Schneider Electric, the leader in the digital transformation of energy management and automation, announces a strategic minority investment in Planon Beheer B.V. (“Planon”),, a leading cloud-based software provider in Integrated Workplace Management Systems (IWMS). Subject to normal regulatory and legal approvals, the deal will extend Schneider’s unique digital building lifecycle software offering, increase its market penetration and enhance the value and sustainability profiles of building assets.
Schneider Electric and Planon will jointly collaborate on innovation to deliver a suite of software and services to digitize the building lifecycle for both existing and new buildings. This will improve building sustainability, operational efficiency, and wellbeing for multiple customers in the Government, Education, Real Estate, Healthcare, Finance, Data Centers and Insurance sectors.
Buildings today are highly inefficient: they consume over 50% of the world’s electricity, 1/3 of all energy and account for 40% of global carbon emissions. Schneider Electric believes that in the future buildings will be increasingly digital and electric and such end-to-end technologies will be critical in driving energy efficiency and carbon reductions, while ensuring enhanced comfort for building occupants and financial returns for building owners.
To achieve net zero, nine out of ten buildings that exist today will need to be digitally retrofitted. Planon’s portfolio of workplace management, maintenance and operations solutions leverages real-time analytics to achieve hyper-efficiency, increase building operators’ productivity and transform building users’ personalized workplace experience.
Based on IT/OT convergence, the joint offering augments the breadth of insights across building asset maintenance and management workflows to deliver a suite of software that creates smarter workplaces. For example:
- Helping building owners and facilities managers mitigate the risk of occupant complaints by proactively addressing potential issues before they arise;
- Optimizing space management at the enterprise portfolio level and enabling businesses to meet the emerging compliance standards;
- Improving health and safety, increasing the comfort and wellbeing of occupants by monitoring air quality and temperature;
- Driving higher occupant satisfaction, process optimization, sustainability and cost efficiency,
The integration of Schneider Electric’s EcoStruxure™ energy management platform and Planon’s enterprise-scale solutions will extend their reach across multi-vendor operating platforms to millions of connected assets and transform built environments from passive, costly assets into safe, sustainable and resilient buildings.
While continue to operate as an independent software vendor, Planon’s IWMS extends Schneider Electric’s existing operation and maintenance solutions to continue deliver supreme values to Building Owners and Occupiers, across all technologies installed in a Building. This strategic transaction is also well in line with Schneider Electric’s vision to grow its suite of best in class, end-to-end software and its commitment to helping customers on their digital transformation journey to drive sustainability, efficiency and resiliency across the lifecycle from CapEx to OpEx.
Philippe Delorme, Executive Vice-President of Energy Management and a member of the Executive Committee at Schneider Electric, said: “We are delighted to join forces with Planon, enhancing our digital expertise and offers available to customers across all our buildings and datacenters markets striving for lifecycle and operational efficiency. With an estimated 90% of our time spent indoors, buildings of the future need to be sustainable, hyper-efficient, resilient, and people focused. The Covid-19 pandemic has added a new dimension to this shift: buildings must support business resiliency. Schneider Electric is committed to playing a central role in the creation of the sustainable and resilient buildings of the future.”
Pierre Guelen, Planon’s Founder and CEO, commented: “We are very excited about this investment by Schneider Electric, which will be bring tremendous benefits to our customers, partners, as well as to our company. Schneider Electric brings building operating technology to our solution portfolio with a global reach and unparalleled customer and partner relationships. We share a common vision on the digital transformation of the entire building lifecycle and its contribution to creating healthy, sustainable, efficient data-driven buildings and provide building users with a personalized workplace experience. Schneider Electric’s support will accelerate the impact of our solutions on the global market.”
Laurent Bataille, Executive Vice-President, Digital Energy Division at Schneider Electric added: “Smart buildings will not only deliver improved sustainability and efficiency, but they will also drive the employee value proposition, including comfort, wellbeing and safety. Buildings of the future will enhance and differentiate brands and enable energy generation and income – all through the power of modern technology. We cannot become carbon-neutral by 2050 or solve climate change without transforming our buildings. Smart connected buildings will be the cornerstone of an All-Digital, All-Electric world.”
