Rudy Salinas, Senior Manager, Marketplace Strategic Partnerships & BD at ServiceChannel, discusses the biggest trends and challenges of facilities management. Rudy says that challenges include underused spaces, lack of candidates for facilities roles, and a need for greater sustainability. The industry’s strengths, however, lie in the people behind the scenes, higher efficiency thanks to AI, and new methodologies.
Today we speak with Rudy Salinas, Senior Manager, Marketplace Strategic Partnerships & BD at ServiceChannel. ServiceChannel is the leader in facilities management software and contractor sourcing. Their software lets you manage all maintenance activity from a single platform.
Rudy discusses the biggest trends and challenges of facilities management. Rudy says that challenges include underused spaces, lack of candidates for facilities roles, and a need for greater sustainability. The industry’s strengths, however, lie in the people behind the scenes, higher efficiency thanks to AI, and new methodologies.
Key quote:
“The heart of facility management, if I had to pick one of the many things, would be trades. If we don't understand the trades, if the people operating the facility management don't understand the trades, it's very hard to move forward. I think at a very simple level, we collectively need to make trades the core of what we do. Understanding the trades allows us to understand the workers, understanding the marketing materials, understanding the technology and how companies and leading companies like Accruent and Service Channel can look to connect multiple things, to make the life of the people that play in our space happier. So they can help us build better experience in this space as well.”
00:42 - In the News
05:32 - Addressing the labor shortage
08:12 - What to do with vacant space
15:28 - Rudy’s background
17:32 - The heart of facilities management
22:58 - Pairing technology with teams
38:02 - Rapid fire
Find Richard on LinkedIn
More about Accruent
Eric 1: Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to Beyond Built. I'm Eric Cook, Global Solutions Director at Accruent.
[00:00:05] Kristi 1: Hi, Eric. I'm Kristi Flores, Chief Marketing Officer at Accruent. Great to be here.
[00:00:11] Richard 1: And I'm Richard Lurig, the Chief Product and Technology Officer here at Accruent.
[00:00:15] Eric 1: Great. Lovely to have you both. On today's episode, we'll be talking with Rudy Salinas, Senior Manager, Marketplace Strategic Partnerships and Business Development at Service Channel, and probably the only person who has a longer title than I do. Rudy, great to have you here.
[00:00:30] Rudy 1: Thank you, Eric. Nice to meet you guys. Happy to be on board and, uh, you know, talk, facility management and technology.
[00:00:37] Eric 1: Excellent. Alright listeners and viewers, we'd like to start every episode with a segment we call In The News. Today, we'll be discussing the idea that facilities management industry is at a crossroads. Our industry's facing a couple of issues. A huge amount of underutilized space is impacting the industry, and there's a lack of candidates stepping into facility roles. Christy, Richard, What do you think about this? Are we lacking a direction in facility management, or is there a bigger trend going on that we're not seeing?
[00:01:06] Richard 1: I really see this as, as a pathway that there is some direction, but it's not very well defined for the future. And it's not very well defined for how the problems that we're facing today, but using methodologies of the past are going to work going forward.
[00:01:21] Eric 1: We have this Marketplace that's sort of acting on its own, right? I mean people are taking the sort of direction they want to and they're sort of choosing, you know, how they're going to address these issues but the, industry as a whole is very, very fragmented.
[00:01:38] Christy, do you see that there's something that facilities managers and other professionals don't like about what is being offered in the marketplace overall, or is there some other sort of correction going on?
[00:01:51] Kristi 1: You know, I think Richard touched on it, where there's been so much change that's happened in the industry. And I think people have made different bets on what's going to happen. Going through COVID where there was a lot of displacement on consumer behavior. And I think we've seen a resurgence on, in a balance on, How consumers want to spend their time and their money and the experiences they're looking for.
[00:02:12] So I think, um, as things develop here, you know, with some of the change, I think clarity around what consumers are looking for and how retail can go and deliver some of that, but how facilities managers really play a role in that experience.
[00:02:26] Eric 1: So I want to just pull that thread for a second there. The fact that we've got so much space out there right now, that's underutilized, that's causing a significant financial strain on many companies, and I know it's an area where you've done quite a bit of work recently. What do you think that the ultimate solution to the problem is, at least of space management itself?
[00:02:50] Richard 1: I think you have to look at it from multiple facets. Number one, how are companies coming back to work, but more importantly, how they're reusing the space. How are they creating a welcoming environment and a place that works for everyone that is working there?
[00:03:03] And how does that create a place that somebody wants to go to work? But at the same time, you need to do two things. One is you need to make the operation of the current space more efficient. You have to run at efficient levels. You have to make sure that the maintenance of those operations and facilities are appropriately sized.
[00:03:24] And then you have to look at the leases and the space you're utilizing and determine, are you fitting into the space the best way that you can? And are you using the space appropriately? The intelligence of the information that you have and all of the data that you have to make those longer term decisions about how you utilize space if you have multiple locations.
[00:03:44] Eric 1: That makes a lot of sense and I know that I would assume that all of us have been in offices of our customers in the past year or two and just seen these huge cavernous layouts that don't seem like they fit either the purpose that the people who need to work there need or the people who are ultimately managing the real estate itself.
[00:04:08] Yeah, and I think that what's happening with that is that, reutilizing the space re, re-planning floor plates, basically making sure that you have teams fit together. And that you're actually working towards an environment where when somebody comes in, they don't see a very open cavernous space that's unwelcoming, but instead see a place where their teammates are there.
[00:04:34] Richard 1: It's in an environment with the appropriate environmentals, you know, environmentals from air quality to air conditioning, to heating and so on that you're sitting next to the people that you work with, you're very productive and efficient while you're there. And you see a place that you can actually be more effective and more productive at work.
[00:04:53] Eric 1: Yeah, I think, I think that's a, that's a good point and I want to bring in Rudy for this next part here. If we think about the, the fact that it's not just in office spaces, but in other types of facilities as well, that there's actually a huge labor shortage when it comes to managing facilities, and that that problem actually is not new with the pandemic like office space management really is.
[00:05:16] How do you look at this problem over the last five years and what do you see as something, some things that people are doing to solve it?
[00:05:22] Rudy 1: Yeah. No, the great thing about a problem, Eric, I think it's an opportunity to provide solutions, right? Even though I think COVID, supply shortages, disruptions in, in labor, um, are there. I think, uh, at a high level, the industry has a good opportunity to really kind of take it in a new perspective and a new look of who, uh, is actually servicing our space.
[00:05:45] What do they look like? What do they talk like? What do they connect with? And I think there's an opportunity for people in facility management to kind of move towards this. world where we are driving experiences. At times I make a joke that we are artists, uh, in one way or another, right? Creating experiences with people can collaborate in one space to bring multiple different perspectives into one view that can really kind of lay the roads of where we're going to move forward, uh, in our industry, right?
[00:06:16] If you look at some of these commercial buildings, right? Start acknowledging, like, who is there passing by you everyday picking up you're trash. Do you know her or his name? Are you connecting with him or her to understand like how can I make your life better? Am I gonna keep cutting my nails in the office or in the desk and you're cleaning them up?
[00:06:38] These are the things like at a very simplified way I think where everybody in the industry can kind of really take this new approach to really understand How can we drive more efficiency, not only from a technological perspective, but from a human perspective, from a partnership perspective. Because in one way or another, we all have a, in one way or another, we all play a part on driving these experiences that will be able to kind of bring people into a space.
[00:07:06] And in a world where we're all getting comfortable working remotely, right, um, Part of it is me having to be incentivized to go back into a building, right? Um, what is that building going to look like? I think there's an opportunity to kind of make a, a beautiful, uh, type of, uh, system and setup that we can all, like, exchange and, and do our part to really elevate, uh, the space and communities as a whole.
[00:07:30] Eric 1: I really like the way you put that. And I really like the human element there. Cause I think it is something that we don't always think about when we're thinking about the space itself or the real estate or something like that. But there's always humans behind every, part of that process. And I think that it's really important. We keep that in mind. Kristi let me ask you a question as well. Cause I think. About all of this vacant space out there, what are we going to do with it? What are we ultimately going to do to put a playbook, uh, into, people's hands so that they can actually deal with this problem?
[00:08:03] Kristi 1: First, you know, what we love to do is, deeply understand our customers and what they're trying to solve for their business and, and even for their end customers. And what we find is different customers have different needs and, and future goals for their business. And so, you know, we've, we've really had to think, more holistically around how can we create different options and software that would actually enable our customers to have different approaches to how they want to manage their facilities in this extra space.
[00:08:34] And so in some cases, we have universities where They are repurposing some of their extra space to host more events and more activities and even for on campus and for students to utilize that space, um, or repurpose it for more spaces for innovation, especially because we see education actually changing the way they teach.
[00:08:56] So it allows, in this example, education and universities to kind of adapt when we think about corporations. I would say there's still a lot of change around how do we actually use a space? And, and we find even at Accruent and Affordive, we love coming together and using space to really enhance collaboration, innovation.
[00:09:18] And so a lot of our customers have been asking for, you know, how do they adapt their space to really enable some of that better experiences? And that even goes to the retail space as well. So I would say it varies and it's still evolving, Eric.
[00:09:33] Eric 1: That's perfect. And I think that, you know, we, we have to acknowledge that the problems aren't completely solved. If they were, we wouldn't need this podcast. So let's, let's talk about how we can solve the problem. I do have one follow up question though, that I think I'd direct to Richard on what you just said, Christy. So we've, we've known about this problem for years now. The pandemic has been over for a long time. So, why is it that this problem isn't solved already? What makes it so complex?
[00:10:02] Richard 1: I think that's a very interesting question because I think for so many years, I mean literally throughout history, people went into the workplace. They went into offices. That was an expectation. You would commute in the morning, you would go into a workplace, and you worked. If you changed jobs, you went to a different workplace.
[00:10:18] The pandemic fundamentally changed that. When everyone started to more or less work from home, that could work from home, it changed the philosophy of productivity of the tools available to you from work from home. And it, but it didn't change that people sometimes need to get together, as Kristi said, and have discussions around innovation and collaboration and teamwork. And I think the belief was that when the pandemic ended, people would largely come back to work, that there would be a mass migration back into this empty space that had existed, you know, during the pandemic. And I think the reality is times changed and each individual company has adapted to that in different ways.
[00:11:02] And so that's why I don't think there's been a broad brush solution. That answers all the questions about what a company will do and how it will become more effective or more productive in this hybrid work environment. I believe companies see a value in bringing people together and creating a culture of inclusion and engagement that exists when you do that.
[00:11:23] But I also think people realize that work life balance and other factors mean that there will be a hybrid environment. Where sometimes people are working from home and this isn't, you know, something that takes hundreds of years to set up, which is go to work in an office doesn't get over, you know, changed overnight.
[00:11:42] And I think we're still learning and finding that out and we see, as Kristi said, different things from our customers. We see different companies adapting to this new, new way of doing business in a, in a different pace at times. And so, I think that really answers why there hasn't been a one size fits all way of doing this.
[00:12:01] Eric 1: I also blame slippers. I think if, uh, if, if we all wore slippers to the office, I bet
[00:12:06] Richard 1: And gym shorts. And gym shorts.
[00:12:09] Eric 1: Okay, so let's move on now with our interview with Rudy Salinas. Welcome to the show. I, I know we all, we brought you in at the end of the news section, but let's get into your background a little bit, but, um, first, uh, I want to sort of get your feeling on what we were discussing there. Is there a, is, do you have like a particular opinion about, uh, about space utilization or, or what the, what the ultimate solution to the problem is?,
[00:12:33] Rudy 1: Eric, at a simple response, I love going to coffee shops to, to read my emails in the morning. Um, you know, I'm extremely productive and, and the relationship I get to build with my barista or as my dad calls them, the, the handsome hipster that makes delicious food, very fulfilling, right?
[00:12:50] You're building community on a day to day basis that allows me to come back home, right? Put some music. Put some tunes or my slippers or be professional from. The waist up, um, that those are big advantages and it's resonating with, especially with the younger community who are coming out of college and that's just their norm, their day to day.
[00:13:12] They're not used to going into the office, the way, you know, some of us young people, had the advantage to do or we were assuming towards, but look, Eric, I think for me, it's just like, The elephant in the room, we all need to kind of address is a cohesive, collective reminder of our mortality that COVID really brought to this space, right?
[00:13:32] And I think it's reassessing some priorities that some business professionals have. And I think without really diving deep into the context of the unique backgrounds that drive and support our space, um, it's going to be really hard for us to kind of, you know, And maybe that's not the solution, right?
[00:13:48] One standard approach to, to multiple nuances. Um, and I think that's what, you know, I'm excited about is the ability to kind of decide and build a new future of what a, uh, a collaborative space will look like. Um, but definitely don't want it to be Rudy's space, right? Because most likely we would be dancing, um, and eating really a lot of, uh, delicious food, uh, which maybe that's what we want. But I think there's just a broad space of community members out there that are driving experiences and, you know, I think, uh, I'd love to start bringing them into our space and, and, and, and bring some, some happiness and joy to at times what could be, you know, repetitive in the working force.
[00:14:29] Eric 1: That's it. I love that. And I think that's actually a great pivot too, because now I want to know even more about your background and how you got into the industry. So tell us a little bit about what you do. Maybe not your title, because we've heard your title, you know, at the beginning. But I want to know what it is that you actually do and what got you into this industry.
[00:14:47] Rudy 1: That, that is probably the, the toughest question I always got. Not only just recently here at Service Channel, but just my entire life. What does Rudy do? So originally I'm from Mexico City. Lived there till I was about 10 years old, moved to the U. S. to the San Francisco Bay Area.
[00:15:03] I have a Mexico City bougie princess mom that married a rancher, from Mexico. So I think I was fortunate enough to get both perspectives from an urban setting as well from a rural setting. and then most of my life I've been around blue collar workers. My quest to understand the world took me to the world of political philosophy, history,
[00:15:23] and finding a, in facilities, a smaller representation of society as a whole, right? Uh, but being able to kind of work in a space where we bring people together to collaborate and share ideas, right? It's what triggers my motivation to get up every single day because I love the sensation of going to the White House or the Capitol and saying, Humans interacted in this space and it was because of a great facility program that somebody implemented throughout the last two to three hundred years.
[00:15:54] And for me, my unique background, right, looking at the pyramids that I go enjoy, you know, those are facilities too, right? At one point somebody said, I want this to withstand the test of time, right? And create experiences, whether it be church, whether it be a concert, whether it be retail space. It's an experience.
[00:16:13] It's the ability to kind of go into a space and interact with human beings, which in my opinion, from a personal standpoint, I think we need to do a lot more of.
[00:16:21] Eric 1: what, what do you think goes into the day to day management of facilities? And I'm talking from a general sense, not from maybe a specific sense of office or retail or factories or whatever, but what do you think is really at the heart of what we do in facilities management?
[00:16:40] Rudy 1: The heart of facility management, if I had to pick one of the many things, would be trades. Right? if We don't understand the trades, if the people operating, you know, the facility management don't understand the trades, It's very hard to move forward, really, um, so I think, uh, to Chrissy's point, the enablement for me is, is, is much needed.
[00:17:03] It's shocking to me at times when I jump on a call and, and, you know, when I say HVAC, they, at times, they think it's a business term. So I think at a very simple level, I think we collectively need to, we You know, make trades the, the, the core of, of what we do, right? Understanding the trades allows us to understand the workers, understanding the marketing materials, understanding the technology and how, you know, companies and leading companies like accruing and service channel can look to connect multiple things, um, to make the life of the people that play in our space happier, right?
[00:17:38] So they can help us build better experience in this space as well.
[00:17:41] Eric 1: And, and I think that's a, that's a really good point because it's, it's always been clear to me that the buyers of the solutions aren't always the users of the solutions. And so having their buy in and their, and understanding how they solve their problems on a day to day basis and what can make their lives easier is really important.
[00:18:01] Rudy 1: Exactly.
[00:18:02] Eric 1: There's a lot going on today in facilities and, that's why we've really created this entire podcast. But today we're dealing with things like the labor shortage we discussed. There's the rising, role of AI in, in, in every business and the pressure to drive sustainability.
[00:18:17] Richard 1: I think, you know, We've talked about the, really, the built environment, Rudy, and we've talked about how labor and how people working in that environment are so important and making sure we have, you know, have the right people. One of the biggest challenges across the facilities management industry is really the labor shortage.
[00:18:36] And it's looking at the fact that 51 percent of facilities management workers are actually looking for other jobs. And we believe that there is a numerous reasons for that. For that turnover, uh, diversity issues, low pay, lack of development opportunities, waning interest in the profession by younger individuals.
[00:18:59] In the future, this area of, of work is going to be critically important. And so the question is really how do you see that labor shortage playing and, and what do you think about that?
[00:19:11] Rudy 1: The labor shortage, Richard, and great question. And, and by no means, you know, my response here is a solution to the problem because it's very complex. Um, and I think it requires so many different inputs from different experts in the field. But in a simple terms, at least the data that I'm exposed to, it's going to be different.
[00:19:30] in A world where we've pixelated the dirty jobs.
[00:19:33] Where are we going to come up with more plumbers? Well, I think they're out there, right? I think we just need to kind of move towards understanding what they want, what they like, and then how we pair up the technology.
[00:19:44] So it's not an intimidating, more of an embracing, you know, the way it was when somebody said, you know, it would be great if we put some rubber on that hammer, right? I'm pretty sure at one point somebody was like, in my days, I didn't have to do that and look at my really tough hands. Well, I think a lot of the younger generation doesn't want to work as hard as my dad, right?
[00:20:03] Because when I look at how hard my dad worked, I'm like, no way. Like, I do not want to do that. But do I enjoy going out and working on my yard and getting my hands dirty? It's my favorite time of the day. And I think that's where, I think, at a high level, we as an industry need to move towards.
[00:20:18] Richard 1: That's great. That's a great answer. Kristi, what do you think about the skills, associated with that?
[00:20:24] Kristi 1: Yeah, you know, so much of it starts with like, how do we really empower and attract? Early in career into these roles, but what we're also seeing is just, you know, a bigger, , wave of seasoned employees, retiring Rudy, you know, and a lot of that wealth of knowledge, you need to talk about your dad.
[00:20:40] My dad was an electrician. And so, you know, I, I observed, you know, his, his hard days at work. And I even have been inspired by how much technology could actually improve. Um, Some of that. But, you know, as we think about how do we attract employees into the field and, you know, and how do we do that in a way that is going to empower and actually build up stronger facilities, um, in the future.
[00:21:05] Rudy 1: Yeah, I love that, Kristi, I like to say, uh, how do we bring sexy back to facility management and construction?
[00:21:11] Kristi 1: Yeah. Or even bring it right. And I observed my father for years and it's a hard job when you're a laborer and you're under, you know, you're in cross spaces, you're doing some really. laborious work. And I think about, I see some of the technology we have today, and I think how it could really help instead of like spending hours in a space that you don't quite have the answers.
[00:21:33] Like, how do we kind of pair that technology to actually arm the facilities teams with, like, feeling more empowered, but also just leveraging the labor, um, more strategically, I guess. What are your thoughts?
[00:21:46] Rudy 1: I think in, in, in pairing with that, I think, like, there's a sense of, like, you know, letting our laborers who, you know, are building blocks for society feel proud. Really of what they've done, right? Um, I always connect like a construction worker to my teacher's friends like yeah, they complain all day long about Everything and about all but they always close it with like a feel good story of like look at what this kid drew For me, right when you bring it up into our space.
[00:22:18] It's like yeah, we'll complain about the boss on the job site About not having the proper budget, but once it's 4pm, sitting in a bucket, opening a couple can of cold beers, and making fun of the lazy guy, right, and seeing everybody laugh, like, those are, I think, like, the moment in space where I think blue collar workers feel really good.
[00:22:40] About what they do, right. And be able to look back and say, I helped build that. I helped maintenance that. What does that mean? How can we as industry leaders help resonate the message that the C suites levels people are hearing, but maybe down here, they are not because they're listening to Justin Timberlake instead of us.
[00:23:02] It's interesting because I believe this is where blue collar and Main Street matches up with technology. And it's really as we segue into the conversation around artificial intelligence and AI, right? The real question is, how do you take and provide tools to somebody to do their work in a better way? To, um, allow them to know what they need to bring to the job, what they need to do when they get there and do it in an invisible way and in an incorporate AI in a way that is not scary. It's not, it's not some foreign technology, but it's the way that you do business and it's, it's what you do. But yet you retain all of those things that you talked about around.
[00:23:45] Richard 1: What a hardworking person wants to, wants to do and how they work with their hands and how they, they get called out to a job site and they want to turn a wrench. And so I'm curious as to what your thoughts are, both Rudy, Christy, on how do we make AI and technology not annoying, not scary, but really just incorporated into the job?
[00:24:08] Rudy 1: I can give you my initial thoughts, I think, uh, at a simple way, Richard, like type of language and word usage, uh, that a blue collar speaks to, we want to incorporate into the AI algorithm, right? Um, foundationally, I think that that's a conversation that we would need to, you know, address, uh, because I can see a world where, you know, most plumbers are not your Shakespearean uh, writers of sort, right?
[00:24:35] So, if we can enable them to just Hit a button, speak, and write the detailed notes that my director or facility manager is needing. That's, I think, the way we kind of do it, is how do we make them feel comfortable. Uh, and I think the algorithm discussions need to be a part of it.
[00:24:53] Eric 1: Let me, let me just cut in here for just a second. Cause I think one of the things that I think about when I think about AI and especially when we talk about anything to do with facilities or manufacturing or automation or anything like that is how do we also, help people understand that we're trying to deliver tools that are going to help them and not replace them, because that's where I see a lot of fear, especially in older workers, that they feel that, that we're just going to flip a switch on AI and they were not gonna have a, they're not gonna have a job anymore.
[00:25:23] Kristi 1: Eric, when I, oftentimes, you know, uses that I've found to be some of the most impactful in the organization or even in the software we're building, oftentimes it just helps with productivity. So, as I think about day, you know, parts of my day that are just harder to do or repetitive, um, or, you know, Or even just gets me some eyes out and in ahead of things, you know, that's where I find the most value.
[00:25:49] So as we think about technicians, what we've heard and is the pain points of their job when they're showing up to maintain or fix an asset, like, how could we actually help? All of that kind of pre work and stumbling to try and find the right materials or reaching out to the right people to get information. That, those are productivity gains that we hear from technicians all the time that are just painful. Also thinking about how do we use it for preventative maintenance? Like how do we make sure that it's easier for them to kind of manage a facility? Because we all know when, once things actually break, it's really challenging for technicians because, you know, they're, Parts may not be there or it could be a bigger challenge.
[00:26:31] So I, I just think about the, the power of productivity and also taking some of the, the pain points out of their day to just make it easier and, and leverage the skillset that they have is, is, um, what we found to be really helpful.
[00:26:45] Eric 2: I think, I agree with you, Christy. I think the, at the end of the day, you're, you know, speaking the provider language, you know, allows us to connect, but, you know, the job still has to be done, right? Um, so anything that we can do from a technological aspect that allows my technician to get in and out as quickly as possible is going to be key to success, So, Rudy, thinking about all this, one of the things that we've thought about is maybe how AI can help with the labor shortage that we have. So, speaking about what, what Christy was talking about earlier about technicians that are, that are coming to retirement age and they're leaving the workplace and a lot of the knowledge is leaving with them, but then we've hired new workers and they may not be as productive off the, off the bat. So, how do we do that and how do we scale that?
[00:27:36] Rudy 2: At the end of the day, like, you know, I can't put water on a 12 year old to grow faster. Right? So generationally, there's going to be that moment in period that we're going to have to adapt. So then what's the alternative? This is where I think technology and AI have a big role to play in terms of productivity, right?
[00:27:53] How can we make our technicians more efficient? Um, and the people behind the office, you know, connecting that efficiency To the person on the field. Um, this is where we can really start exploring, uh, the type of algorithms that would need to be implemented that allow a technician who are not masters at, uh, you know, writing.
[00:28:15] Language, but can very much speak into a microphone to give us the, the notes that we need. What are the things that we can remove from their burden to be able to kind of not have to write, but instead communicate through pictures, uh, through asset information, through location, you know, insights, how to get in quicker in and out of an airport, right?
[00:28:38] If we had all that stuff connected in this space. I can guarantee you we can reduce costs for our customers because in a world where we charge by hour, um, that's, I think for me, how we scale, right? How do we bring in a single repository that really gives everybody visibility in the entire journey? Of a process, including visuals, because a lot of us are not data driven. We're visual people.
[00:29:04] Eric 2: Absolutely. I love that. I love that.
[00:29:06] Kristi 2: Rudy, I'd love to move on to a new topic, sustainability. Now, implementing energy savings, you know, we all know is important. We're seeing our customers do it more, especially to manage operating costs. Managers can do this by using context aware technology to monitor occupancy and real time kind of hotspots and usage, which we see really reduces excessive maintenance.
[00:29:32] But since buildings are responsible for nearly 40 percent of global energy related CO2 emissions, technology definitely plays a big role. What's your experience with sustainability?
[00:29:45] Rudy 2: My experience with sustainability, I think it would be the same as a lot of people who've been hearing about this, right? Um, I don't think this is a new concept. Um, but I think there is some roadblocks ahead because part of the ESG acronym Uh, that everybody hears about in terms of how we're going to monitor this.
[00:30:06] There's that S, which is not sustainability, which is social governance, right? Um, and at times, due to the political climates that we live in, I think that at times presents a roadblock because once you open up the need to push towards a sustainable energy management solution, I think a lot of people always have, at least myself as well, what about the S?
[00:30:28] Thanks. Right? What role do our, does our market, does our customers play? Right? Uh, not only within our space, but what's out there in the market where people already have models set in place that I think we can look to incorporate. So I think in the terms of sustainability, energy management, I think a fallacy within the facility management space is just looking in.
[00:30:51] And I think this is an opportunity for us to look outward and see what's out there and how we can incorporate it into our space. Because when you say that number of 40%, right, um, it's, it's big. It's a lot. So I think that is for me where the biggest and next opportunity is. Um, and at least in the investment, I think I saw that the Biden administration announced 20 billion of, you know, sustainability investment across communities.
[00:31:19] And I'm sure if we dive deeper into that as well, we'll find a lot of interesting numbers of a lot of people wanting to kind of bridge, you know, The need for us to move to a more sustainable, solution. At least that's what my 15, 17 year old niece keeps telling me.
[00:31:33] Eric 2: So, so we, we all know this is important, right? I mean, all of us live in the environment, we breathe the air, we drink the water, right? We, we all want a more sustainable future, but there's a lot of, there's a lot of people who are still resistant to moving on
[00:31:47] Rudy 2: to moving
[00:31:48] Eric 2: And I'm kind of wondering why do you think that is and what we can do to, to encourage the individuals within organizations to move and actually, create change in their own environments.
[00:32:00] Rudy 2: Yeah, and I think that's, that's part of like, um, we're all, you know, swinging different flags. Yeah. But wanting to go to the same end goal. So I think this is where, you know, data, projections, forecasting, investment numbers need to be consolidated to kind of clear that path for us in terms of what we need to do next, right? The inability to act, right? At times is the reason why I think we're not moving because we can't collectively agree on what it should be. Nobody moves. So I think what I want to do is challenge everybody, start small, right? Start in your daily household, what you can do. And then I think from there, like we do need a major cultural shift.
[00:32:42] And I think we're in that transitional period that it is going to take some time. , to get everybody to swim in the same direction. Platforms like Service Channel, um, and Accruen as well have the ability to kind of tap into really good data to start proving some of those business cases that can move the needle, uh, at a faster pace.
[00:32:59] Eric 2: So, I just want to ask one last follow up on this to Richard, actually. What role do you think technology has in trying to help solve these problems? And I'm just thinking in small ways, like the fact that we have buildings that know when you're in them, they know when you're not in them, right? So, how do we leverage technology in, in different ways to help swing that pendulum in the right direction?
[00:33:23] Richard 2: Yeah, it's fascinating. This is an area where technology will play a big role. Already does play a big role and will play a more important role. We have the ability now with technology to tell whether or not somebody is in the building at all. Should the air conditioner be turned on at six o'clock in the morning? Should heat be turned on or off in the winter? We've had cases where, we've seen customers who have, have used technology to proactively alter the temperatures in their stores and their retail and office footprint. In order to account for surge, times of day when it's too hot, but yet they don't need their space to be cooled to a certain level. What energy they want to use diverted towards lettuce, tomatoes, perishable items, and not necessarily towards cooling the store footprint. And the last thing I think that's very important here is Using technology to determine when there's a problem inside the building.
[00:34:22] Now, I will tell you this, there's not a lot of buildings that are up to speed yet on the technology capable of doing this, but it's what I call the autonomous building. A building that can actually help you pinpoint areas where there's leakage of energy. throughout the building. There is technology out there that can do this today and there are buildings that have it and I think this will play a bigger role as we go forward.
[00:34:46] In other words, if there's a leak in an HVAC system somewhere but you don't know where that is, sensors can actually tell you that, can pinpoint it, um, and actually send out a technician to repair it. So we're going to be using technology in the sustainability front in a bigger and bigger way as time goes on because it will actually have a very large impact on, uh, On the ultimate outcomes, um, relying on somebody, when you think about it in your house, you have a thermostat that probably can be scheduled or know when there's surges in energy and can reduce your energy consumption.
[00:35:23] Um, those kinds of technologies already exist and are being used, but need to be used in a bigger way, within companies and retail footprints. And then the last thing I would say, um, on this whole topic is, um, we need to roll trucks, um, you know, part of this sustainability isn't just inside the building.
[00:35:42] It's about sending somebody to a building. It's about sending and the logistics around trucks rolling to a building. And I think, um, More and more you're finding that technology is being used to determine when should you roll a truck to go fix a problem? When should you roll a truck to go replenish inventory in a particular store or a particular area?
[00:36:03] Because all of these things add up over time. And, um, I'm very excited about the future and where technology will play in this as we move forward.
[00:36:13] Eric 2: I think we definitely need to do that, and we should probably model that technology on my grandfather, who used to go around the house turning down the thermostat in every room, all the time, even if it wasn't, even if it wasn't warm, he'd turn, he'd go, he'd turn on a tap and turn it back off, he'd turn lights off, it was amazing.
[00:36:31] If we ever develop that bot, let's call it Chuck, please. We do want to do a rapid fire question segment with you, Rudy, if that's all right. So I just want to ask you a few really quick questions and kind of get, your, uh, takes on them. So first of all, what is your favorite innovation and why?
[00:36:48] Rudy 2: That's a tough one. I think my favorite innovation is Spotify. Maybe we can even go back and say Napster. Right, kind of started of this all and irritated Metallica throughout the process because I was able to tap in music at scale without going to, you know, a record store and spend hours digging to the right type of mood that is going to get me through the day. Um, so I think for me would be the ability to tap into world music at a fingertip, uh, is, is for me, my favorite.
[00:37:18] Eric 2: What's the number one thing that organizations should be doing today that they're not doing? I
[00:37:25] Rudy 2: More focused on the importance of culture. I'm from the belief that, you know, culture eats strategy for breakfast, right? And then there's dot, dot, dot, but. I think we needed to find the but, on what that would, where those worlds coexist, right? I think we've all been pushed really hard to, to get where we are.
[00:37:47] So I think the culture allows to, Christy's point earlier, to start bringing in those legacy leaders. And help guide the younger generation because you care about, you know, what we're doing, which is bringing people together in a space, So I think for me is, is tapping a bit more on what culture means to the various people we make impacts on, um, and it's across the board.
[00:38:10] Eric 2: Love that. , and it's something that's really important to me as well. So now I'm going to flip the script on you from the first question, sort of do a ninja attack. Uh, what's one innovation you wish would just go away?
[00:38:20] Rudy 2: One innovation that would just go away. Well, that's a tough one. I think I would have to say, uh, text messaging. I'm not really good at text messaging. I think people should be picking up the phone and calling me. Uh, more often, um, I type and write every day, the last thing I want to do is text people back and forth when I'm done with my day.
[00:38:43] Eric 2: Very good, very good. And last but not least, what is one thing that we wouldn't know about you by looking at your LinkedIn profile?
[00:38:51] Rudy 2: what you wouldn't know about me? Uh, well, that's a tough one, I'm an open book.
[00:38:58] My guilty pleasure every 10 minutes on TMZ. Uh, at times it can be the source of truth, uh, uh, for me when it comes to news. And, uh, really I enjoy eating a cup of coffee and understanding how Kanye West upset at somebody else that they think they have to cover it over and over again. It's my guilty pleasure.
[00:39:20] Eric 2: Well, I love it and I think that, you definitely should put that on your LinkedIn profile and we'll be looking for that change shortly. So, anyway, I do really want to thank you for, uh, for joining us today, and I'd also like to thank Kristi and Richard, my co hosts today. Kristi Richard, do you have any parting comments?
[00:39:36] Richard 2: Oh, this has been great. Thank you.
[00:39:38] Kristi 2: You so much, Rudy. Thank you, Eric.
[00:39:41] Rudy 2: Thank you for having me.
[00:39:42] Eric 2: Thank you again to our guest today, Rudy Salinas of Service Channel, to my co hosts, Kristi and Richard, Accruent. Learn more at accruent. com.