In operating across 29 countries -- with a portfolio spanning residences, offices, hotels, and shopping malls - Singapore-based real estate multi-national City Developments Limited (CDL) has naturally endured a challenging 12-18 months due to COVID-19.

Yet despite such turbulence, the business refused to merely bunker down and weather the pandemic storm - rather accelerate innovation to drive growth and enhance customer experience levels.

Chiefly through fast-tracking the development of CityNexus -- a custom-built offering delivering an engagement platform for office and retail communities, enabling marketplaces for retail and intelligent automation for partners to streamline operations.

During the pandemic, CityNexus helped redefine experience levels for more than 5000 occupants and approximately 60 merchants.

Starting the end in mind, Ivan and his team shaped the new-look CityNexus strategy around three core themes -- consumers are looking for an ecosystem-in-one; usability matters but so does user engagement and connected living through smart features.

Unique innovation came in the form of smart building technology advancements -- merging traditional IT with operational technology (OT) through the deployment of IoT devices supported by bleeding-edge artificial intelligence, machine learning, visual recognition, edge computing, and augmented reality and virtual reality.

In an ‘industry first’ for real estate, CDL also custom-built edge computing solutions with Raspberry-Pi modules at turnstiles and facilities, in addition to rolling out integration channels, automated access and calling controls.