Schönhauser Allee Arcaden Success Story

With more than 95 stores, restaurants, a fitness centre and a library, the Schönhauser Allee Arcaden shopping centre in Berlin is a thriving destination. mfi Shopping Center Management GmbH (mfi) oversees the property’s operations – from tenant support and building services to accounting and service charge billing, including the complex task of consumption cost billing. For UK estates teams managing multi tenant sites, this challenge will feel familiar.

The challenge

For years, the building services team relied on manual meter reads, spreadsheet reporting, and paper based comparisons – a process that was slow, error prone, and difficult to audit. With growing pressure to improve billing accuracy and reduce administrative effort, the operator needed a smarter, more transparent way to collect, evaluate and report consumption data.

For UK estates teams – especially those managing multi tenant retail centres or large portfolios – fragmented maintenance records and poor visibility of consumption can disrupt operations and increase compliance risk. Under frameworks such as the Building Safety Act, SFG20, SECR, TCFD, and ISO 50001, duty holders must maintain transparent audit trails and evidence energy efficiency, climate resilience, and statutory compliance.

The Solution

Since March 2020, consumption data has been captured automatically in collaboration with F&E Service GmbH Leipzig and stored securely in the cloud via VertiGIS FM. Using the VertiGIS FM energy management tool, meters are read in real time and evaluated continuously, with mobile and offline access for building services teams.

All key evaluations run automatically: VertiGIS FM flags anomalies and meter defects, documents findings, and issues reminders for upcoming deadlines such as maintenance, expiring calibration periods and events that need review. Teams can access all meters online, compare current consumption against prior periods, generate reports instantly, and update system data where required.

At year end, billing values are produced directly in the SAP output list. This includes all relevant information for audit and billing: meter changes, tenant changes, anomaly evaluations, calibration data and meter defect logs – traceable down to the metering point number (MPAN/MPRN), with a complete twelve month dataset for audit.

VertiGIS FM visualises and compares annual consumption in charts and tables, with weather adjusted analysis (degree days, operating days) to normalise data and surface true deviations. Meter readings are validated at least daily, enabling month end key date comparisons and targeted actions when exceptions occur. With multiple reads per day, defective meters are identified quickly and repaired or replaced, ensuring accuracy and legal certainty in consumption cost billing while eliminating reading, transmission, interpretation and rounding errors.

Where required, VertiGIS FM links energy data to assets and spaces, supports target setting, and aligns reporting to SECR, TCFD and ISO 50001. IoT and smart meter integrations are supported, including MQTT enabled sensors, to provide reliable, real time energy performance data across the estate.

The Result

The benefits have been immediate: reporting is faster, clearer, and more reliable. Staff no longer spend hours on manual readouts or troubleshooting spreadsheets. Instead, they have access to high quality reports with full traceability – including metering point numbers and twelve month datasets – enabling meaningful comparisons and proactive action. Meter defects are flagged early, anomalies are documented automatically, and billing values are audit ready. Schönhauser Allee Arcaden now enjoys transparent energy management, reduced administrative effort, and confidence in compliance under UK FM standards and ESG frameworks.

By eliminating manual errors and providing near real time visibility, VertiGIS FM has transformed energy management at Schönhauser Allee Arcaden. The shopping centre now enjoys transparent billing, reduced administrative effort, and confidence in compliance – outcomes that resonate strongly with UK estates teams under growing ESG and regulatory pressures.