Kim Goei: “Let’s talk about technology, so Mandy, definitely Mandy’s favorite topic, technology, technology, even though she’s like, ‘I don’t do it, whatever,’ but it’s so great, and you ordered a technology summit, but um, so where does technology play a role in this? I’m actually going to call on a few of you, but first, Josh, since I know I made fun of Josh earlier, but he really is one of those people that spearheads thinking differently about how to leverage technology. So, where does AI and so forth come into this, and give us some of your brilliant thought leadership on technology. Thanks.”

Joshua Witte: “We’re at an interesting inflection point within the industry, especially in energy and utility management, and you know, AI is really buzzy right now, and if you follow AI at all, it seems like every day there’s a new AI platform out there that is at both terrifying and exciting at the same time, especially if you start having conversations with these little bots. Um, it’s very interesting stuff, but it really does have can have a significant impact on how you manage your facilities and how you manage the energy usage and consumption out there. We’re looking at deploying AI-type technology into our stores that will have the capability to utilize machine learning and predictive analytics to develop virtual submeters down to all of our units at the store to enable automated demand response to adjust set points and create work orders before there’s a problem, to become truly proactive instead of reactive, which is how we all live in our world, you know. Our current state right now is I have among my 16,000 stores, I have at least five disparate energy management systems across that portfolio. I say at least five because I probably have some store out in the middle of nowhere that has a bunch of thermostats on the walls, and I just don’t even know it, and none of these systems talk to each other. They don’t integrate, and I literally have analysts swiveling in their chairs, logging out of one system, logging into another, every single day, trying to manage this portfolio. You know, by utilizing AI and machine learning, we can develop, as we’re working on developing a software platform, what we call a single pane of glass that sits over all of that, integrates all of that data into a data lake, makes it actionable, makes it real-time, and will really truly empower us to impact some positive change at the store level.”

Kim Goei:: “That’s awesome. Ted, do you want to add a little bit more color on data integrity and your thoughts on that?”

Ted Atwood: “The hardest part in the ESG compliance space is you need to start with good information, and the core of it is having good records on assets, and a lot of this data gets siloed, it gets parked in a different system somewhere, like you were just referring to, swiveling chairs. And I think the key, at least in the next few years, is that integration between these touch points, that’ll streamline the number of times that you have to enter data or even review data. You’re talking about data lakes, Microsoft’s done some incredibly powerful things in this language that you’ll hear very little about right now, but it’ll probably change, called M language, and it allows you to share data between different companies and different reporting structures, as long as you use Power BI, and it’s really, really fascinating. So it may not even be the best platform, but if it’s the most efficient platform, it really does enhance what you’re able to do. And even things like what TrackRef accomplishes with the service people that we work with is only manageable when we have a good partnership with a work order system because that data is not redundant, but there’s a lot of similarities, and I think streamlining that’s key.”

Kim Goei: “Any other thoughts on technology?”

Josh Witte: Yep, just to build on that, I would say integration is going to be key moving forward in a future state. The days of closed protocol systems that don’t talk to anything else, those are done. I mean, we’re moving away from that, and the system that can integrate that will integrate your carbon accounting, which will be essential as the SEC continues to shove their faces in how we operate our businesses, uh, between the work order management system, your utility bill pay and management system, whatever you have to start to marry all of these together. And you know, where’s Mark? Mark, a system that integrates that will be a key player in the marketplace. Take note, I’ll come back, I’ll talk to you in six months, we’ll see where we are. As you say, I see an easy button, a flexible system. Everybody wants that one, you know.

Mandy Rennehan: “I just wanted to go back just one step to just say, yes, I am taking the mic on a technology answer here, but I just wanted to talk about the automation perspective and how, when we talk about people in the trades, you know, the external and the internal, even with taxes, when we start seeing the automation be integrated between what they’re using out on site and what we’re using in-house, and they talk to each other, and then you look at a giant like NetSuite, for instance, and then all of a sudden, you’re able to take that, Mark, are you listening, buddy? Okay, buddy, and you’re able to take that, and then you’re able to integrate that back into, you know, all of your financial systems. This has been something that’s been really key for us, is how do you connect the dots with everybody that’s important. So I am excited up here, people, like I am excited. I love this, and I just, you and I can’t have a drink later, Josh, because it’s not going to be good.”

Kim Goei: “That’s awesome. Um, Keith, do you have any thoughts? I know you mentioned your work order system, which is not yet Fexa, but hopefully in the future soon. Um, when you’re… don’t worry, it’s not a soft sell, it’s a hard sell, no just kidding, but you mentioned managing, you know, technology. You mentioned to me before that, you know, nothing happened, it has to all be tracked. Do you have any, um, thoughts as far as that?”

Keith Isoldi: “Thoughts on the system or being with Fexa, which is it? I can honestly say, on the record, no pressure, it’s not being recorded, I would, well, let me make sure I phrase this right, no no no no, honestly say on a record, if you need a system, you should be with Fexa, without a doubt, all right, without a doubt, it’s the most flexible out there. Wow, but see, I’m not trying to jump on board, you know, but it’s the most adaptable out there right now, so, and I’m not just selling it for them, I’ve been in this industry 30 years, I started with, I started way back when when there was no system, there was two companies, Service Watch and Outbound, for any of you old-timers out there that used to pick up a phone book, right, there was two companies, East Coast and West, that did consolidation, and that was it, but the big thing is tracking it all in one system, that is so huge to me, and over at Chipotle, we do not even call a fire department unless there’s a ticket in our work order system. You have to be that stringent about it. Nothing happens until there’s a ticket, yeah, something has to, it has to be there, and you have to get the operators on board with that, you need to support them, you need to help them with that, but you have to have it all in one place, and including my team is in one system that I can look at analytics, and I can analyze any bit of data on the money I spend, and you know, having 3,200 restaurants, I know we all have different budgets, but I probably spend like 1.5 million dollars a week in cash out of the company, so it’s very easy to be looked at, and I can chop it and dice it any which way, so I think it’s very important.”

Kim Goei “Awesome, thank you. Go ahead.”

Ashley Bolden: “So we all kind of talked about it on a call, um, beforehand, we had like a little practice call, but just, uh, especially when new stores, uh, tracking your assets from the beginning, you truly need to know and understand what your depreciation is. If you don’t know how much you paid for that HVAC unit in the beginning, how can you really track the depreciation of it, you’re starting when it breaks down. So you have to start in the beginning, and that’s something that we’re learning years into the game, that we haven’t been doing, so this is a best practice that we’re going to put in, that everything from the LED light that we installed to the 12 units, we need to know in the beginning, how much did we pay for it, so then when it breaks down, we truly know, well, we paid ten thousand for it, why are we spending twenty thousand to repair it. So, and then we also want a system, our reporting system, that will tell you, ding ding ding, you need a new unit, do not, don’t repair it anymore. So, just also, and then he said, I’m sorry if I’m rambling, he mentioned about getting the information, we, we struggle with capturing exactly what happened, when you have guys in the field, their focus to is to repair it, them putting it in the system is like admin work to them, they don’t want to do it, but we need it. I need to know it broke down and why, so when we call the vendor, we call the right vendor one, and two, we have a record to go back from, and a lot of people don’t realize, when you capture all the details, say five years later, somebody decides to sue you, you had that information, you have a record to go back and look at, you have notes, you have, it’s time-stamped, and so it’s very, very important.”