The category for Best Use of Tech in Property looks for companies who are embracing, investing, and creating new technologies to improve efficiency, speed up production and bring sector-wide benefits. 

With a bold vision for organising the world’s building information to enable the creation of more efficient environments for everyone, Operance is fusing award-winning industry building information modelling expertise with ground-breaking technology. 

“We’ve been developing our own pioneering software to define, curate, audit and maintain building operations and maintenance (O&M) information,” says Scott Pilgrim, Chief Product Officer at Operance.  

“Our vision to create a digital ‘golden thread’ of lifecycle information is completely aligned to that of new building and fire safety legislation aimed at preventing another disaster like Grenfell, it’s imperative leading industry professionals come together in this way to drive fundamental and lasting change.”

Tom Oulton and Scott Pilgrim (Photo: Shaun Flannery)

Operance’s new information management platform, Operance O&M, is a purpose-built desktop application designed to help estates teams, developers and operators request operations and maintenance information to help manage new facilities and assets. It enables designers, contractors and project managers to semi-automate the coordination and checking of the data, making it easier to hand over. End-users can then search, share, edit and update the information from the palm of their hand thanks to their Operance FM mobile application.  

The solution provides an immutable ‘quantum ledger’, built on blockchain technology, to produce a secure lifecycle record of high-quality building safety and asset information, the ‘golden thread’. 

Operance’s Digital Transformation Lead, Tom Oulton, one of the country’s leading BIM professionals said: “We’re on the cusp of revolutionary change to the design, construction and management of our built environment. 

“Following Grenfell, we must take this opportunity to work collectively to ensure it’s never repeated. This is a chance to affect change that we must not let pass us by.” 

“The whole team is thrilled to be shortlisted for Best Use of Tech in Property by Insider Yorkshire,” Scott adds. 

“We can’t wait to celebrate with all those shortlisted across the various categories in September, they are some of the most exciting property companies in our region.” 

Insider Yorkshire Property Industry Awards 2021 takes place on Thursday 30 September 2021 at New Dock Hall, Leeds.  

To arrange a demo of the Operance O&M software, call Tom Oulton on 07735 123166 or drop him an email at tom.oulton@operance.app. 

Over the last nine months, Nigel has offered his wealth of experience and expertise and supported us to get us where we are today – launching a brand new piece of software to help improve the safety of buildings across the UK. 

We caught up with Nigel to find out more about his background and vision for the future of construction. 

Being Chairman of the Board means that I’m responsible for assisting and giving guidance to the board of directors at Operance, as well as holding them to account to their shareholders. 

With my experience in management consultancy and digital transformation, I support the team, providing them with advice during a monthly board meeting.

My degree is in Computer Science and Maths – I went to the University of Glasgow. During the summer holidays, I worked for a firm of building contractors, which led me to create a 3D simulation of a building for my third-year project. 

This was around the late 1980s when 3D modelling in construction was quite new. 

After graduating, my career went down the Management Consultancy route, where I worked with various tech, computing and software organisations. 

Around the year 2000, I got involved in some smaller companies, including one we successfully turned around and successfully floated on AIM on the London Stock Exchange. At this point, I also started investing in companies and became Chairman of several organisations in Scotland, such as Administrate. 

Two years ago, I moved back to where I was born – Northumberland. I wanted to get involved in local companies and use my expertise to help businesses in the region. This led to being introduced to Bimsense and Operance through Mercia, who I’d known for a long time.

 CEO Ian Yeo, CPO Scott Pilgrim, Chairman Nigel Hedley, CTO Tim Mutlow

I realised there’s a huge opportunity for the industry here – the progress the construction industry has made since the Second World War is very slow compared to other sectors. 

I also get along very well with the Directors Ian, Scott and Tim and think the work they’re doing to bring digital to construction is essential.

There are many different reasons, but the main one’s centre around productivity, environment and safety. 

Safety is, of course, a huge factor – not only during construction but also throughout the entire lifecycle of the building. 

If you look at the tragic events of Grenfell, you can see real change is needed. We are working closely with the Golden Thread initiative to help developers and social housing associations digitise their records and define, curate, audit and maintain information about a building from design to occupation.

Modern methods of construction and modern materials require technology to construct buildings to more exacting measures. Meanwhile, technology can also help reduce emissions and pollution during both the construction and lifespan of the building.

It’s been a tough year for many businesses, and within Bimsense and Operance, we’ve had our ups and downs. However, it’s been rewarding as Chairman to see the team working hard to overcome challenges – they’ve never hidden their heads in the sand and always dealt with issues head-on. 

It’s a pleasure to be working with Ian, Scott and Tim.

To speak to one of the team for more information, call 0800 464 3316

We’re pleased to announce that our Chief Product Officer, Scott Pilgrim has been named on this year’s 42 Under 42 list, compiled by the Yorkshire Business Insider magazine. 42 Under 42 represents 42 entrepreneurs and business leaders under the age of 42 who the magazine is tipping as the rising stars of the business world. They produce the shortlist for various regions and Scott has been included in the class of 2021, as announced in the magazine on 4^th February.

Scott’s entry in the list states the following:

“Operance organises building information in order to create safer, more efficient environments. It helps large estates clients to define, curate, coordinate and utilise their digital building informaiton with web-based infomraiton coordination platform and mobile-app based building and home user guides. As cheief product officer, former bricklayer Scott Pilgrim says he acts as mini-CEO’ and ‘Defender of the Customer’. When Covid-19 struck,he says the directors had a choice: fight or flight. So they revisited their business plan and got £250,000 venture capital investment.

Fun fact: Scott was once rescued by a Norwegian army trained husky while attempting to climb a mountain, 300 miles North of the Arctic Circle.

“Our plan a year ago was to go for it and seek funding to help us complete our minimum viable product (MVP) and get to market in the shortest timeframe possible. It was a brave decision to take by the board and I applaud my co-founders Ian Yeo and Tim Mutlow for making it happen.

Thankfully it worked out and not only did we secure cash to realise our MVP ambitions, but we managed to secure the support of a new chairman in Nigel Hedley, experienced SaaS finance director John Corker and great investment partners in Mercia Asset Management, with Simon Crabtree and Maurice Disasi providing further experience and guidance.

We were also able to attract the best possible software development, digital transformation and enterprise sales talent, with more additions to the team starting next month.

Me being named on the ’42 Under 42′ list for 2021 is a great honour, but I just happen to be the one they picked on! I happily and very proudly accept it on behalf of our brilliant team and our support partners from the C4DI community that have helped us so far.”

Left to Right: CEO Ian Yeo, CPO Scott Pilgrim, CTO Tim Mutlow.

Other entrepreneurs on the list include a family friend of Scott’s, Adam Murray 38, managing director of Urbana Town Planning, another business with a passion for the built environment, based in Sheffield.

Based at Hull’s Centre for Digital Innovation (C4DI) tech hub, Operance delivers strategic digital transformation and BIM coordination services as well as developing innovative technology products to enable high-quality digital building information for property owners, developers, contractors and end users.

To speak to one of the team for more information, call 0800 464 3316.