The Co-founder and Executive Director of Sysserve, Owoeye Johnson, has urged companies to adopt intelligent digital platforms as a pathway to achieving sustainable facility management across Africa.
Speaking at a recent conference organised by the International Facility Management Association (IFMA) Global Africa, Owoeye stressed that digitisation is no longer optional but essential for organisations seeking efficiency, transparency, and long-term sustainability in operations.
He noted that Sysserve’s facility management application, developed over the past 13 years, has supported organisations in different sectors to achieve digital transformation goals. According to him, companies are at various stages of digital maturity, ranging from those with no digital infrastructure to others already running advanced, intelligent systems.
Owoeye highlighted the five stages of digitisation, drawing from the Digital Maturity Model designed by Deloitte and McKinsey, which helps organisations evaluate their digital standing and build roadmaps for growth.
At the first level, described as non-existent, organisations lack centralised record-keeping and rely on manual systems, often leading to inefficiencies. In extreme cases, facility officers travel long distances to obtain physical approvals for payments, procurement, or work orders. Decision-making in such companies, he observed, is slow and often based on guesswork rather than data. The first step for them, he advised, is to implement a centralised system to manage records and data.
The second stage, nascent, refers to organisations that have digital systems in place but use them only superficially. Instead of driving operations, these tools merely serve as record-keeping platforms, leaving most processes manual and inefficient. Such companies, he said, often claim to have adopted digital solutions but fail to extract meaningful value from them.
Companies at the third stage, known as emerging, actively use facility management systems to support their operations. However, their processes remain highly dependent on human input, making them vulnerable to errors, delays, and inconsistencies. While these systems improve reporting, the lack of automation continues to limit overall effectiveness.
At the connected stage, or fourth level, companies begin integrating Internet of Things (IoT) sensors to collect real-time data, including energy consumption, equipment usage, temperature, humidity, and space occupancy. These organisations also link facility management systems with enterprise applications, enabling automated processes such as vendor payments, procurement, and financial reporting. Despite the benefits, Owoeye pointed out that the large volume of data generated at this stage often overwhelms companies, making it difficult to translate raw data into actionable insights.
The fifth and final stage represents the peak of digital maturity, where artificial intelligence (AI) and big data analytics are deeply embedded in facility management operations. At this level, organisations operate highly autonomous systems powered by IoT and AI, enabling predictive planning, budget forecasting, and efficient resource allocation. Generative AI tools further enhance decision-making, creating self-running, intelligent ecosystems that minimise human intervention while maximising sustainability outcomes.
Owoeye emphasised that the future of facility management lies in intelligent, data-driven systems that go beyond simple record-keeping. He encouraged organisations to honestly evaluate their current digital maturity, identify gaps, and gradually adopt solutions that will drive them toward sustainable, autonomous operations.
According to him, digitisation is the catalyst that will enable African companies to streamline operations, reduce inefficiencies, and build resilient facility management systems that align with global sustainability standards.
