Every PBSA operator has data. Meter readings, maintenance logs, temperature records, energy reports. What most don’t have is a simple answer to the question that actually matters:
Is this building doing well, and what would it take to make it better?
That’s the gap Prefect Controls is closing with INDX – powered by Irus.
What Indx does
Indx is a new feature within the Irus Portal. It takes everything the Irus ecoSystem is already monitoring across a building, and turns it into a clear score that includes:
- Efficiency – how well the building is using energy and water. Drawn from things like heating and hot water use, occupancy patterns, and how well building services are actually running against how they’re being used, it also looks at maintenance and management alerts and assesses the reaction to them to evidence operational efficiency.
- Safety & Wellbeing – how well conditions are being maintained for residents. Drawn from CO2, humidity and temperature alerts, scalding and legionella risk, electric hob auto shut-off (to identify unattended cooker use), battery life and water temperature at the tap.
- Building Protection – how well the building itself is being looked after, and how early issues are being caught. Drawn from leak detection, water waste, equipment health, observing cooker use and valve operation.
Every one of those data points comes from across the six modules of the Irus ecoSystem. Indx doesn’t require new monitors or new installations. It takes what Irus is already watching and gives it a meaningful score.
Instead of operators, asset managers or investors having to interpret raw data, Indx does the interpreting for them. One score, one clear picture per building.
Why the scores matter
A score on its own tells you where you stand. Indx goes a step further.
On a site-by-site basis, users can interrogate the score and see, in real time, what improving that number would be worth.
However, Indx really comes into its own for portfolios. Comparing buildings against one another to see which are performing well and which require improvement.
But it doesn’t stop at showing the number. Alongside each score, it recommends the specific actions that would improve it, so instead of being left to work out what to do next, users get a clear answer: Do this, and here’s what it’s worth.
Indx is a number that means something at a ground level, but more significantly in a board meeting, an investment case, or a maintenance budget review.
Why it matters now
The PBSA sector doesn’t have a shortage of data. It has a shortage of time to make sense of it.
“Every operator I speak to already has more data than they know what to do with,” said Gareth Chaplin, Head of Energy & Sustainability at Prefect Controls. “What they don’t have is time to sit down and work out what it means, or which building needs attention first. Indx does that thinking for them. It doesn’t just show you the data, it tells you what it’s worth, and what to do about it.”
For an operator, that means knowing which building needs the team’s attention tomorrow morning, and exactly what to do about it, rather than spending a week working it out.
For an asset manager, it means being able to compare buildings against each other, back a business case with evidence, and show an investment committee exactly where money would have the greatest effect.
For an investor, it means finally being able to see the operational reality behind the financial numbers, which assets are genuinely well run, which carry hidden risk, and where a modest intervention could protect or add value.
A shared language
Historically, the people running PBSA buildings and the people investing in them have looked at different numbers, in different formats, for different reasons. Indx gives everyone the same starting point with one meaning, understood by everyone.
“Irus has always been about giving people control and visibility over their buildings,” Gareth added. “Indx is the next step, turning that visibility into a number people can act on, and a value they can plan around.”
Indx is coming soon as part of the Irus Portal, while cost-per-bed reporting across all three scoring categories is also in the pipeline.
Control. Visibility. Intelligence. Indx is exactly that – and measurable.
