CLOUD FIRST AND END-TO-END PROCESSES
ON THE PATH TOWARD
“DIGITAL FACTORIES”
-
The people working together to digitalize business processes at ECE. From left: Ingo Fiß, Director of Information Technology, Robert Heinemann, Managing Director of Corporate Operations & Solutions, and Frank Bünemann, Director of Commercial Property Management.
Whether recording rental agreement and energy consumption data or analyzing our centers’ visitor and sales figures – data is the basis for the digital management of all ECE business processes. In order to be able to use this data efficiently and respond in the best possible manner to the latest requirements of our business partners, the market, and policymakers, we set out a few years ago to fundamentally redesign and fully digitalize our processes.
The clear aim is to automate all mass processes to the greatest possible extent in order to become faster and even more reliable. Our employees’ profound knowledge, meanwhile, should be used where there are new, particularly complex, or individual requirements. At the same time, a modern, cloud-based IT architecture had to be designed and implemented.
THE BASIS: DIGITALIZED PROCESSES
By using state-of-the-art technologies to automate complex and highly diverse requirements, ECE has embraced comprehensive end-to-end digitalization and automation of numerous business processes, initially with a focus on Germany. Following the generation change to SAP S/4HANA back in 2022, we switched to the latest software version in 2024, which now makes it possible to introduce a computer-aided facility management (CAFM) system with Fiori and other functions. Migrating all data to the cloud was a key prerequisite for implementing the “digital factories” strategy. ECE was one of the first companies to introduce a data warehouse based on Microsoft Fabric, collecting and delivering raw data from all source systems. To create a standard format, the data is then processed, harmonized, and normalized across different levels. On this basis, we can output the desired data according to requirements and applications.
“Thanks to the comprehensive end-to-end digitalization and automation of numerous business processes, we can act faster and respond to the latest requirements, increasing satisfaction among our business partners.”
ROBERT HEINEMANN, MANAGING DIRECTOR CORPORATE OPERATIONS & SOLUTIONS, ECE GROUP SERVICES
IT SECURITY
By the end of 2024, ECE had successfully established an information security management system (ISMS) to demonstrate systematic IT risk management and important security processes, which was assessed as “ready for certification.” Accordingly, the ECE standards now comply with the requirements of DIN ISO 27001. We also keep an eye on the requirements for regulated investors who are subject to the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA).
SPECIFIC APPLICATIONS
DIGITAL RENTAL AGREEMENT
Launched in May 2023 for regional rentals, the digital rental agreement is quick and easy with no red tape, simplifying the often complex contract that was individually negotiated between retailers and ECE prior to its introduction. Following a successful pilot phase, the digital rental agreement has now been rolled out across 55 centers. More than 450 digital rental agreements have already been concluded with tenants, among them the first chain stores. ECE is currently holding talks with other selected tenants with a nationwide presence.
DIGITAL CUSTOMER SERVICE MANAGEMENT
ECE uses professional customer service management (CSM) with a ticket system, enabling tenant inquiries to be automatically assigned to predefined categories and forwarded directly to the right person. This means that inquiries can now be processed much faster and transparently.
AUTOMATIC EVALUATION OF TURNOVER CERTIFICATES
ECE also uses state-of-the-art technology for efficient preparation of turnover rent statements. With the aid of SmartFix software, for example, we can use AI to read and evaluate the tenants’ mailed turnover certificates, enabling us to produce the turnover rent statements quickly and easily.
TOWARD THE FUTURE WITH AI
Having successfully created the basis for digitalized and automated processes, ECE is now going one step further with AI applications. We are currently working on three major projects:
DIGITIZATION OF PHYSICAL RENTAL AGREEMENTS
ECE’s new digital rental agreement significantly simplifies and accelerates the contractual process. However, ECE still administers more than 16,000 active physical rental agreements and co-op advertising contracts that predate the digital agreement. A proof-of-concept was therefore drawn up to enable employees to quickly access physical contract data in the future and evaluate individual rental agreements where necessary. In a second step, all existing rental agreements are set to be digitized with the help of AI so that any supplements can be produced much faster in the future and contract data can be accessed at all times in the event of queries from investors or tenants.
DIGITALIZATION OF DEFECT MANAGEMENT
ECE’s responsibility as a center operator also includes professional defect management. The aim is to remedy defects in centers as quickly as possible. In order to be able to manage the corresponding process even more quickly, ECE will in the future evaluate the highly individual reports produced by external experts with the aid of AI, process them automatically, and use a system-based approach to track the remediation of defects.
RENT CALCULATOR
As the largest retail landlord in Europe, ECE has a unique database of rents, sales, and space characteristics. However, the sheer volume of data has until now limited opportunities for analysis. An initial AI pilot project has now shown that this data provides an excellent basis for modeling different scenarios when planning new occupancy models or calculating offers for interested tenants.
CLOSE CONSULTATION WITH SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS
Besides introducing new digital products and applications, ECE considers it very important to maintain regular dialogue with leading hardware and software manufacturers. We work closely with Microsoft in particular. Our IT experts regularly meet with Microsoft’s German management to share experiences and talk about new products and strategies at an early stage. After all, as a first mover that uses the latest Microsoft products and versions, such as Fabric and Copilot, it is important that we familiarize ourselves with every aspect of the new technologies so that we can get the best out of them. Microsoft also involves ECE IT experts in product development projects. //
“ECE is an important partner for us in the real estate sector in Europe due to its excellent understanding of technology and its role as a first mover when using our products.”
DR. INGA VON BIBRA, CUSTOMER SUCCESS LEAD / BOARD MEMBER, MICROSOFT GERMANY