slows down. So we will need to use more technology, and to reduce our manpower needs.For example, we can install sensors around a building that can automatically detect incidents.

We can also use data analytics to anticipate issues before they occur, so that we can pre-emptively, predictively inspect and rectify them. Technology will also help us to transform security and FM jobs, into higher-skilled ones with better wages for local workers. New job roles could include digital systems specialists, or data analysts which provide evidence-based insights for Facilities Management companies. By transforming jobs in this way, companies can continue to attract and retain a strong pipeline of Singapore talent.

Technology as an Enabler

On our part, the Government will continue to partner you, in security and FM industries, in your transformation. These efforts are not new. We have been supporting companies to adopt smart technologies even before this pandemic. Since the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and industry partners launched the Security Industry Transformation Map (ITM) in 2018, security agencies have been investing more in technology.  

Today, based on MHA’s survey, 97% of security agencies use at least one technology solution from the Security Industry Digital Plan (IDP). These solutions include mobile-enabled patrol and incident management systems, as well as wearable security technology.

Now, many companies are also thinking of going even further, toward the next wave of tech solutions such as drones and robots, and so on. In 2019, my colleagues at BCA launched the Guide to Smart FM, to guide building owners and FM firms in using smart solutions to maintain buildings.

New ICC

On that note, I am encouraged that AETOS is an early adopter of advanced technological solutions, and that you are expanding your efforts into the Built Environment (BE) sector as well.

In collaboration with the wider Surbana Jurong Group, you have expanded beyond security services, into FM services like lift maintenance and energy management. So you have not just put together a smarter and more advanced security system, but you are also applying it in maintenance and management such that you minimise any issues to building users. You are also contributing towards our efforts under the Singapore Green Plan, and supporting our 80-80-80 goals that we set out to make our buildings greener, more sustainable, and more environmentally friendly.

With your new ICC, AETOS and Surbana Jurong will go even further in your use of smart technologies. The ICC integrates the management of both security and FM services in a single command centre. Officers stationed at the ICC can simultaneously supervise multiple teams for various maintenance and security tasks, across more than 130 locations.This greatly improves your productivity.

Through the ICC, officers can also access 3D digital twins of the buildings under your portfolio. These digital twins contain accurate locational data, and provide officers with better real-time information across both security and FM operations. And with this, your officers can plan their operations and respond to incidents more effectively, and deliver a much higher quality of service for your clients.

Through these efforts and more, AETOS aims to become much more productive and sustainable – I’m told that you aim to reduce your manpower needs by up to 20%, and your carbon footprint by 50%, by the end of this decade.

The Next Bound of Transformation

We hope that more firms will follow your example here in AETOS, and pursue the next bound of transformation in the FM industry. Firms can be much more efficient and productive, by managing different FM services on a single integrated platform, and by aggregating FM services across many different buildings.

We call this Integrated FM (IFM) and Aggregated FM (AFM). IFM and AFM help building owners and service providers to improve their productivity, reduce their costs. They can also help to enhance sustainability, by reducing demand for resources like electricity and water.

Government will drive the use of IFM and AFM for public sector buildings. Many of our agencies, including JTC and HDB, have already started to adopt IFM and AFM for their buildings. We are also making significant efforts to put in place the smart infrastructure required for Integrated and Aggregated Facilities Management.

Under GreenGov.SG initiative, public sector buildings with a Gross Floor Area of more than 5,000 sqm are required to adopt smart solutions for building operations and maintenance. But it will take some time for IFM and AFM to be much more widely adopted. Not just the breadth of adoption, but the depth of integration of activities and maintenance.

Now, building owners may be concerned about the significant costs of retrofitting buildings for IFM and AFM. And service buyers and providers will need to rework their procurement and other processes, as well as to upskill and retrain their teams, to implement Integrated and Aggregated FM effectively. To support the industry in overcoming these barriers, and accelerate the adoption of both IFM and AFM, we will introduce a new $30 million grant, which we announced in Parliament just last week.

Under this grant, government will share up to 70% of the initial capital investment and retrofitting costs for Integrated and Aggregated FM. Now, we plan to fund around 10 to 15 projects across different building typologies, to get things started, get it going. These could include office buildings, retail malls, light industrial developments and even healthcare institutions.

Different types of buildings have different maintenance needs. And the grant will help to develop use cases for each type of building, as examples to spur other building owners to adopt IFM and AFM solutions too. Now, to qualify for this grant, building owners will need to work with FM firms to install the relevant infrastructure and technology for Integrated and Aggregated Facilities Management.

For example, they can put in sensors and intelligent building management systems, which can feed data to a centralised command centre. The command centre can then use the data to coordinate operations across different facilities.

Building owners will also need to rework their procurement practices to integrate at least three FM services, across at least three buildings in their portfolio. These services could include cleaning, security, and energy management. We will launch the grant from the second half of this year, and it will be available for 3 years in the first instance. And then we will take stock and move on from there.

We will share more details soon. Now, we hope that more building owners and firms will adopt Integrated and Aggregated FM, and transform their processes and technologies, to become much more productive. And in so doing, make Singapore smarter, and more integrated, in the way in which we care for, maintain, service our buildings, for our people.

Conclusion

So once again, let me warmly congratulate all of you at AETOS and Surbana Jurong on the opening of your new ICC. Working together, we can accelerate the transformation of our security and FM industries, build much more competitive capabilities, both here and the region, and the world, and prepare our Built Environment and our city for the future. Thank you.