The rooftops of multi-tenant buildings such as malls and office towers are typically home to a wide variety of different telecommunications infrastructure, from masts and antennas to satellite dishes, security cameras and communication transceivers.

Managing this complex landscape to ensure optimal space utilisation, compliance with health and safety requirements and revenue generation can be a challenging task. Jasco Property Technology Management’s Rooftop Solution helps property owners to address this challenge head on, providing a complete managed solution and service through a single point of contact to enable property owners to actively manage their rooftops.

“Property owners and managers are typically not telecommunication or technology infrastructure experts and do not have the time or core skills required to manage the often-complex rooftop tenant landscape on their buildings. Without this expertise to understand exactly what infrastructure is installed and for what purpose, it becomes impossible to adequately manage this piece of real estate.

“Jasco Rooftop Solutions is one of the products of the Jasco Property Technology Management portfolio, which offers a full solution to help property owners and telecoms operators make the most of their rooftops, increasing utilisation, ensuring compliance with health and safety and preventing unauthorised access, among other benefits,” says Mark Swemmer, business manager for Jasco Property Technology Management.

Some of the issues with unmanaged rooftops include unauthorised access, lack of access control procedures, inefficient space utilisation, equipment interference and potentially hazardous, non-compliant installations. In addition, building owners may be unaware of what equipment is hosted on their rooftops without a comprehensive database of equipment, and cannot effectively manage this space.

Using Jasco Rooftop Solutions, building owners can leverage added value through improved aesthetics, increased space utilisation, improved standards of installation and more controlled access for enhanced security. Furthermore, with the addition of metered energy, it is also possible to accurately measure electricity consumption per piece of equipment and charge this back to the lessee.

Jasco Rooftop Solutions offers three levels of service: Audit, Professional Advice, and Active Management. Rooftop Audits delivers a comprehensive on-site infrastructure report to accurately establish the quantity and type of equipment that is located on the property owner’s rooftop.

Professional advice can then be offered to property owners with recommendations based on the technical findings of the audit report. Jasco’s Active Management offering is a full service solution that outsources the entire rooftop management function, enabling property owners to optimise their rooftop while focusing on their core business.

The offering includes Lease Management, with lease renewal notifications and on-going benchmarking as well as design, review and acceptance for all new and existing installation requests, standardisation of authorisation and access control procedures, and a single point of contact between landlord and lessees. In addition, this service offers complete asset tracking, including labelling, naming and numbering of all rooftop equipment and the creation and on-going management of a full equipment database.

“With Jasco Property Technology Management, property owners can leverage professional management and the standardisation of rooftop standards across the entire property portfolio, with adherence to international best practices to ensure compliance with health and safety regulations, as well as the optimisation of revenue streams. Our extensive experience ensures that your potential revenue streams are identified and delivers optimal utilisation of the rooftops,” Swemmer concludes.

Jasco currently manages more than 350 properties across South Africa, and is in the process of finalising contracts to bring a further 1300 properties into its management portfolio.