Patchwork of systems, long queues in the canteen and tenants not finding the information they need. For many Norwegian commercial buildings, this is everyday life. Technology company Izy has spent the past few years developing a platform that brings together all the building's services in one place. We have spoken with CEO Kjetil Sinding and CVO Ole Aabel about how they simplify everyday life for all parties.
“Our main goal is to have everything in one solution,” explains Kjetil Sinding when we meet him and Ole Aabel at the head office.
What started as a desire to create a digital front for commercial buildings has evolved into a comprehensive platform covering soft facility management - all that is not about the building body itself, but about the services inside the building: canteen, meeting room booking, visitor registration and building information.
“When we started, there was no digital front for building. Farm owners spend huge sums to build a profile and market their buildings as high-tech and modern, but when tenants come in the door, they encounter a patchwork of different systems and solutions,” says Sinding.
The solution became Izy — a platform that aggregates canteen, meeting room booking, visitor registration and building information, while giving each individual user custom rights based on which tenant they belong to.
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One of the platform's key features is what Aabel calls the “proxy hierarchy,” a system that allows portal users to set up individual agreements with all tenants and users.
“Izy Portal is the management tool where farm owners and service providers manage everything. From here we can handle that ten different tenants in the same building have ten different price agreements in the canteen. Perhaps one department within a company also has its own price. All this is easily managed through the Izy Portal”, explains Aabel.
The system also handles complex entitlement structures. One tenant may have access to certain meeting rooms, while another has access to others. Some employees may put their lunch on company invoice, others not. Everything is managed centrally through the portal, but experienced seamlessly for the end user who only sees the Izy app on their phone.
The most visible change for many users is MaiFood, Izy's AI-powered payment solution for canteens. With an image recognition system that automatically identifies every item on the board, they have cut down the payment time considerably.
“An average transaction now takes 14 seconds from start to finish paid. The biggest delay is actually when the customer is going to open their phone to pay,” says Sinding.
The system automatically recognizes if there are weight items involved and handles everything in one image. For the canteen operators, this means they can focus on food production and service rather than standing at the till.
“The feedback has been very positive. It works, it's simple, and it frees up resources. In canteens with limited staffing, the offer actually improves because employees can concentrate on ensuring that the buffet is always stocked and that the food is of high quality,” says Aabel.
MaiFood offers more than quick payment. The dashboard provides canteen operators with insight into sales patterns and the opportunity for better planning.
“We can tell you which products sell best and when. If it's a salad bar, the system knows when it needs to be refilled. But the most important thing is that we can make staffing proposals based on prediction - you know how many employees you need at work based on expected visitor numbers,” explains Sinding.
This predictive ability contributes to reduced food waste by allowing the canteen to plan procurement and production more precisely. Recording actual food waste comes as a feature before the summer, which will provide even better documentation for sustainability reporting.
For farm owners, Izy has become an important tool for managing and communicating with tenants. The platform acts as a modern intranet where all communications are collected.
“Typical problems farm owners had in the past were that they had to create their own websites for tenant manuals, caretaker info, and contact information. Now everything is in the app,” says Aabel.
The news module allows farm owners to communicate directly with all or selected tenants. Is there window washing going on? Send a message. The elevator during maintenance? Push notification to affected floors. The system distinguishes between critical information that is sent as push notifications and less important messages that appear in the app.
In office buildings with shared meeting room facilities, Izy has solved a persistent headache. The system handles complex booking agreements where different tenants have different rights and payment terms.
“Some tenants have an agreement for free use of all meeting rooms, others have some rooms for free and have to pay for others. All of this is managed seamlessly through Izy,” explains Sinding.
Integration with locking systems such as Salto takes this further. Here Izy replaces the plastic card - meeting rooms are automatically unlocked 10 minutes before the booked time and locked again 10 minutes after. Meeting room screens show who has booked and when the room is available again.
“We eliminate all that friction that occurs when someone sits in a meeting room they haven't booked, or when meeting rooms are left open and being abused,” says Aabel.
The process from initial contact to fully implemented system is shorter than many expect. After a 30-60 minute demo and an offer, a workshop is organized to map the customer's needs.
“The system is designed to support multiple ways of working. The modules can be used in various ways and are significantly customized. This is what we are mapping out in the workshop,” explains Sinding.
At launch, the Izy team is on site for one to two days to ensure a good start-up. All users are invited into the system, and rules are set up per tenant.
For MaiFood, the process is even easier:
“The hardware is output, and when connected, a unique code is generated that activates the system. The biggest wait? Payment terminals from third-party providers that can take 3-4 weeks to put in place,” explains Aabel.
The office market has changed significantly in recent years and Izy has positioned itself to meet these changes. With a subscription model that makes the technology available to buildings of all sizes, they lower the threshold for modern building management.
“We see that ten-year leases have become rarer — now it's all about flexibility and quick adjustments. Farm owners need agile systems that can handle this dynamic,” reflects Sinding.
With Izy, farm owners can follow usage patterns in real time and customize areas according to actual need. They own the data and have complete control over their building and its tenants.
“The beauty of our approach is that customers often start with one module and expand as they see the value,” concludes Aabel. “And with the AI technology that underpins solutions like MaiFood, the system keeps getting better.”
For Norwegian farm owners and service providers looking to modernize their buildings, Izy appears as a partner that understands the complexity of the industry and delivers solutions that actually work in practice.
In an industry full of promises about the future of office buildings, Izy has taken a pragmatic approach: They deliver the solutions needed today.
