Nicolaus Bruns

The PropTech startup Simplifa offers real estate owners an all-round service in the area of elevator management with the help of smart building and Internet of Things technologies and already manages more than 1,000 elevator systems today. Elevators are a pain point for their owners: The operation and maintenance costs of the elevator generate someof the highest costs per square feet in the property and elevator downtimes cause extreme user dissatisfaction, high administrative burden for property managers and can even lead to justified rent reductions. Implementing operational obligations, such as maintenance, documentation and repair, lies in the primary responsibility of the property owners. However, due to high cost and often lack of expertise, this happens usually not only inefficiently, but also involves legal risks, for example due to failure to employ maintenance measures. In addition, there is a high information asymmetry between owner / property manager and elevator maintenance company, which often leads to disproportionately high maintenance costs.Simplifa structures, optimizes, and manages elevator portfolios for its customers. The startup serves as a central point of contact for owners and elevator service companies and acts as an expert on an equal footing in negotiations. Each elevator undergoes a technical inspection and is recorded in 360° shots to simulate a virtual “elevator twin”. In the event of system malfunctions, the maintenance company can ensure a much faster and more targeted repair thanks to the "elevator twin" without prior dispatch of a technician. Thanks to Simplifa, the operating and maintenance costs of the elevators are regularly reduced by about 30% while maintaining the same quality. In the future, the transmission of sensor data will provide a manufacturer-independent real-time analysis for a predictive maintenance system, which will reduce the manual test frequency of the elevators and avoid costly downtimes in advance.