Roughly a decade ago, a large developer in the Middle East undertook a major citywide development campaign that involved the revitalization of several million square meters of usable space. However, outside economic factors forced the city to pause this project, and now, years later, it reached out to JLL for support.

“The customer didn’t have the ability to create a moment in time to understand precisely where their developments were and the performance of their existing assets,” explains Ben Jackson, Head of Project and Development Services at JLL Middle East and North Africa (MENA). “Their data was at different sites and in different systems. And in the time it took them to pull all of this information together into a single report, it was already outdated.

“It also become extremely apparent that the amount of time and energy that was spent in producing monthly status reports was extremely onerous. They also struggled to effectively communicate the status of their development or portfolio, even though the efforts that went into collating the data were considerable.”

To help its customer create a baseline of current developments, JLL used lidar technology to map out the entire city, building a 3D model — or “digital twin” — that could digitally represent the physical state of the sites. At the same time, JLL combined this digital twin with real-time data streams from the company’s previously siloed real estate management applications. JLL then integrated the operational technology systems to create a unique, 3D ecosystem that lets users consume data instantly to derive actionable, better-optimized decisions.

“We started to think, ‘OK, we understand what we want the solution to look like,’” continues Jackson. “But how do we actually start managing and organizing that data? How do we create a platform that can speak to the needs of all of our end users — be it asset managers, be it occupiers, be it developers, potential investors, financial institutions?”

To help transition from concept to reality, JLL chose to work with the IBM NextGen Ecosystem team. Together, JLL with IBM technologists mapped out the target audience for this new solution, as well as the core benefits for each stage of the tool.

“We also worked with the IBM Garage team,” adds Jackson. “From those discussions with IBM experts, we began to think a lot more about data — how it’s structured, how it works, how it’s reflected. How we can turn that data into information, into insights and ultimately into action.” Following the agile, user-centered IBM Garage™ Methodology, JLL built a minimum viable product (MVP) to bring to market.

The new Prism solution acts as an incredibly sophisticated digital twin platform, delivering an end-to-end real estate data aggregator and visualization engine that pulls data from multiple technology sources. The platform provides virtual, 3D representations of building and operational sites and allows users to choose from customizable modules that pull real-time data streams for key functions — such as development monitoring, cost management, leasing, energy management, auditing, maintenance — at these sites. And with this information in hand, users can then map these real-world metrics against projected targets to track performance.

One use example would be a global asset manager that could use Prism to examine real-time micro- or macro-leasing and rental data at multiple levels — floor, building, city, country — from all of its locations, gaining clearer insight into the current percentage of occupancy and associated return on investment (ROI). The firm could then access the JLL data environment to create context for its assets to understand the market dynamics and gather insights into optimizing the performance of its portfolios. With the data provided, the business could also cross-reference energy consumption, maintenance performance and movement data from Internet of Things (IoT) systems to give multiple perspectives and create immediate insights that would help optimize asset performance.

To streamline deployment for Prism, JLL signed an IBM® Embedded Solution Agreement (ESA) that the business uses to incorporate IBM technology directly into its offering. The MVP is hosted on IBM Cloud®, but Prism is platform agnostic and can be deployed in other cloud instances or on-premises configurations.