In recent years, the field of smart building automation has seen vast growth. This, of course, means that both our portfolio and team need to expand alongside the industry. We are happy to share that Aleksandr Zirk, an expert in leading project management and sales teams, has joined our team as VP of Business Development in the Baltics & Nordics.
With an exceptional track record in leading high-performance teams and working on complex projects, Aleksandr’s experience spans across multiple roles, segments, and countries. This has given him a great understanding of how to tackle various challenges, work with teams of all sizes and temperaments, and overcome any hurdle thrown his way.
We sat down with Aleksandr to find out a bit more about his background, experience and why he decided to join the Bisly team.
Keep reading to find out all about our newest team member!
1. Welcome to the team Aleksandr! Could you please share a bit about your background and previous experience?
My background is actually in civil engineering. I’ve always been eager to understand how things worked, so engineering seemed like an obvious choice. I was also lucky enough to travel and work in various countries such as Estonia, Finland, The Czech Republic and Canada during my university years. My roles included being a site supervisor, field works supervisor, sewage and piping engineer etc. I got the chance to work for various local and international corporations and quickly realised that I was drawn to complex projects incorporating many people across the globe, whom you can learn from and collaborate with.
My first, quote-unquote, ‘big job’ was the role of a design project manager in a company designing and building data centres in Canada. Having done that for a few years, I had to make a decision whether I wanted to move to Canada full time or return to Estonia. I decided on the latter.
For over five years, I had the pleasure of working with well-known real estate developers and various governmental institutions. I was responsible for leading development projects for some of the biggest retail (Porto Franco) and housing (Pikksilma District) projects in Estonia. We managed to win and execute multiple hospital design projects (Perh,Ida Viru etc.), meaning I was never bored during those five years of working in construction.
However, after almost a decade in the industry, I decided to move on and took up the position of a Strategic Account Manager at Skeleton Technologies. Though I didn’t quite know what the role entailed, it turned out to be one of the best decisions I’ve made. During those 3 years I was dropped in a new environment with a high focus on commercial and sales excellence in a startuppy/ scaleuppy world of energy storage systems. Together with Ants Vill, it was a crazy ride the corporate world couldn’t have given me in twice the time!
Last year, I was promoted to be the interim Chief Commercial Officer and then the Executive Sales Director, before giving the mantle to the next generation of hires.
2. How do you see your role in Bisly’s future success and what are you going to be focusing on?
When it comes to my role at Bisly, I’ll be bringing together two separate worlds based on my experience in both construction as well as business development and sales management.
I have over a decade of experience in the construction industry and wide-based experience in both sales management and business development. On top of that, I’ve spent nearly 10 years leading design projects for mission critical facilities and high complexity buildings like data centres, hospitals, and complex large-scale commercial buildings.
My main focus at Bisly will be on market expansion and strategy in the Baltic and Nordic regions while also prioritising partnerships. I’ll be managing the growth of sales and revenue by not solely focusing on new customers and markets, but also taking care of our most important customers, the existing accounts.
Last but not least, you’ll see me working closely with customers, thought leaders in automation and building management systems, and our technical team to help carve a path for continuous product innovation. My goal is to make sure we deliver the best product at a competitive price, ensuring that when it comes to smart building automation and BMS partners, choosing Bisly is an absolute no-brainer.
The objective is to normalise intelligent buildings and make them a widespread offering. This is not only going to help make better use of the limited energy we have available, but also improve the living environment in the buildings as a whole.
3. Going from an engineer to a salesman (from “being sold to” vs “selling to”) – what would you do differently?
That’s a really good question! Most of my career thus far has seen me working as a design project manager, so, for me, the solution or a product I’d most like to work with would have to have certain characteristics. Ideally, you’d want a solution that was simple to implement while also offering great local support. This means you’ll be saving both time and money.
There are many specific pain points that need to be addressed at some point during the lifecycle of a building. This may be planning, permitting, construction, facility management, etc. Bisly has created a system that has vastly improved the experience for everyone involved.
For the design and engineering company, both the software and hardware portion of the building automation solution need to be simple to incorporate in the design and integrate with other systems. It needs to be competitive in price, scalable, and most importantly – simple in its implementation. Bisly is unique in a way where it’s developed a set of hardware components that allow its core systems to be the best in class when it comes to price competitiveness and integration. At the same time, the software part of it ensures that the system can be configured in any way according to the needs of the end user.
For property owners, simplicity and transparency are essential for day-to-day operations and management, and Bisly’s single-cloud platform provides just that.
With Bisly’s building management system, you can have all your tools seamlessly integrated on one platform, without needing any specialist knowledge or switching between tens of different platforms.
Bisly’s systems gather and analyse data from buildings to identify potential issues before they lead to equipment failure or performance degradation. By implementing such predictive maintenance strategies, building owners can extend the lifespan of their equipment, reduce repair costs, and minimise disruptions to building operations.
Bisly BAS and BMS allow building owners and managers to monitor and control various building systems remotely. This enables proactive maintenance, troubleshooting, and adjustments, reducing the need for on-site staff as well as minimising downtime.
Both the building automation system and BMS of Bisly, optimise energy usage within a building by regulating heating, cooling, lighting, and other systems based on occupancy and usage patterns. This leads to reduced energy consumption and lower utility bills, resulting in cost savings for the building owner.
When it comes to construction companies, Bisly’s open architecture and easy integration with other systems make product deployment and setup as simple as possible. Bisly takes away the coding and need for expert installers and integrators to set up the system. Thus, the time it takes to install hardware on site and to set up the system is reduced drastically.
The end user benefits greatly from the one-cloud platform and the interface, since the property owner has access to all features at all times, regardless of where they are and which mobile platform they use. Bisly’s BMS maintains optimal indoor living conditions, such as temperature and air quality, which significantly improve occupant comfort and productivity. One can also drastically cut down on utility bills by letting Bisly’s system manage the lights, heating, cooling, etc. Bisly will optimise the schedules to make sure optimal energy consumption is reached without sacrificing indoor climate.
4. Are there any examples from life that help understand how solutions like Bisly’s can make a difference?
To be frank, there have been many studies done by people way smarter than me, who have not only tested but also validated the benefits of a well-implemented building automation system. We also know now that a new policy from the EU will make building management systems mandatory for high-consumption buildings as soon as 2025 already. This means, it’ll no longer be a premium comfort feature, but a necessary tool that enables to maximise energy savings and increase comfort of the occupants without sacrificing indoor climate or adding too many overhead costs in the process.
The main hurdles in the past have always been related to the cost of implementation, the complexity and the difficulty of integrations, and a lack of understanding. Noone has really managed to standardise building automation technology and this is exactly what Bisly is setting out to change.
I’ve been lucky enough to have seen the impact of a well-implemented automation system from my past experience. Be it in a mission critical facility such as a data centre or a hospital, but I have yet to see a technology that can really drive down the cost and make smart buildings available for everyone.
Join our team!
If you’re interested in joining a fast-growing proptech company with a mission to make smart buildings even smarter, check out the opportunities on our Careers page!