Unpacking Connectivity Infrastructure with NODE

[Music] Hello everybody. I'm here with Russ Dobson, COO now of Node. Congratulations. Thanks very much. Nice uh nice little promotion step up. Um, for all those that don't know Node, maybe it's good for you to give the the quick elevator speech of of what you guys are all about. Yeah. So, when when we first formed Node, what we was all about is solving pain points for service providers, operators and owners of of the business um and of the buildings. That those being lengthy processes in way leave commitments for service providers, fragmented networks and operating systems for the operators of the buildings and then costly and lengthy legal legal negotiations and insufficient knowledge and partners that they could deal with in the tech technical space to trust in their service providers to provide the correct amount of service without any fog. fog and disillusion around what they're doing and how they're doing it. We provide digital digital connectivity solutions that appeal to all types of asset classes. That starts with our digital backbone through through our converge networks and into our Wi-Fi solutions. Amazing. And how's it going? Good. Um, we had a bit of a change at the back end of 2024. We got 100% acquired by another business called shared access who do supplier agnostic mobile boosting solutions into all asset classes. So it fit very well into the neutral approach of what Node do a short transition period um over the first few quarters of 2025, but we've we've got to grips operationally, internally and externally of how we best work together, how we communicate the way we need to communicate to each other and what works best. Um our focuses all align and now sort of the back end of last year and the start of this year has been all about growth. how how we can attack the markets and really present our solutions to to the wider um UK and European markets. Yeah. And we're we're really fortunate and lucky to uh have certified both shared access and node. um both are part of the the smart building collective and really it's it's it's a fascinating combination right because it's total infrastructure and connectivity solution for our building that um the connectivity of course is is so important for getting work done or in hospitals getting good medic medical care out to people or in um I love the the uh the recent news that they've done about the stadium you know, new new new different ways of of getting connectivity to to to deliver value. Um, but node kind of starts there, right? I mean, that's where the foundation gets laid and shared access doing that from a mobile connectivity perspective. Where does it go from there? And that's what we've that's what we realized when we first formed node. What we was about is putting this fiber backbone into buildings and just focusing on the ISP, the internet service provider pain points. And what we what we didn't look at in the early days was what else what other pain points were people experiencing. It quickly become apparent that things like that mobile boosting um smart technology integrations fragmented networks were all pain points at different levels of of an asset. So what we've done now is streamlined our service lines. It's not just node is not just a backbone solution a fiber solution anymore. We do three separate service lines. One being node connect which is our um anchor product which is the backbone solution. It allows access for all service providers to connect to a building and then provide their services on a plug-and-play basis. We do no converged which is a converge network which takes away those pain points of asset managers where they're setting up BMS systems and lift systems and CCTV systems all on unsupported unmanaged and unpred unprotected um networks. We converge them into a single layer network and operate them for our clients. The third piece is the Wi-Fi piece. We offer that to co-working spaces, event spaces, or as a tenant extension in a building, um, or on sort of pop-up stands or event stands where we'll just do a Wi-Fi for a certain amount of time and then take it away. But they all can be installed. I think what what we what we did quite inefficiently in a in a sort of infancy was provide everything as a package or you don't have anything. What we do now is split them up. they can be provided individually or or as part of a full stack solution where you want everything working through node. Well, and I think that's such an important piece to this whole story, right? It's not just about giving, you know, everything and saying I want to add value with this whole package. There's a education process that's also happening in the real estate industry of what are the different levels and steps that we should be taking to to move move forward. And what we've seen in just the last four or five years together with node is that that smart is being looked at far more holistically now. Yeah. Right. Which is so exciting because it's not just human health and performance and and people but it's h it's building performance talking about energy and water and utility data. It's it's about efficiency management about facility management and how do you you know make an asset more efficient in in how you operate it. Um so yeah tackling all those things at the same time is just you know fundamental now and I think it's becoming more and more the norm and people are starting to realize that. Yeah. Where do you with your all's customer base? How far do you see them in that process? And are you encouraged by what we see or what what what are you hoping to see in the coming years? I think we're encouraged by the fact that people are actually paying attention to it now. Um I think people think what we need to do is make pe make owners and operators of these buildings understand that you you need to have a road map. You don't have to do everything at once. It's most assets have what you need. It's it's how you layer things together and how you converge them together and make that building intelligent by connecting all the dots at the same not at the same time but building a product roadmap for what's most important. What are your pain points now and let's fix that. And then let's look at what you want to do over the next three, five, 10 years and and look how we can build that capacity in and what solution providers need to be playing playing the game in your building and when they need to come, it can become a very costly and lengthy process if you try to do too much too soon. But if you have the knowledge in your head and the technical expertise either internally or externally with a provider to say this is where we need to be, this is how we get there. I think that's the most important thing. Yeah. I mean, that's what we've seen, right? Like in the in the with the smart building certification when we launched in 2020, you know, you had all these flagship buildings that put in more tech than they ever could imagine using, right? And then just a few years later, it's, you know, we're not getting quite the value from this tech that we thought we would. Why is that? And that comes for a number of different reasons, right? you might have bought it in a tech that that didn't, you know, deliver on its promises quite or you didn't organize your process or your governance to to use that data in in a meaningful way. So, I think there's I I'm I'm really encouraged as well by the consciousness that is starting to emerge as to what does it actually take to make this useful and meaningful in how we do it. Um, so when you guys come in and you guys talk about base layer foundational stuff, how do you kind of recommend or what do you recommend for people who are trying to get started don't quite know how what's the right way to to get started? I think again it's having it's having that clear road map and understanding of where where you want to be but also having a partner whether that be node or or or someone else in the technical space that understands your requirement but then doesn't push for too much too soon understands what data you need out now and what's what's a long-term goal what's a short-term goal and why are those long-term goals I think the why behind why you need things is important. It's not it's not just an ambition to have the the most shiny and newest sensor or smart application because it's the newest and the best at the moment. It's what do you need it for. It's the why that really matters instead of how quickly can we get there. It's how well we can do it and who we do it with. I think that the who we do it with is important is there's a lot of people that sell the intelligence in a box and this is the one stop. The reason we broke up our service lines is because if you want to trust us with one or with four ser three service lines it it all the same to us the the more we can improve the intelligence of that building in a small way or in a large way it's it's a part of it. Yeah. I I I love that, you know, and I think starting with the end in mind. What is the result that you're after? What is the thing that you're trying to solve? That's where it all starts, right? In our recent uh ROI think tank, we we coined this kind of term basic math versus comprehensive math. And basic math says, you know, you can have a one forone ROI calculation against connectivity as an example. Like what is the ROI of your connectivity? Still not easy to calculate but you get you get what I'm saying. There's a onetoone kind of calculation. Comprehensive math says what are all the value cases that you can derive from that connectivity service that you bought and a a building you don't just get that value based on buying that functionality. You have to intentionally structure yourself to use the data to build a process to build governance so that you can calculate or that you can actually benefit from those values. Um, but imagine if there's 10 of them. Yeah. And you're doing two or three, there's a ton of opportunity to get this kind of exponential value and exponential growth from just using what you already have. More more smart. We've seen it time and time again with with assets and clients that put so many solutions into buildings and then like you said earlier on they they don't see the ROI from that because the product that they seen which is your base build connectivity it's your it's your Wi-Fi system it's your 4G 3G 5G systems don't work efficiently enough to then gear and work your smart smart applications or your sensors envir sensor applications or any other smart tech that you have in place because your foundational technology which you didn't see ROI in because it's it's the unsexy part of of smart tech. It's it's the foundational core infrastructure. You didn't see the value in that part. But nothing works works without it. You need to get that piece right. That's the important part of having this road map right. It's it's getting your first steps right to make sure that step 10 10 to 20 is correct in the end. 100% 100%. What does the the coming 12 months look like for you guys? What is your focus at the moment? Focus is as ever growing growing quickly. I think shared access the investment from shared access and the acquisition from shared access allowed us one to finance differently in a different way than than we have done in the past. We we used to do a capex payment and then an opex a smaller opex payment on the back end. We offer full optionality to our clients now, but there's a there's an option there to completely opex everything. So, it's you pay nothing upfront for our services. It's all in predictable, affordable, long-term payment plans. The same as shared access do with their mobile boosting solution. It that helped us to grow a lot faster than what we would have done because we saw a few barriers of entry in capex payments. It's but it's our next 12 months is about growth. It's about education as well. It's about re-educating and kicking on that education piece of why core connectivity and then your whole building nervous system network is important and what that gears you towards that again I keep coming back to that road map it that having this core connectivity and then converge network and then if you wrap in all your other services it's starting you on that journey that we're hoping to be on with clients for sort of the next 5 to 10 years and really see smart systems kick into buildings and buildings actually become a lot more intelligent than they are today. I I love it so much because I think you guys are also hitting on a really really important piece of this challenge that we have, right? Is that the stakeholder map in smart buildings is is highly fragmented, right? And it's who's going to pay for it. you know, a building developer doesn't necessarily want to pay for the things that the tenant is going to benefit from unless it's gonna encourage that that tenant to come or to stay or to be there. Um, so to give the the developer the ability to put smart ready, smart connectivity into their building without that, you know, capeex is massive, right? I think that that's just gamechanging. Um, and any developer out there who's trying to understand how to make this financially work, these guys are the ones who can help you do that because that that that's really going to change the game. We're at a time now where customer experience and customer happiness within a building is paramount and your services, whether that be technology services or any another service needs to be more efficient than it ever has been because pulling people back into that office, it's still it's still a topic that everybody discusses. A topic everyone discusses is working from home versus working in the office. And a building has to be now highly tech efficient to meet those occupier demands. And it's one way a small part of what's going to pull people into that office. And what's your take on the the the battle for the office, work from home, work at the office. I've got two kids, so I was always preferred to come into the office, but I thought you were going to say you wanted to stay home at all, hang out with your kids. Um, I think personally, honestly, I think there's a good balance to strike. I think having everybody in an office and being able to collaborate, you can you can get a lot more done together as a group. It's always beneficial to have time by yourself and work through things that you need to work through. But again, your technology needs to work in both places. And that's where in the UK especially, we need to up our game in what's delivered to homes as well as what's in delivered to inbuilding solutions because there's still a large part of the UK that don't have access to the same fiber provision that most of the UK have access to. And it's it's striking that balance. I know a lot of people prefer being in the office and some people prefer working at home. It's it's making sure as businesses that we we set people up correctly. And again, it's all where we're talking about customer experience in an office environment. It's about employee experience and what what their what their pain points are, what they enjoy doing, what they don't enjoy doing. We we have a hybrid pattern at node and we we decided to move office very recently to to again increase that customer experience of for for our staff, put them in a location that's friendly, close to transport links, has the tech that we need in the building and just really provides what we'd want for them to work in a a controlled and really high performing environment. Yeah, we always say that, you know, individual situations are different. Of course, they are and we have to be flexible in trying to to understand uh how to how to serve it best. Really cool. Thanks very much. Thank you.