Depenbrock Gebäudemanagement GmbH & Co. KG

With the founding of Depenbrock Gebäudemanagement GmbH & Co. KG in 2010, the Group expanded its service portfolio to include facility management, property management, PPP (public-private partnerships) and, in the meantime, construction management.

The need to use a powerful management application was already recognized during the development phase of the new business unit and its introduction was initiated in 2011 through an extensive market research process. When selecting suitable software, the focus was on the consistency and uniformity of the included workflows and processes, which had to comply with common standards such as GEFMA and DIN in all of the above-mentioned fields of activity.

The focus was on the two main areas of technical and infrastructural FM. In addition to these core processes, there was a requirement for IT support for the property management area. In addition to tenant and rental contract management and service charge accounting, tenant accounting for owner companies was also to be supported by an integrated application module and the integration of external accounting systems of Depenbrock's customers via interfaces. In addition, planning tools for the creation of economic and liquidity plans and the associated monitoring tools were required.

In the meantime, construction management has also been mapped, i.e. the regular identification and assessment of maintenance requirements, including façade or roof renovations, as well as project structuring and execution following approval.

In the commercial and business management processes, the software was to offer the functions of an ERP system for planning, ordering, order and invoice processing and controlling. In addition, further support was expected in the consideration of life cycle costs.

In addition to the technical process requirements from the operational business, it was also necessary to fulfill the overarching project requirements. The top priority was to deliver a single, integrated application in order to avoid incalculable costs for interfaces and loss of information in advance. Nevertheless, the application needed to be open and flexible in order to allow the division to continuously adapt to a wide range of customer requirements in its projects.

The provision of an Internet-based web client to connect Depenbrock's customers to the application and the possibility of integration into the central IT structures was a prerequisite.

As a result, the decision was made to procure and introduce pitFM.