Case Study
How VITALITY created tenant billing system for theMart’s 300+ tenants
Company
Overview
VITALITY was able to design, oversee the implementation of a full tenant billing platform for 300+ tenants
Published
December 17, 2020
A bit of context
In addition to providing trade show, convention, and retail floor space, the Mart is host to a large number of business entities.
Life before VITALITY
Approximately 900 electric meters were installed in the building to measure energy use (in part to help qualify for LEED Gold Certification), to verify savings, and to allow management to bill individual tenants for their energy use.
The installed meters were being read manually followed by a manual process of entering those readings into a spreadsheet. Any additional processing or billing also had to be done manually. Not only were these manual processes time-consuming, but they were also prone to errors leading to inaccurate data and bad billing information.
They had been told ... that the building was too old and that undecipherable legacy cabling networks would make the job prohibitively expensive if not impossible to do.
Prior efforts to interconnect the meters into an integrated package had failed. In fact, they had been told by one contractor, that specializes in such work, that the building was too old and that undecipherable legacy cabling networks would make the job prohibitively expensive if not impossible to do.
Working with theMart
Always game for a challenge, VITALITY sent a small team to Chicago to analyze the problem and propose a solution. While the existing building cable networks were indeed chaotic, the VITALITY team felt that they could be deciphered and proposed the implementation of a data communications network utilizing a combination of existing cabling with new wireless communication devices.
This network would enable the data from all of the meters to be continuously monitored and stored in the cloud. The VITALITY management software package could then be used to provide management with real-time energy consumption data and to manage the sub-billing processes with the Mart’s tenants.
Tenant billing
VITALITY is implementing an autonomous tenant billing platform for theMart’s 300+ tenants. The platform will track energy use in real time, invoice tenants monthly, and provide access to real-time consumption data, reports, and invoice payment. Billing rates can be customized based on various factors. Meter readings, utility data, and monthly billing will be fully automated with VITALITY.
Services provided
Programming & Commissioning
Complete
Metering Design
Tenant Billing
Platform
Conclusion
With the help of VITALITY, manual processes that previously had taken a team of people several days to complete will now run automatically each month with no human intervention or any of the associated errors. Combined with the current energy saving practices currently employed by theMart, VITALITY will allow them to maintain their LEED gold status as well as their reputation for being the leader in energy management.
4.2 m
Square feet
300+
Tennants
100%
Automated billing
