Housing companies develop digital service centers
A total of 35 participants from the housing industry convened on March 25 and 26 for the first EDG (European Digitalization Group) Workshop. The EDG is a joint format established by the EFL industry association and the two consulting firms EFL Expertise B.V. and RITTERWALD. The event was organized and moderated on behalf of the EFL by Gewobag AG.
The two-day workshop was conceived as a forum for housing companies and startups to come together with established players from Europe’s digital scene to share their latest thinking. How to develop and implement digital service centers was the focus of discussions.
Participants first presented some of their latest projects. It became evident that most housing companies are focusing on rolling out apps and portals for their tenants with the aim of enabling and expanding digital tenant communications in the future. Many housing companies are therefore working on extending their business models and their communities by integrating additional services and local social networks that they can make available through digital channels. In doing so, the companies hope to achieve added value for their tenants, better communication and property management processes as well as additional revenues.
A closer look at what is currently possible from a technology perspective rounded out the workshop. The various startups showcased what they can do in terms of improving tenant communications through artificial intelligence. The use of voice-controlled bots to respond to tenant inquiries was one particularly impressive contribution.
The participants then held a design thinking workshop to come up with ways of evolving today’s service centers to make them serve as a bridge into the digital world. The outcome was a vision of customer service centers as community meeting points offering much more than just a means of communication with tenants.
The event was organized locally by Roman Riebow, Dr. Oliver Falk-Becker, Benjamin Vahle (Gewobag AG) and Dr. Mathias Hain and Marcin Zielinski (EFL Expertise B.V./RITTERWALD Unternehmensberatung GmbH).
