Dear colleagues, customers and partners,
At Interclean, FacilityApps received two awards that mean a great deal to me and to our entire team: the Interclean Innovation Award in the Best Digital Solutions category and the Cleaners’ Choice Award.
These awards recognise the work of our team, our customers and the many cleaning professionals who help us improve FacilityApps every day. But they also represent something bigger: a sign that the cleaning industry is ready to take technology, data and innovation more seriously.
That matters because our view of the future is inseparable from AI. We believe the opportunity is not to replace the people who make cleaning happen, but to make their expertise more visible, accessible and useful, from the first training moment to daily execution and quality improvement.
This is not the first time FacilityApps has been recognised by the market. In 2021, we won an award in the Netherlands for best software after research among 300 cleaning companies. That mattered because it came from the industry we serve. The Interclean awards matter for the same reason.
What should the best software for cleaning companies help you achieve?
There is no universal “best” solution. The best cleaning management software is the one that fits a company’s daily operation and connects the work that matters most.
- Plan cleaning teams, sites, recurring work and changing schedules.
- Register time and connect planned work with work completed.
- Run digital quality inspections and provide proof of service to customers.
- Connect calculation, contracts, execution and reporting to support operational decisions.
- Train, onboard and support an increasingly international cleaning workforce.
- Protect business continuity through reliable uptime, clear support arrangements and recovery planning.
- Support compliance and governance with clear responsibilities, access controls and traceable information.
- Meet procurement requirements with transparent information about security, service commitments and the long-term suitability of the software partner.
- Fit the company’s IT architecture and connect with existing systems through well-defined integrations and data exchange.
FacilityApps is built around this operational chain. Rather than treating planning, time registration, quality control and staff development as separate challenges, we believe they should reinforce one another.
For larger organisations, the decision goes well beyond a feature comparison. Operations, IT, procurement and compliance teams need confidence in the same platform. They need to understand how it will keep essential work running, how data is governed and how it fits their wider architecture. I believe those questions belong at the centre of the conversation, alongside the needs of the people using the software every day.
Cleaning is a global profession
At Interclean, I was reminded again how international the cleaning industry really is. Every country has its own labour structures, languages, regulations and customer expectations. Quality standards, education and training can vary widely too.
But the essence of the profession is the same everywhere. Cleaning companies need to organise people, plan work, maintain quality, prove delivery to customers, train new employees and operate with increasingly tight margins.
FacilityApps is built for that reality. We have strong market positions in the Netherlands and Belgium, a growing presence in the United Kingdom, and customers across Europe, South Africa, the United States, Canada, Australia and markets such as Lebanon.
Our commitment is clear: to continue leading the way in software for the operational management of cleaning companies worldwide.
From digitalisation to intelligence
Over the past decade, the cleaning industry has made real progress in digitalisation. Planning, working hours, inspections and reports are increasingly recorded in systems. That makes operational work more visible and creates the data foundation the industry needs.
The next step is intelligence. As buildings become smarter, data from building sensors, facilities and operational systems needs to come together in a usable way. For me, AI is not simply another software feature or a standalone chatbot. It is an acceleration of digitalisation: a way to recognise patterns, identify risks and turn operational data into useful support for the people who do the work. Our vision for AI focuses on exactly this practical support.
But meaningful AI requires reliable data, clear governance and open standards. That is why the best software must serve today’s operation while preparing people for tomorrow’s connected buildings. Our Cleaning Industry AI Manifesto calls on the industry to develop more initiatives and collaborate more closely. We take an active role in that work with our customers, partners and people. The manifesto below explains the principles behind this approach.
A stronger product, built closer to the industry
Over the past year, FacilityApps has invested more in its product than ever before. We have expanded our engineering capacity because our ambition requires more than good intentions: it requires a platform that keeps becoming more useful for the people who plan, deliver, measure and improve cleaning work every day.
That investment is already visible in the launch of a completely new app, in new modules for employee planning and contract management, and in a broader, more distinctive portfolio. Alongside VR training and calculation, we are continuing to deepen the planning capabilities that help cleaning companies manage increasingly complex operations.
More features are not the goal by themselves. Our aim is to connect the right tools around the reality of cleaning work, so that the platform supports operational teams from contract to planning, execution, quality and learning.
We want to bring these solutions as close to the customer as possible. That is why we work with partners who have deep knowledge of the cleaning industry and understand its daily practice. Together, we can combine technology with the local expertise, implementation support and trust that customers need.
Leading innovation that strengthens the whole industry
We believe the whole cleaning industry should benefit from innovation. Facility Data Standard already called for more data sharing and open standards. Our AI Manifesto builds on that same conviction: we can achieve more together than through isolated systems. FacilityApps takes the lead in better data exchange, working with others rather than building barriers between systems. As co-initiator of Facility Data Standard, I am committed to bringing cleaning companies, technology platforms, building stakeholders, educational institutions and innovators closer together. When information can move more effectively between them, we all become stronger.
We also see a clear role for FacilityApps in helping startups scale. Acquisitions can give promising businesses access to the experience, customer relationships and resources they need to grow. Alongside that, we actively support entrepreneurship within our own team, working with our people to bring new products to market. Our work on CMS in the United Kingdom is an example of that approach. We want to combine entrepreneurial initiative with the support of FacilityApps, so that good ideas can become useful products for the industry.
From Amsterdam to Milan
Several years ago, I initiated the first Cleaning Hackathon in Amsterdam. The concept later moved to Facility Data Standard so it could serve the wider industry, rather than one company alone.
In 2025, the hackathon travelled to ISSA Pulire in Milan. Together with the ISSA Pulire Network and Facility Data Standard, students worked on AI-driven ideas for future cleaning environments. The winning I-Team concept combined AI, IoT, robotics and risk monitoring.
At Interclean Amsterdam 2026, that international movement continued with the AI Tournament. Eighty international students from Wittenborg University of Applied Sciences, working in sixteen teams, developed ideas for hospitality, healthcare, offices and public infrastructure. Their energy and imagination showed that cleaning is a sector with complex, meaningful and technically interesting challenges.
Technology can remove borders in training
One of the biggest global challenges in cleaning is consistency. How do we make sure that people in different countries, on different sites and with different language backgrounds can learn, understand and apply the same quality standards?
With our VR solution, we see how a realistic digital environment can make training more visual, practical and accessible. AI can make a digital trainer more adaptive and context-aware, while human trainers remain essential for coaching, feedback, motivation and care.
Train, work, measure, improve and retrain in one connected learning and operational cycle.
Looking ahead
I am honoured to have been invited to join the Interclean Advisory Board, and I have accepted that challenge. In the coming period, I will travel to Las Vegas and Shanghai to learn, connect and explore how we can continue to improve our industry internationally.
FacilityApps has always tried to bring new technology and new ideas into cleaning. We will continue to invest in practical digital tools, data, AI, training and connected operations, and to work with the industry to raise the standard globally.
Cleaning is a global profession. The future of cleaning technology should be global too. FacilityApps intends to help build it.
Dirk Tuip
CEO, Founder & Chairman, FacilityApps
