Becoming Brightly: Shaping our Vision for the Future

The halls of Brightly are buzzing with excitement as we earned our spot as an industry leader in the EAM software space by Verdantix. We're thrilled to be recognised, proud of our teams for helping us achieve it, and even more proud of how it all came together. 

The industry and the world is evolving right in front of us. We see it. Our clients are living it. And so we set out to chart a path for the future. Smarter assets, sustainable communities. That’s the world we’re building together. Let's dive into how we crafted this exciting new future for ourselves, our clients & the industry... 

Our vision: A deliberate and ongoing journey to the future 

Since our founding decades ago, innovation has been in our company’s DNA. Whether through internal investment or acquisition, we’ve always best supported our clients by looking ahead to where the market is going, building solutions we know our clients will need and helping them find a path regardless of where they are in their journey to maximise value today and into the future. That is as true today as it was when we started. 

Over the past several years we’ve carefully watched major trends such as digital transformation, global infrastructure and automation influence the market. So, we set out to intentionally build a portfolio with solutions that enable us to better serve our clients and their evolving needs. Some of these decisions include: 

• The acquisition of Confirm for its strong EAM offerings, which we have since integrated into our product portfolio in several markets. 

• Adding industry-leading solutions from Assetic and Facility Health Inc in addition to their deep expertise in strategic asset management. 

• Welcoming Energy Profiles Limited to the Brightly family as an instrumental part of our long-term product strategy to help clients reduce their carbon footprint and execute on ESG initiatives in all aspects of the asset lifecycle.  

• Making major strides in the development of our next generation platform – which will ultimately be the foundation upon which all these solutions live and interact with each other.  

• And, with improved technology and connectivity, we’ve delivered on the promise of automation through IoT, with our Smart Assets offering. 

Another key part of the journey occurred just this year. On March 8, 2022, we rebranded and renamed our company and with it launched a new EAM vision for the future. While a big milestone for the company, it simply represented the culmination of several years of careful strategic planning for our future – all rooted in that client-centric, forward-looking DNA I just mentioned. 

Each of these investments alone delivers tremendous value to our clients seeking best-of-breed solutions to help them navigate the full asset lifecycle. But, when pulled together onto a single platform, the value becomes exponentially greater – and from this our vision for the future begins to become a reality. One brand. One company. One platform. One bright future. 

Maximising Value in a Time of Immense Change 
As I said before, this evolution is a deliberate one, and the driving factor for this change was simple: to maximise the value for you, our clients, and to be at your side as digitisation changes the industry.  

Bringing together the best of the best is not an easy task and not something that will happen overnight, but our investment in building a world-class platform to share components and accelerate development is one way to simplify the process. And, even more importantly, it is what our clients and the market overall want. 

International Road Show 

We just wrapped a series of client events in each of our key markets: US, UK and Australia. I had the pleasure of attending, speaking and spending time with clients at our UK and Australia Illuminate conferences. Each of these events offered us a unique opportunity to share this vision – and the work we are focused on right now – with our clients. I’m thrilled to say that it was well received. Which leads me to further validation that our vision is the right path forward...  

Backed by Research 

We’re incredibly excited that  Verdantix named Brightly a Leader in Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) software. If you aren’t familiar, Verdantix is an independent analyst firm that specialises in operational excellence, ESG & sustainability, smart building technology and environment health & safety. Being named a Leader in this category is not something we take lightly. 

The Future is Bright 

I'll leave you with a story about a Brightly client and friend, Mark Shelswell from Birmingham City Council. Mark and I often find ourselves discussing day-to-day operational challenges and improvement opportunities, and I’ve learned a lot from him about some of the most acute needs of the industry. At our UK customer event, we shifted gears to looking to the future and how we are developing our products to drive value and help with the continuous improvement of the council. The upcoming Commonwealth Games is a critical event in the city, underpinned by safe, well-managed assets via their Brightly EAM solution. Here is what Mark had to say about why he and his teams chose Brightly as a partner for today and the future:  

“We didn't want to talk to a software company that was going to come to us and just say, ‘We’ve got these product sets, there you go, just start using them.’ We wanted to work with a company that would look at our problems to help us solve them. And, to have the experience to say ‘some of our other clients in Kent or Edinburgh, for example, are doing this and it might be useful for you to do the same.’ It’s not just about offering a product and leaving us to our own devices. It is about trying to understand the problem, helping us fix it and providing us with the software we need to do so. That’s the value add” 

I look forward to sharing more about the trends driving change and how Brightly is positioned to support the industry today and into the future in part two of this series. Until then, I encourage you to read more about the Verdantix Green Quadrant: EAM software 2022 and how product innovation is redefining the market.