Richard and Sid discuss the balance between advancing technology and addressing current business needs, including the importance of AI in adding to human capital.
Richard and Sid discuss the balance between advancing technology and addressing current business needs, including the importance of AI in adding to human capital. Richard describes his vision for the future: one that’s approaching faster than we think.
Welcome to Elevating Brick and Mortar. A podcast about how operations and facilities drive brand performance.
On today’s episode, we talk with Richard Leurig, President of Accruent. Accruent is the world’s leading provider of intelligent solutions for the built environment. They set new expectations for how organizations can use data to transform the way they manage their facilities and assets.
Guest Bio:
Richard is an accomplished and innovative executive directing highly successful organizations. He has a diverse background in multiple industries holding senior leadership roles. He is involved with a wide range of industries including commercial, industrial, retail, multifamily housing, mortgage, real estate, insurance, spatial, legal, financial services, stock exchanges, retail merchants and payment services.
Guest Quote:
“When we look at the built environment, customers now are looking for connected and integrated products. They want to be able to actually reduce [the number of touchpoints] based on the user and the user profile type. What we're seeing is the need for a single user experience, a user experience dedicated to the type of user that's using it, a persona.”
Timestamps:
01:03 - Richard’s journey
03:24 - About Accruent
05:37 - Unifying the built environment
10:31 - Keeping functions in sync
16:38 - The struggle with sustainability
24:21 - Today’s consumer expectations
30:50 - The built environment’s future
39:35 - Advice for aspiring leaders
41:09 - Where to find Richard
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[00:00:00] Welcome to elevating brick and mortar, a podcast about how operations and facilities drive brand performance. On today's episode, we talk with Richard Leurig, president of Accruent. In this interview, Sid and Richard discuss the balance between advancing technology and addressing current business needs. Richard describes his vision for the future one that's approaching faster than we think.
[00:00:22] ;
[00:00:22] Now here's your host industry and FM technology thought leader and chief business development officer at service channel, Sid Shetty, along with our guest Richard Leurig.
[00:00:30] Sid: Hello everyone, welcome to Elevating Brick and Mortar. Thank you for joining us. I am here today with Richard Leurig, President of Accruent. Richard, welcome. Thank you for being here.
[00:00:41] Richard: Thanks, Sid. Happy to be here.
[00:00:43] Sid: Excited to have you on. So Richard, until very recently, you were the chief product and technology officer at Accruent and just recently took on the reins of the helm. Firstly, congratulations. Uh, but can you also share a little bit more about your journey and how you got here?
[00:01:01] Richard: Yeah, thanks, Sid. Um, you know, I've always had a deep feeling and, um, and passion for product development, um, and delivering products that change how companies work, um, really in a B2B, more of a B2B type setting. And so, my journey really has been around how do I deliver value at companies.
[00:01:23] I came to Accruent two and a half years ago, uh, to run product and engineering at Accruent. Um, Accruent has a great portfolio of products and customers, and so it was a very exciting opportunity to, uh, to do what I love doing and, and, um, And move into that role. And, and since then I've taken on some of the other areas of accruant leading up to becoming president.
[00:01:45] Sid: Have you always been in the product and tech space since the start of your career?
[00:01:50] Richard: You know, I started off as a software developer, software engineering, um, and, uh, very quickly started to realize that I loved seeing the outcome, seeing what the user saw from what I had developed and doing a lot of, uh, what we would now say as voice of customer or going out and actually visiting with customers for the companies that I worked for and learning what they did, how they used our products. Um, I had the privilege of working on a product that was a very early innovation in its space. And, um, really it was something that was brand new and was patented. And so a lot of the salespeople said, Hey, can you come out and talk to the customers about this?
[00:02:32] Cause we don't even know how to explain it. And so I started to become more and more familiar with customers. Started to realize I liked that. I think I've always kept a foot in both. In both sides of both the engineering architecture software side and then the product and the customer side. And so, uh, uh, product development kind of broadly fits that, but it's been an exciting journey.
[00:02:56] And I think having a background where you, you used to actually, you know, code 12, 14 hours a day, um, and then getting into an environment where what you're delivering is really largely a software product that has to be developed by those people. Uh, that are great at doing that, um, is, is fun for me.
[00:03:19] Sid: For folks in our audience who might not be familiar, can you share some insight into Accruent?
[00:03:24] Richard: Yeah, Accurent is a, is a fascinating company because Accruent over time has accumulated a number of products, uh, in what we would call workplace solutions and in asset management solutions. So, in workplace solutions, we have a number of related products that help companies run commercial space. Um, leasing for that commercial space or even universities running broad campuses or multiple campuses.
[00:03:49] So that's space management. Um, and then the facilities maintenance side of that space. So you think about, uh, uh, university like Texas A& M that has a large footprint of, uh, of buildings, they have to manage that facility space, but they also need to do things as simple as, which classrooms are we going to book?
[00:04:07] How are we going to book those classrooms? And, um, and how are we going to book, uh, a tailgate event, uh, for a Texas A& M football game? So they use our products for all of those different things on the asset management solution side. It's very interesting because, uh, you know, CMMS products or maintenance and work order products are, uh, are obviously required by many different industries.
[00:04:32] Uh, we actually have, uh, products and customers in 74 different industry verticals, um, on the asset management side. We focus primarily on 12, um, and you think of things like engineering document management. You think of things like IOT and how do you manage sensors within an environment and then tie that back to a work order system. And then have that work order system dispatch a technician. Um, those are all things in manufacturing and in facilities such as that, like oil and gas, utilities, and so on, uh, that are very important to Accruent, um, and our 5, 000 customers we have.
[00:05:12] Sid: Wow, that's pretty amazing. So clearly you have a range of products and serve multiple industries, but as you now, as president, look across your customer base and all the products and value propositions that you have, is there a common theme in terms of the north star, you know, that Accruent has in terms of your underlying value proposition, uh, to your customers.
[00:05:37] Richard: If you look at our catchphrase, our tagline, It's unifying the built environment and when we look at the built environment, customers now are looking for connected and integrated products. They want to be able to actually reduce based on the user and the user profile type. So a technician, a dispatcher, uh, a person that's a manager out in a A location of a Starbucks who's just trying to make sure that a, you know, a vendor comes in and they get paid for doing work there, or that a project is completed. You know, those types of things are important to the customers that there's a fit for purpose solution and that solution brings together all of the components. And so what we're seeing is the need for a single pane of glass, a single user experience, a user experience dedicated to the type of user that's using it, a persona, if you, if you, if you will, of that user. And, um, customers, as we all know, in the, in the product and software industry go back and forth from, um, give me multiple point solutions or give me an integrated solution.
[00:06:45] I think what we're trying to accomplish is actually both. We want to be able to provide a solution that if you want a best in class solution, we'll give you that best in class solution. But if you want it integrated across all of our solutions, we will do that. And I think that is a, uh, a big change that we've seen only recently.
[00:07:04] Um, a lot of accruance initial growth back in the, um, you know, 2017, 2015, 2020 period. A lot of that was single point solutions. Now it's really more customers looking for an integrated ecosystem.
[00:07:19] Sid: Yeah, I couldn't agree more. Uh, Richard, as you, you know, if you think about the physical brick and mortar space or the, the built environment, as you put it, it plays a huge role in what a brand stands for, right? Like the location, the construction, the design, how you manage your facilities, energy management systems and programs you may have, they all either add to the experience you deliver to your consumers or employees, uh, or take away from it. And yet, you know, the impact of these functions can sometimes be overlooked, right? What are your thoughts on that? And how can leaders who are in these functions get ahead of it?
[00:07:56] Richard: What customers are, are looking for, and I think what, what leaders at our customer sites are looking for and what we're, we're really trying to provide is, um, is something that is actually very difficult because it's, it's, a lot of people that are working at our customer sites actually don't ever integrate or interface with any of our systems or products. They just expect an asset to work. They expect something on the plant floor to work. They expect, um, if you're in a mine that a engineering document comes up and that you're able to see the asset you're working on or the wiring diagram of the thing that you're working on. And there's a certain set of expectations that it's just there and the people working side by side with those people, um, kind of have come to expect that a technician can go do their job and that they're optimized by the technologies that they have in their hands. Um, so I think what we have to do is always make sure that in a sense, I call us the Intel inside, right? So you think about a laptop, you think about something every day that, you're not seeing chips inside of your laptop. Um, you're not necessarily seeing our maintenance software, our anomaly detection routines, our engineering document management, or the data behind all of this, but you just expect it to be in there. And I think that makes it more difficult then for leaders to explain the value that that brings to an organization.
[00:09:24] So you have to look at return on investment. How does it automate and make things more efficient? What would happen if those systems weren't working? Sometimes it's, in a lot of our customers, it's a safety risk. It's a safety problem. Um, in other cases, it's just a pure monetary problem. If our IoT detection and sensor product observe isn't working, um, all of a sudden people are having to look at manual outcomes, manual output, multiple systems, um, the overhead on doing that.
[00:09:53] So, we're constantly having to reinforce and show the value of the products of what would happen if they weren't there, and what's the value they're bringing because they are there.
[00:10:02] Sid: Yeah. And when you talk about the built environment, you know, that's a lot of different functions that are operating to create that kind of, um, delivery of service or, Um, to manage the operations of that location or that building. How, how do you keep all those functions in sync? And how do you ensure that they're not operating in silos? And what's the role of software or platforms in helping do that?
[00:10:31] Richard: I think it's that connected ecosystem. It's making sure that in real time or through data and backend systems, that you're able to see all of that data and all of that information, no matter what your job is. So if your job is a reliability manager and you're looking at what's happening broadly across an enterprise, across a company, you want to be able to see all of the data in a dashboard that's tied to certain asset types, certain failures that are occurring.
[00:10:59] Um, if you're a technician though, you want to see the highest, most critical priority things that you have to go work on right now. I think kind of the role, um, to make sure that it's almost invisible, um, across those different personas that you're talking about, those different users of the system is to make sure that all of that data is integrated and, and brought together. Um, no matter what your role is, it may be data coming from three or four different systems, in fact, that you're seeing, um, in order to do your job.
[00:11:31] Sid: Now, I completely agree with you. I mean, I think with all the advancements in technology today, you know, no matter what your role is, you kind of expect a certain kind of seamlessness that allows you to do your job.
[00:11:44] Richard, as you, as you interact with business leaders across the portfolio of products that you have and the customers that, that use them, what challenges are leaders facing as they think about making their facilities more energy efficient, um, you know, more sustainable, um, and in making their facilities smarter? What is the future state that they are trying to prepare for?
[00:12:08] Richard: You know, the interesting thing about, um, what you're asking, Sid, is that a lot of the technology is available today to provide very granular, very low level information around, um, Uh, temperatures around air quality, around what's going on in an environment, you know, utility reading, uh, how much energy is being used. Um, but the problem is there's a lot of old facilities. There's a lot of old, um, stores, old, um, places that, um, are not, have not been retrofitted with what they need. Right. And so, uh, part of the challenge is customers getting their, getting their facilities and their areas up to speed on all of the things that are possible.
[00:12:53] And I'll, I'll use some different examples. So it's very easy or somewhat easy for us to go into a retail footprint. Um, with one of, with one of our products, the Observe product, and actually read utility meter, uh, utility readings, um, to look at the usage of electricity, to actually actively and proactively turn off and on, uh, electrical devices that are in that facility remotely, uh, change the temperature of what's going on, so if it's too hot or nobody's in the building, you could actually change the temperature.
[00:13:24] All of those things go towards understanding sustainability, understanding energy usage, and so on. Um, but in other cases, um, you know, we're having to go in and actually help as consultants explain, um, how a commercial facility or retail store may be brought up to speed on what it needs in order for us to To proactively be able to reach out and, uh, control things like a temperature or control the devices that are in that store, um, and, and look at the output from those devices.
[00:13:58] Recently, I heard from somebody in the manufacturing world that something that I hadn't really thought of before, and it's fascinating because, you know, we go out and read a lot of different sensors, a lot of different controlled systems, uh, business, I mean, uh, building systems, BMS, and so on. And, um, what they were saying is that they have a lot of old equipment and the tolerance of that older equipment can actually have a huge impact on utility and energy usage.
[00:14:26] Um, so you can have an old device on an assembly line and that device can actually get out of tolerance. It can still be functioning. So to the people on the assembly line, it's pulling things through on the assembly line. But the motor itself is so inefficient, it's drawing more energy than it needs to draw.
[00:14:44] And so now there's even sensors that you can deploy, um, to put on devices like that, and see that they're out of tolerance from what they should be using, um, from an electricity perspective, and then be able to see that once it's out of tolerance, you can actually deploy a technician to come and fix it because the energy usage across a broad array of these old devices in these old plants could actually cause a huge energy spike.
[00:15:09] I'll just leave it at this. It's causing problems on the sustainability or the net zero front. If you're trying to reduce your carbon footprint, but the things that are consuming the most amount of energy are actually things you're not even aware of or see or, or touch, they're not the obvious things like HVACs and refrigeration units, but it's a little motor on an assembly line that's out of tolerance. You know, you need to know that. So it's a very fascinating world and a challenge today because not only do people want sustainable, um, and lower carbon footprints, Let's just face it, businesses want to spend less on energy. So, so it's a combination. It's a benefit, um, to both the environment and also to the business, if they can manage these things.
[00:15:55] Sid: Do you think that there's real intent there and action being taken? Cause you know, a lot of companies are actually out there making commitments and setting goals, you know, for sustainability, uh, for reducing their carbon footprint or, you know, their net zero targets, but ultimately like, unless there's real action, you know, this could be a lot of greenwashing.
[00:16:18] Do you see, You know that, that customers or, or, or the industry as a whole is making the right investments. They're retrofitting those old locations and assets to make them smarter, to be more efficient and overall to be a more responsible business.
[00:16:36] Richard: It's funny that you should say that because I think companies that are truly committed to it are going out and making those investments and making those changes. I think some organizations don't know how to expend and use the capital. And I'll use an obvious example. There are higher education universities who are really trying to become more sustainable and reduce energy footprint, but let's face it. A lot of universities have very old facilities and buildings. And so the newer buildings they're building, they're actually building smart buildings. Uh, very energy efficient buildings, um, and buildings that can be controlled and monitored.
[00:17:13] On the older buildings, it's harder for them to get the capital investment and the funds to actually go in and retrofit those buildings sometimes. So they may have the intent or, or the commitment to do it, it just may be a, a budgetary type of thing. In the, in the, in the corporate world, in the, in the, you know, non government sector, I think what we're seeing is, Companies generally who are coming out and saying that they are committed to it are doing the things that are immediately in front of them that they can do.
[00:17:43] But when asked, and I've asked some and I won't say who they are, Okay, great, you've got a goal for 2025 and you've got a goal for 2030, but you've also got a goal for 2040 and 2050, how are you going to get there? And they go, you know what, we're worried about 2025. And we're worried about 2030. We're not sure how we're going to get to 2040 or 2035 or 2050.
[00:18:08] And so I think there's a lot still developing and evolving about how this, this will play out.
[00:18:15] Sid: Now, we seem to be in a time where there's like massive leaps in advancements in technology, or at least they're more accessible. Some of these are there to elevate the experience, you know, of the consumer or the employee. Um, and some are to address some real challenges, you know, like scarcity in human capital. Um, how do you think these investments compete with some of the goals around, you know, smarter facilities and IOT and, you know, your sustainability goals that are like, Like you said, you know, sometimes you, the organizations are trying to just keep up with, with today's needs.
[00:18:53] Right.
[00:18:54] Richard: I think a lot of businesses around the world, especially in the maintenance and technician, um, footprint skilled, you know, skilled workers in that area are, are struggling with, with retaining and keeping the workers that they have. Um, there's a number of workers that are retiring. There's not necessarily an influx of workers that are well trained, that are coming up to speed.
[00:19:14] And I think the need for, um, AI solutions, the need for assisted solutions, um, and I will tell you that I will contrast that with, um, the businesses and some of the companies that we're in. Um, we have to be very careful as we're rolling out these AI solutions that assist somebody in how to fix something or how to use a system or how to use a product or what's going on with an asset.
[00:19:39] We have to make sure that we don't go too overboard too quickly because things like generative AI also want to have an answer so badly. That they will hallucinate and come up with an answer, um, even though it may not be correct. So in some of our environments, oil and gas, I'm pretty sure nobody wants us to have an AI guess what a technician on an oil rig is supposed to do, um, when they're out there fixing it if the, um, you know, if the possible result could be an oil spill.
[00:20:11] For example, we're blending where those technologies are and how, and the efficacy of those technologies against, um, the benefit, but I think there is a true benefit there that, um, companies need resources and they need those resources focused on certain things. If you have to turn a, roll a truck and turn a wrench, um, you want that person to go out there with the most information.
[00:20:34] What parts, what inventory, what are you likely going to encounter when you get there? Um. And so I think when you look at that versus sustainability and energy management and things like that, I think, um, the two are competing, but they're kind of competing in a sense in two different areas of the business.
[00:20:51] Um, one is, uh, a heavy capital investment in, I've got to make a building smart and I've got to go in and retrofit part of the building to make it smart. The other side of it is. I'm just not able to hire people. I have openings and there aren't people to do the job. So I have to provide augmented reality, virtual reality, AI capabilities. Um, I need people back at support centers who equally may not be as trained, or we may not be able to hire as many of them to have those AI capabilities. So when set in that case, it's more of an offset to something that you're foregoing. You know, uh, if, uh, uh, we all know, and I know you know this, if an asset is down, uh, in a store.
[00:21:32] Uh, and we detect that through our, our, you know, our, our sensors, and we send a work order to service channel, and there's nobody, uh, to go out and fix it. Um, that creates a big problem, um, because, uh, you know, lettuce could spoil, tomatoes could spoil, something else could go wrong with, uh, perishable goods, or those goods aren't available.
[00:21:55] Somebody opens a refrigeration unit and says, I wanted a cold, uh, soda, and now it's a hot soda. So, you know, there's all sorts of consumer experience and other things that are impacted by, by that. So, um, so I think people weigh the two different things against one another and you, you got to make sure that, um, you're doing, you're doing both.
[00:22:16] And quite frankly, uh, on the AI front, if you're, if you're not doing it, if you're not starting to integrate it in your products or in your businesses, you're You're already behind,
[00:22:25] Sid: There are leaders out there that are thinking ahead. And are trying to manage different initiatives that could either bring the organization to where they think it should be or, you know, bringing them ahead of the curve. But that requires, you know, A lot of evangelism, you know, building a business case and honestly taking some risks, right? How would you advise any leader out there that's responsible for these initiatives in terms of how to think about this and how to get started on this journey.
[00:23:00] Richard: It's interesting because some of the companies we deal with are very, very large companies and getting approvals for major changes is very difficult. Um, you know, we're part of Fortiv, um, and Fortiv has a fundamental belief in what's called experimentation and experimentation in this case is not experimenting like a chemical experiment.
[00:23:20] The experimentation is taking a concept and trying it out in a small setting, uh, trying it out in five stores. In one plant, in one distribution facility. And I think, um, the way that customers can do that and what we try to push for is, uh, pilots and testing and experimentation. Prove the value, prove the return on investment with a smaller investment upfront, um, and then go back and that supports your business case to roll that out in a broader context.
[00:23:50] Um, otherwise, you know, it, and believe me, um, Even as the president now and in my former roles, you know, I am a skeptic of a lot of business cases. I'm not a skeptic in business cases that have proven experiments behind them, um, that have worked. And so I think that's an important part of what, what everyone needs to do.
[00:24:09] As you look at like the retail side of your business, um, What are your thoughts on consumer expectations today? Like what are, uh, what is your expectation as a consumer as well? Big conversation topic that we've had at Accruant is around, Um, the changing behaviors of consumers with e commerce, with Amazon, with online experience. When you actually go into a store, um, you're not ordering through a, you know, a DoorDash or an Uber Eats from a, from a restaurant or a quick serve restaurant. You're not, um, ordering from Amazon merchandise and instead you want to go have that in person experience.
[00:24:49] Sid: That's right.
[00:24:50] Richard: That in person experience, whether, whether it's me or I believe most consumers that are going out for it, um, want to walk into a store and, and be wowed. They want it to be cool. Uh, and cool. I don't mean like, wow, that's cool. Um, cause that's the word I use all the time. I mean, they want the temperature to be the right temperature, right? And they want it to, um, uh, you know, they want things to work. They want the lights to be on. Um, and if you're creating an ambiance or a vibe in that store. You know, they want it to look that way.
[00:25:21] And so, um, what's important is, uh, it used to be you'd go to the mall and you'd just walk down store by store by store. And if you walked into one store and some lights weren't working, a fixture wasn't there, something wasn't, wasn't working properly, the store's a little warm or whatever. Well, you might buy something, you might not, you walk on to the next store.
[00:25:40] I think now people go, I came out here because I want an experience. I want it to be something that is, that is special and, um, I think the evolution, so there was a, a term used a number of years ago after the iPhone came out and the Android came out, which was the consumerization of IT. The expectation that a consumer is expecting things to work like their mobile phone. And they, they want all of those things that you've talked about, integrated data. They want it to help them with decisions. They want it, to do certain things. Translate that over to products that you sell into those enterprises. Those people that work there have a certain expectation. They use a mobile phone every day. They want the experience to be easy, seamless, and, and, and easy. Translate that to their consumers and the buyers who are walking into those stores, restaurants, quick serve restaurants, whatever it might be. They want that experience that they expected because they knew when they went to that particular restaurant, that particular store, that was the type of experience they were expecting. Anything else is kind of a letdown from that, in my opinion.
[00:26:51] Sid: The consumer has to feel like they want to walk through your doors versus your competitors. But more so there's the option of just going back home and sitting on your couch and ordering whatever you have to or want to, um, on your phone, whether it's food or merchandise or anything of that, of those, of those sorts. So if they're taking the effort to walk in through your doors, like that experience better be worth it. Um, you know, what's interesting is I was talking to Tom McGee as well, who's the president of ICSC, and, you know, even he shared some interesting stats around, you know, this whole thing about e commerce and, and the relation to the physical brick and mortar space.
[00:27:35] And, you know, there's this lazy narrative around brick and mortars that, and Bill Yannick, who's the CEO of ConnexFM, talks about this too, which is, that's lazy, because in fact, you know, the data that, you know, apparently, has been done by ICSC and a few other studies as well states that If a business has a physical brick and mortar space near a consumer, the cart size, even for their e commerce, uh, purchases gets bigger because there's more confidence in the fact that they can return it with ease and so on and so forth.
[00:28:09] So there's a huge relation. And so the physical brick and mortar space. isn't becoming less relevant. There's just now an expect expectation that the experience, you know, across the omni channels that, you know, a consumer touches, um, is the same, right? There's a brand promise that you have to deliver on no matter which way you're going to interact with them.
[00:28:31] Richard: Yeah. In fact, I've been reading some studies on brand, uh, and the strength of a brand and how it's no longer tied to just one thing. It's not like you just know the brand. It's the brand through the omnichannel experience that you're having, um, allows you to go onto, uh, the web, um, see something and you're like, uh, I don't know if I really want to see, you know, want that pair of shoes. I may want to see it. And the better that experience is at driving you into the store and creating that environment where you can say I now can go see the shoes, I can go try them on, I can go see the clothes, I can try them on, um, starts to build brand equity, uh, to the consumers. So they walk in, there's a certain vibe in the store, it's kind of a continuation or a continuity of their e commerce or their virtual experience now exists in the brick and mortar.
[00:29:24] And so, I don't think these are, these are two different things and in fact, you could argue if they were two different things and there's multiple reasons why Amazon bought Whole Foods, but if, you know, there are multiple reasons why brands build, um, kind of a footprint that allows for both in person and virtual types of experiences, when those are disconnected, And like, in other words, you have a really cool, nice brand experience online, and you walk into the store and you're like, Meh, this isn't so good.
[00:29:56] Or it doesn't direct you into the store because the two systems are disconnected from one another. Or you can't return an e commerce to that store. I mean, there are all sorts of discontinuities that can cause a problem in consumer perception. And so, I think those have to be, um, part of what you look at from a consumer perspective.
[00:30:14] Um, the ecosystem of the store, right?
[00:30:17] Sid: right. Couldn't agree more. I mean, it creates friction and, and the stark differences in experience will be obvious, right? And so the consumer will, will, will, uh, will feel that. Let's talk a little bit about the future. As you look at the future, And the built environment of the, of the future, whether it's the commercial real estate space or, or, you know, um, you know, the universities or, or buildings or retail, what does that look like in, in 10 years? What kind of experience do you think we will have as employees and, and consumers?
[00:30:50] Richard: There's two things that are going to be true. And I don't know if it's going to be five years or 10 years, but it's, we're going to move in this direction and we're going to move a lot faster than people realize. And people say, that's not going to happen for 20 years, but I think it's, it's, we're on the verge and generative AI and some of these things have, have driven it, which is, smart buildings and buildings in general are going to become more autonomous. Already buildings have more computer capabilities. They have more capabilities than a, um, Then a Tesla, then an autonomous vehicle. Um, and what you're going to see is a lot more of the building driving what it needs to actually become energy efficient, to become sustainable, that when there's a problem in an air vent, sensors will detect that that's the air vent that's a problem. Redirect airflow around that air vent and tell a technician could come out at the appropriate time on the appropriate billing rate and fix the problem. And the only thing an owner or a tenant is going to be seeing is a dashboard that says, we fixed a whole bunch of problems for you. You know, thank you very much.
[00:31:54] Right? And so I think the future on the smart building side is going to be autonomous. Um, you know, we talk a lot about going from multiple panes of glass. To a single pane of glass, but our future vision for Accruent, and I believe the future for the world is no panes of glass, nobody's logging on and dispatching a technician.
[00:32:14] It's all happening automagically. It's happening by itself.
[00:32:18] Sid: Right.
[00:32:19] Richard: On the other side of it, um, I think, um, there is the future of data and generative AI in general. Um, I think the experience of somebody, where they're going to sit in a building, what's kind of the air flow, what's the, uh, the quality of the air in that particular footprint, um, you know, there's a lot of studies around too much CO2 in a specific conference room or area can actually cause, People that have issues.
[00:32:45] I think people want to know that. And I think your experience with those systems, where do I sit when I come in, in a hybrid work environment, where am I going to book my meetings? These are going to become things that are more similar to using chat GPT. You're going to have an interaction with an AI and that AI is going to be your concierge.
[00:33:05] It's going to walk you through how to have that experience. Where should you be sitting? How are you going to hold a meeting for 600 people with catering? All of these things are going to happen through, uh, not going through multiple clicks on a screen. Right now, people are trying to get rid of clicks on a screen.
[00:33:22] The future is not going to be clicks on a screen. The future is just going to be you speaking, or typing, or interacting with a device, and that device is actually telling you where to go in the building, what to do in the building, how, where are your friends sitting, where are the people you normally sit with, where are your teammates, um, what's the air quality.
[00:33:43] You know, how, how cool or warm it is in that particular location. Those two sides are going to fundamentally change how people work. And we know that in the return to work environment, that the experience of the employee, the employee experience is a top, top thing. So there's two parts of employee experience.
[00:34:03] One is the facility I'm in, are the lights on? We have the light bulbs been replaced? Do the bathrooms work? Do you know all of these different things, but the other part of it is, am I sitting next to my teammates? Is it a place I want to be? Is it the right kind of setup? Does it have the right monitor with the right docking station?
[00:34:21] You know, these are things that are just going to be kind of givens that you don't have to think through. You don't have to ask for them because it remembers what type of laptop you have, where you sat last time, who your teammates are, and it's going to go back and forth and have an interactive conversation with you about it.
[00:34:37] And then you're going to end up there and it's going to use wayfinding to take you there. And a lot of these things exist in snippets. But I think in the future, it will be the entire experience for the end user.
[00:34:48] Sid: As a technologist and, you know, world that we all lived in, through, which is like the post COVID world, right? Where a lot of new things came out and, you know, are being tested even today. Are there any technologies that you're skeptical about? You're like, yeah, this, I'm not really sure if it's going to, probably is a fad and it's not going to be the norm going forward,
[00:35:12] Richard: Well, that's an interesting one. Cause I love all technologies and, um, I love seeing where things are going. I think there are some things that are not so useful. I think, uh, there's a lot of smart devices. There are. Um, you know, there's so many smart devices now that I'm pretty sure you don't need a smart toaster.
[00:35:33] So, I'm skeptical that everything will become a smart device. I don't need to know whether the toast is now brown or, you know, or things like that. And I think some of these things have gotten overboard or carried away or they're the wrong use of the technology. Um, I think on the other side, um, I said it early on about hallucinations with generative AI. Bye. I think while generative AI is powerful, and each generation of it coming out is becoming more powerful, um, and it learns through these large language models, and, you know, I'm somebody that actually believes that eventually, uh, you'll be interviewing Um, you know, not me, but you'll be interviewing the generative AI version of me and it will act like me.
[00:36:18] And I think we will all have that, but there's some things that have to be fixed in the meantime. And this whole notion that, um, the data you're pointing at can either be poisoned, um, poisoned data or the data that you're pointing at, um, is not complete and so at the end of the day, data is king and so I'm kind of skeptical that sometimes. You know, I believe a large language model or a generative AI model in technology terms can go out and learn how to be a doctor and answer, you know, questions on a, you know, a lawyer exam or something like that. Um, but I think when it comes to doing specific functions, asking questions about specific people, I think we have to be really careful because I'm not sure it's there yet because sometimes it'll actually, um, try to guess things that aren't accurate.
[00:37:11] And so I'm not skeptical in the long run, but I'm skeptical of current, of usage right now in certain, uh, use cases.
[00:37:20] Sid: Yeah, that's, that makes a lot of sense. And I can envision a world where you're paying a few hundred dollars for like a toaster that's not smart because it's retro. Right? That's pretty funny. And, what you said about like the digital version, I think there was a movie made about it, right? I think Bruce Willis. Think maybe it's called Surrogate. Um,
[00:37:40] Richard: Yes.
[00:37:42] Sid: we'd all get in trouble if people start preferring that version of us than the actual versions, right?
[00:37:48] Richard: My goal is reducing meetings around the world, um, and reducing the number of phone calls everyone is on. Um, I think the problem is going to be that there's going to be four of me and I'm going to be attending four meetings at once. Um, and nobody will know which is the real me. So,
[00:38:04] Sid: that's right. That's pretty funny. Um, so as we wrap up, Richard, would you like to share anything about your vision for the future of Recruit? Uh, what do we have to look forward to?
[00:38:16] Richard: What you're going to see from Accruent is a lot more, um, what I'll call leapfrogging of technology. A lot more of what we've talked about today as far as using AI, predictive analytics, machine learning. Um, things we already use today, but in a bigger way. Lot more use of generative AI as much as sometimes I'm a skeptic of it.
[00:38:35] What you're going to see is those things being integrated. And I think, as I said, data is king. So you're going to see a lot more products from us. We, we sit on a tremendous amount of data. About, um, different asset types, different asset manufacturers, um, you know, what were, what were different sensor readings that caused different types of problems to occur?
[00:38:58] And so what you're going to see out of Accruent is a much more interactive, uh, experience moving forward and, um, like I said, the vision of less clicks on screens and more of an, uh, of an interactive experience, uh, that drives you to whatever you need, whether you're a dispatcher or a technician. Yeah,
[00:39:19] Sid: What advice would you give folks in our audience who are supporting a functioning built environment and want to make a bigger impact in their organization? How can they get ahead of the curve and make a bigger, deeper, more meaningful impact within their business?
[00:39:36] Richard: The biggest problem that people have is education. And I don't mean the people that are trying to make the difference. Sometimes they're very highly educated. They go out, and by highly educated, I mean they learn about what the trends are, what's coming out, what's occurring in the future, and they're able to articulate that.
[00:39:52] I think, um, part of the problem is, um, the rest of the people they're interacting with Are maybe not as knowledgeable on it. And I think sometimes people take it for, for granted that, you know, they go out and they learn all of these things about how they can impact their business in a positive way, but they forget the like internal selling of that and the education of that with other, with their peers, with their manager, with other people in the organization.
[00:40:19] And I think that's an important part of the process that you go through, um, as these new things are coming out and these new things are emerging is, you finding use cases, finding examples, networking across companies, um, going to user events, going to different things, uh, reading, you know, trade, you know, and industry related things.
[00:40:42] And, you know, you don't have to do all of those things, but do one of those things and then bring back that information and explain how other companies are using the newer technologies and the emerging trends to make a big difference for how they run their businesses. Uh, you
[00:40:56] Sid: Love it. Well, with that, Richard, I want to say a huge thank you. Thank you for taking the time. I thoroughly enjoyed our conversation. Um, and Richard, for those in our audience who may want to connect with you, where can they find you?
[00:41:12] Richard: at, Richard Leurig or RK Leurig I believe it is on LinkedIn. And you can find me, um, at Richard dot Leurig at accruent com is my email address.
[00:41:22] Sid: And Richard, I believe you also are on your own podcast with Accruent, right? Can you share more about that?
[00:41:29] Richard: yeah, we do a podcast at accruant called Beyond Built. We speak to, uh, uh, industry people throughout our customer base, um, about, um, things that are going on in their businesses, not necessarily tied to accruant products. Um, but what's happening in different industries. And because we have a broad set of industries, you will find that the Beyond Built podcast may, you know, may cover a food and beverage manufacturer one time, it may cover, uh, somebody that's a retail, um, you know, store or retail footprint another time, um, and so we try to We try to span a lot of different industries to give a different flavor.
[00:42:09] And I think part of what you're talking about, about learning on what's going on, sometimes you can learn quite a bit, um, by listening to somebody in mining, even though you're in manufacturing, or listening to somebody in retail, even though you're in manufacturing. So, I love the cross connect of Beyond Built and how it's, it's a network of people that are coming together across a number of different industries to talk about what they're doing in their built environment.
[00:42:34] Sid: Love it. Well, once again, Richard, thank you so much. And for all those in our audience, thank you for joining us and we'll see you on the next episode of Elevating Brick and Mortar.
[00:42:44] Well, I hope you enjoyed this conversation with Richard Leurig, president of Accruent. It was a great conversation where we talked about the increasing role of technology, not only in operating the built environment, but also delivering on an organization's best interests. Brand promise. Business and functional leaders have a lot to think about as they prioritize investments in that built environment.
[00:43:07] They have to make sure that they're not just looking at the short term, but also looking at the long term outlook and setting their organization up for success. We also talked about what we as consumers can expect from the physical spaces of the future. With that, I'm your host Sid Shetty, and I'll see you on the next episode of Elevating Brick and Mortar.