DCS support ‘Digital Twin’ pioneer and RICS #Proptech Partner _ Edozo!
“As the founder and chairman of an amazing, culturally competent, support service ‘designed and delivered’ by Surveyors for Surveyors; whilst championing the ‘non-traditional’ talent pool of excellence across the Surveying profession, I am taking this opportunity to overwhelmingly thank my Board Members at DiverseCity Surveyors, all of whom continue to inspire me to 'dig deep and deliver' ..... ” _ Abisogun OBE
Credit: CityScape Global
Digital Business Models using Digital Twins _ “for many [surveying] engineering and manufacturing firms, digital transformation remains elusive as they struggle to emulate the success of platform-based consumer businesses such as Uber, Airbnb and Facebook. While new technologies are undoubtedly delivering efficiency gains, complete digital revolution is yet to be achieved in the B2B (business to business) world. There are many reasons as to why success is still to emerge for B2B platforms, including existing market monopolisation, high entry cost, shortage of capital, and lower churn rate in comparison to B2C (business to consumer) ……”
Credit: Edozo
It was late last year, around August 2021, when my fellow Board Member, game changer and industry disruptor - Samuel May MRICS called me, curiously enquiring and asking outright, about my ‘digital twin’ housing project; the disruptive industry initiative and ‘use-case’ _ that spoke of the dire need for a ‘Black Box’ for EVERY social housing unit, moreseo in a post-#Grenfell world. In fact it was the same ‘use-case’ that I had been curating at the Centre for Digital Built Britain ‘CDBB’. However, what Sam really wanted to know about my direction of travel, was anything of note that he should rightly be aware of [as part of his annual CPD / LLL requirement] as a professional valuer. Suffice to say, we had an amazing conversation and, in the end, after a near hour long ‘deep-dive’ on the topic, Sam was simply inspired to make further enquiries, which he did…….
Credit: Edozo
On the back of that conversation, I noted that Sam had also been approached to do a podcast on our pet subject – DEI [diversity, equity & inclusion], and he also thought it prudent to connect me to the same host, an industry colleague of his - James Shaw MRICS, Chief Revenue Officer at Edozo.
Credit: Edozo
As a professionally qualified Valuer, and active champion of the DEI agenda, you can observe here [and listen to] his recent podcast, delivered alongside his JLL colleague, Sasha Covington and Marcus Ginn, CEO at Edozo.
Credit: Edozo
A couple of months followed and eventually James and I secured a date in the diary for an initial conversation with the team at Edozo, which then became an agreed date for another podcast.
Credit: DiverseCity Surveyors
On the day of the podcast - I had imagined and suitably prepared for a ‘typical’ conversation about my journey as a ‘visible’ Black professional leading to ‘my why’, in this largely homogenous global profession, which led me to and inspired the creation of DiverseCity Surveyors back in 2005/06. However, James had other plans on his mind too…….
Credit: Edozo
Our conversation touched upon all of my favoured areas along with some mutual interests, including my current chapter [and cultural pivot] towards the evolution of Digital Twins ‘DT’, citing my recent tenure with the amazing team over at the Centre for Digital Built Britain, led by Alexandra Bolton and Mark Enzer OBE; now part of the Connected Places Catapult. Little did I know that Edozo had ‘quiet ambitions’ of their own, in the same B2B-DT space and, rather excitingly, are becoming something of an industry pioneer themselves!
Credit: Bola Abisogun OBE FRICS
So last month [March 2022], I received an extremely courteous email update from James who was simply letting me know that our podcast conversat''sten to here] was almost due for publication. And, as a thank you for choosing to participate on his platform, I also received a kind invitation to their upcoming ‘launch event’.
Credit: Edozo
And, as planned enroute from another commitment on the same day for the team over at Constructing Excellence [Kent Club] both events held straight after the long Easter / Bank Holiday weekend; I attended the inaugural Edozo ‘launch event’ which took place at the Soho Hotel in Central London. Held in a quaint mews type location, the venue was intimately fitted out with a seating area akin to a cinema setting. It was a lovely venue and totally befitting to the renowned and somewhat disruptive group of what has since been coined ‘an audience of Investors, Clients, Supporters and ‘Edozoers’ ….
Alongside meeting James for the first time, in person, I also met Co-Founders, Marcus Ginn, CEO and fellow Charted Surveyor & CPO, Andrew Peacock MRICS.
Credit: The Edozoers
The event was an eye opener to the current product suite offered by Edozo – which from my perspective and understanding – sounded like the ‘ground-zero’ to a handful of ‘digital twin’ solutions for property valuations. But before I could confidently affirm this; James thankfully reminded me that we were also due to meet later that same week for a further discussion, including ‘a well overdue’ product update.
Credit: HM Land Registry
Well, James and I met again last week [22.04.22] over at 123BPR, based in Victoria – and true to form – the relatively early stage #PropTech start-up and RICS Tech Partner, called Edozo – is actually pioneering a new ‘digital business model’. And, by definition, Edozo is officially, a market facing provider of digital-twin-B2B solutions; one that is seeking to serve the circa £1trillion asset class (source: Edozo website) from a property valuation perspective.
Credit: Edozo
First, is their core product – Edozo Maps – provides simple, fast and accurate mapping solutions to the property, architecture & planning industry. Using their unique Auto-Polygon technology, the licensed user can create accurate title boundaries in a single click which works well as a core deliverable for the professional valuer, who is often a Chartered Surveyor. Many of Edozo’s existing clients [including some of the largest firms across the globe who] are already using this core, digitally enabled workflow solution, are by definition, building the potential to create an ‘eco-system’ of digital twins for, property valuation purposes.
Next is their Edozo Occupiers product which simply overlays current [asset owner] / leaseholders’ information onto their core product; the provision of maps, again for valuer and potentially, many other client facing reports.
Credit: The Edozoers
The third, and their most recent (in my case, most exciting digital twin ‘use-case’) is the Edozo Insights product which appears to have the ‘potential’ capability of a ‘Black box’ of location specific asset data, on a UPRN basis. Whether you are associated with OR are in the market for divestment, investment, outright disposal, or strategic acquisition activity, the Edozo platform will prove to be an amazing online ‘right-time’ [and soon to be ‘real-time’] DT-B2B solution for property investors and other key real-estate client groups.
Credit: Edozo
It is also heartening to know that a small group of Chartered Surveyors have, in many ways unknowingly, disrupted the ‘traditional business model’ in one of the most profound and heavily serviced professional Surveying pathways. Edozo have successfully delivered their continued disruption, in a manner that could also bode well for the wider National Digital Twin programme; but more on that later.
Credit: The Edozoers
For now, we must simply recognise and truly celebrate the current milestone of the team at Edozo amidst their incredible journey to date. Be sure to watch this space as things begin to manifest over the coming months for the current cohort of amazing Edozoer’s.