Digitalizing property development

The majority of people would agree that digital disruption is a prominent feature of today’s world. The adoption and integration of technology into our daily lives have been consistent and widespread in recent years. Rabab Zehra, TECHx Executive Editor, spoke with Syed Imran, CIO at Azizi Developments, to learn more about how Azizi Developments incorporates technology into their projects. Continue reading to find out what the expert has to say.

TECHx: How has technology transformed the property-development industry over the past few years?

Syed: The UAE has incorporated the most recent technological advancements across all industries, and the real estate industry witnessed the biggest shifts of all. Over the past several years, considerable changes were effected to how property is purchased, maintained, and built, how it is sold, and how mortgages are issued. Every step of the acquisition process now involves technology, giving rise to the term ‘PropTech.’ With numerous tech start-ups increasingly calling the emirate their home in an effort to access a lucrative real estate market, Dubai has the potential to act as a launchpad for PropTech penetration. The real estate sector has already seen a significant change in the UAE, and the importance of technology in real estate development is recognised by Dubai’s leadership; Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed, Crown Prince of Dubai, introduced a new platform, Dubai Re-Tech, as one of a number of efforts to assist the Dubai 2040 Urban Master Plan. The platform’s extensive database, which is backed by big data to enable complex insights, allows for accurate forecasting of Dubai’s real estate sector’s future. 

The ability of artificial intelligence and machine learning to give more accurate market predictions and better risk management investing is becoming more widely acknowledged. Putting in place the appropriate seamless digital infrastructure not only allows developers and urban planners to stay ahead of the curve but also allows them to gain a deeper understanding of current and future supply-demand dynamics, enabling efficiencies, reducing cost overruns, speeding up delivery, and, ultimately, increasing profits. Customer-centricity is an essential component for creating long-term value in real estate development. Using real-time data analytics technologies, you may gain a better understanding of consumer segmentation as well as more exact forecasts of customer behavior. As a result, businesses can respond quickly and provide the highly personalised, frictionless experiences that today’s customers want.

TECHx: What are the technologies Azizi Development uses to differentiate its properties from its competitors? 

Syed: At Azizi Developments, we embarked on a digital transformation journey to catapult our customer experience to greater heights. We successfully completed our cloud computing transfer in 2020, effectively increasing our operational efficiency and allowing us to serve our customers faster and better. Cloud computing, which is the digital delivery of various services — such as data storage, servers, databases, networking, software, and more via the internet — is becoming increasingly vital to growth-oriented enterprises seeking operational efficiency.

By switching to a well-established cloud service provider, we were able to enhance our cloud capabilities and increase our offerings, accelerating the digitisation process. Thus, we have been able to save more than 66 per cent on our IT costs that are channelled into ensuring customer happiness, such as by enhancing community and enhancing customer support, while enhancing the quality of our cloud, resulting in greater productivity; customers will now benefit from faster reaction times, enhanced communication, and greater information precision. Furthermore, we used robotic automation to improve the core areas of our information technology service management, which involved system integration, specific service-request processes, a service knowledge management system, end-to-end IT processes, and log processing, all of which improved our operational services both internally and for our customers. In the company’s IT service management system, robotic automation improves process performance by reducing the need for manual intervention, orchestrating data exchanges, and automating responses. Additionally, we endeavour to keep our technological innovation in line with, if not above, global standards while prioritising loyal clients. Implementing the latest technology and ensuring that Azizi’s employee are digitally enabled is absolutely critical for a business to succeed in today’s digital environment and to operate in sync with the demands and needs of its stakeholders. Robotic process automation not only eliminates human error but also allows our employees to focus on higher-value jobs that require human engagement and supervision rather than be bogged down with tedious, repetitive tasks. 

We embraced a broad spectrum of leading technologies to optimise processes resulting in seamless client experience and backend operations. As part of our digital transformation journey, we lowered OpEX, strengthened cybersecurity, and improved cash flow management. As a result, we are able to create faster innovations, more efficient collaborations, and offer better value in a more resourceful manner, resulting in 98 per cent customer satisfaction. To become more effective and better serve our clients, we made it a priority to be at the cutting edge of digital innovation. Our service quality has improved, SLA violations have decreased, agility has grown, and productivity has improved. 

These improvements have led to net savings of 23 per cent and an increase in ROI of 29 per cent. This transformation comes as part of our drive to be part of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which leverages digitalisation and information technology. To deploy robotic process automation, we signed a supplier agreement with MBG Corporate Services, a global corporate consulting firm that provides specialist advice services in audit and assurance, mergers and acquisitions, taxation, legal, and risk. After implementing robotic technology into our accounts infrastructure, our RPA agreement with MBG will enable our employees to automate tedious, high-volume, and repetitive tasks in a digital environment, reducing administrative processing times for a number of key operations by almost half. Among the services offered by MBG Corporate are RPA design, software development, user acceptance testing (UAT), hypercare, documentation, statements of financial performance, PDC payables, reporting matrix, bounce checks, cash flow statements, invoicing, local purchase orders, and RMA management.

TECHx: How is the UAE embracing digital transformation and advancing technology in property development?

Syed: The UAE rolled out a broad spectrum of game-changing initiatives to address the evolving demands of the real estate market. As such, the RE-Tech platform was established after the industry experienced exceptional growth, with the number of investors increasing by more than 80 per cent in a year, and the value of annual real estate transactions exceeding by AED 250 billion. This growth momentum reflects the sector’s resiliency and allure as well as the wide range of opportunities it presents. Dubai has made considerable progress toward digitalising the real estate industry even though it is at the forefront of the digital economy. The platform’s extensive database allows for precise future forecasting of Dubai’s real estate market and is powered by big data to provide complex insights. This online platform is intended to facilitate better decision-making, encourage sector-wide growth, and foster sustainability.

 TECHx: How important is sustainability to your overall development processes?

Syed: Sustainability is one of our core commitments, reflected across all of our projects, including our flagship master-planned community, Riviera, which is a sustainable community with environmental considerations being integrated from conception to construction. Our sustainability efforts are guided by three core pillars: social, environmental and economic. Our social goals nurture the community and create an equitable setting by promoting creativity, aesthetics, and human comfort, in addition to thermal comfort, lower noise levels, and an emphasis on promoting well-being through a wide range of exercising and relaxation facilities. Our environmental focus ensures a viable, natural and sustainable environment that comprises enhanced indoor and outdoor settings in the form of well-thought-out space connectivity and superb fitness and health provisions that add to the quality of life of our residents. We also do our part by reducing the use of water through the efficient distribution and recycling of water sources by using low-flow water fixtures, efficient landscape irrigation systems, and waste-water recycling for all landscaping needs. Through VCM, a community management firm that we employ, we are exploring new approaches to sustainability. VCM is finalising contracts with leading governmental recycling organisations, in line with Dubai’s sustainability initiatives, and educating residents on how to reduce waste and contribute to the preservation of the environment through organised educational sessions. Through VCM, we plan to place contemporary, well-designed recycling bins in our lobbies, as well as cages in open areas to collect recyclable paper waste, among other initiatives. 

TECHx: What steps have you taken to ensure your buyers get cost-effective projects?

Syed: All the supplier deals we’re closing directly, which no other developer does, in order to leverage economies of scale and get better prices. Further to this, we have implemented several cost-saving projects to reduce unnecessary expenses, granting investors even better prices and increased ROIs. In addition to that, the closed deals done with the suppliers that we’ve made, as well as the digital transformation, both of which are ways we’re decreasing costs. 

TECHx: Tell us about your partnerships in the tech industry to leverage the latest technologies.

Syed: We at Azizi Developments are upgrading our network devices to further improve our network performance, and using advanced techniques for WAN acceleration. Currently, we are optimising and automating workflows and engineering process approvals. This will be achieved through the use of the SAAS software solution INAXUS, change management and configuration will be carried out internally, improving efficiency and providing customers with faster turnaround times. We have implemented state of the art NOC, SOC and SIEM solutions occupying leading Gartner quadrants working closely with 3i Infotech as our technology partners. Aside from that, we’ve partnered with MGB to integrate Robotic Process Automation (RPA) into our internal processes, as well as Danaos Vortex FSM, a prominent technology company that offers facility management and automation software. The turnaround time for our services has been reduced by more than 30%. Through Vortex, we are integrating cutting-edge technologies and putting in place reliable frameworks to improve field technician efficiency by automating the dispatch procedure with a mobile app and web portal. Vortex also encompasses trouble-ticketing and comprehensive asset registration to provide a complete maintenance history, with dynamic reports and a customised business analytics dashboard. Additionally, we are digitising customer cases in our salesforce to enhance unit swaps, consolidations, and resale management. Furthermore, we evaluated several tools we could use to integrate or expand our existing business processes, such as SAP ERP, Oracle ERP, learning management systems, and working on deploying a new website with a responsive design. These enterprise resource planning systems connect different organisational records, such as internal business processes, sales data, and complicated supplier networks, allowing for greater organisation and increased proficiency.