Digitalization in the real estate industry: GARBE uses Deutsche Telekom solutions
News 16/02/2023
The real estate industry is going through a digital transformation. According to the SME digitalization index 2021/2022 [“Digitalisierungsindex Mittelstand 2021/2022”] study, the industry still has some catching up to do. However, GARBE – the real estate managing company with Europe-wide operations – very quickly developed a strategy to digitalize its business processes. The objective: High data availability for customers, service providers, and employees plus mobile work – holistic and with the best possible IT security.
To implement its digital strategy, GARBE is migrating its on-premises IT to a highly available and flexible cloud-based IT infrastructure. It puts the focus on the user, is scalable, and supports the company’s growth and internationalization. GARBE has chosen Deutsche Telekom as its partner for this task, consequently enabling the real estate company to acquire all ICT services from a single source.
Photovoltaic roof system with 4.4 MWp on a logistics property managed by GARBE in Walsrode.
High data availability and scale effects
GARBE offers a comprehensive service portfolio for logistics, retail, residential, and office real estate. This range of services comprises portfolio, investment, asset, and property management as well as project development. With 400 employees, GARBE takes care of the entire value creation of the real estate. To this end, the company manages real estate assets of approx. 13 billion euros in Germany and Europe.
Christopher Garbe, Managing Partner of GARBE, explains: “As a real estate company operating across Europe, we are active at 16 locations and therefore rely on high-quality, durable, and flexible IT. This allows us to ensure efficient collaboration and excellent data availability for our customers. We will profit from the economies of scale offers by a Microsoft cloud managed by Deutsche Telekom as well as further harmonized magenta solutions. This also reduces energy and emissions.”
A study shows that the Microsoft cloud is as much as 93 percent more energy-efficient and as much as 98 percent more carbon-efficient than on-premises IT solutions.
Reduce emissions and increase collaboration
GARBE is switching to Deutsche Telekom’s cloud environment powered by Microsoft Azure. The magenta portfolio includes data lines for customer sites in Germany, Amsterdam, and Vienna. Deutsche Telekom also takes care of the hardware for the workstations. The company also supplies mobile communication devices – from smartphones to laptops. For this, the MagentaBusiness Collaborations solution provided by Deutsche Telekom simplifies collaboration with the customer. Virtual telephone systems and other software tools enable the GARBE teams to work seamlessly in the digital environment.
The package is rounded off with sophisticated security which ensures that virtual collaboration is secure at all times. This includes a security operations center incl. security information and event management (SOC/SIEM). It monitors data traffic, evaluates risks, and – where necessary – initiates countermeasures. GARBE also considers cyber defense as a service to be a key element of collaboration with customers and investors.
Friederike Buchheister, Head of IT & Digitalization at GARBE, explains: “To implement our digitalization strategy, we require a flexible and future-ready network with high security standards that is based on a solid infrastructure and fully supports us as a real estate manager. With Deutsche Telekom, we have found the ideal strategic partner to further advance our digital transformation.”
“A successful real estate developer such as GARBE requires agile, secure, and efficient ICT for its core business,” explains Hagen Rickmann, Director for Business Customers at Telekom Deutschland GmbH, when describing the collaboration. “Not only that, digitalization offers numerous options when it comes to tackling sustainability together. We at Telekom are a partner for the entire process: From remote maintenance of elevators via the Internet of Things to intelligent building management.”
Energy and resource efficiency projects are frequently subsidized on federal or state level. Deutsche Telekom’s quick check is on hand to help check eligibility for subsidies (German only).