Schneider Electric Invests in Planon Beheer B.V. ("Planon") to digitally transform buildings into the healthy and sustainable workplaces of the future

• Schneider Electric and Planon solutions will significantly enhance building value and access to new sectors
• Real-time analytics will improve building sustainability, efficiency and resiliency and the workplace experience for people
• New combined software capability will help digitize the entire building lifecycle and transform users' personal workplace experience
• Target segments include Government, Education, Real Estate, Healthcare, Finance, Data Centers and Insurance industries
• Planon Software will continue to operate as an independent software vendor and deliver value as manufacturer agnostic

MISSISSAUGA, ON, Nov. 17, 2020 /CNW/ - 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 per cent of the world's electricity, one third of all energy and account for 40 per cent 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 EcoStruxuretm 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 per cent 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."

About Planon

Planon is the leading global provider of Real Estate and Facility Management software that enables building and service digitalization by integrating the diverse landscape of smart building technology, business solutions and data into one source of truth and turning that into value for building owners, building users, and service providers. With over 35 years of experience, Planon has a proven track record of delivering innovative software, proven best practices and professional services for multinational organizations as well as local businesses.

www.planonsoftware.com 

About Schneider Electric

Schneider's purpose is to empower all to make the most of our energy and resources, bridging progress and sustainability for all. We call this Life Is On.

Our mission is to be your digital partner for Sustainability and Efficiency.

We drive digital transformation by integrating world-leading process and energy technologies, end-point to cloud connecting products, controls, software and services, across the entire lifecycle, enabling integrated company management, for homes, buildings, data centers, infrastructure and industries.

We are the most local of global companies. We are advocates of open standards and partnership ecosystems that are passionate about our shared Meaningful Purpose, Inclusive and Empowered values.

www.se.com/ca

SOURCE Schneider Electric Canada Inc.