Håkon Aas is the Operational supervisor of Canica, an investment company based in Norway and Switzerland with a focus on retail, real estate and financial investments. 

Håkon oversees the operations of Canica on the real estate side of their investments, which means overseeing the everyday running of the building.

Håkon contacted us in 2023 informing us of a rehabilitation project in the high-end, fjord side area of Tjuvholmen, Oslo. The rehabilitation project, which now houses several companies’ offices, was completed to an exceptionally high standard in 2024, with Defigo installed on the front entrance. 

We sat down with Håkon to understand more about Canica and why they chose Defigo to help with their visitor management. 

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“I am the Operational Supervisor in Canica, which means that I oversee anything operational within Canica’s buildings. This can be anything from organising maintenance work, dealing with tenants, and finding solutions to make the everyday running of the building easier for me, the visitors and the tenants. 

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My goal is to ensure that everything in the building works smoothly. If you don’t even think about the journey from the front door to the office, then I’ve done my job well. ”  

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When Canica turned their attention to the rehabilitation project in Tjuvholmen in 2023, Håkon was tasked with finding the solutions that would make this building streamlined and well functioning. This is when he contacted Defigo. 

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“We contacted Defigo because we were on the lookout for a system that could help us with visitor management. A system that is intuitive to use by the visitor, the tenant and by me, as I would be the one initially setting it up and managing it. We wanted the building to be secure and only accessed by our tenants, but at the same time, be easy enough for tenants to grant access to their visitors without issue. 

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We’d used Defigo on another of our buildings, and it fit our requirements for visitor management, as well as our requirements for how the system should look on our building aesthetically, so we reached out.” 

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But what really was it about the visitor management element of Defigo that fit the bill for Canica? 

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“Compared with other options on the market, Defigo is extremely intuitive. The visitor can find the company they are looking for by searching or scrolling on the screen and they can also find the exact person they are looking for within that company. 

The tenant then receives a video call from the visitor where they can see and speak to them, and the tenant can let them in. It really is as easy as messaging or calling a friend when you’re outside their apartment. That’s what we really liked about it. 

When you visit a building, all you want is to find the person or company you are looking for easily, quickly and without having to send emails or messages saying that you have arrived.” 

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But it wasn’t just the visitor management that impressed Canica, there were other features of Defigo that stood out to them. 

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“The design of Defigo is very sleek. When we renovate buildings, we do them to an incredibly high standard, inside and out, which means that we need our systems to fit with the overall look. The modern design of Defigo blends in so well with the design of our building, it almost looks like it was made for it.” 

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“On top of that, we really liked the flexibility of it. If we wanted to, we could connect it to other systems, tenants can use the app or a keyfob for entry, and companies can have a central answering device if they want. There were ways to make Defigo our own, and work well for each tenant and company in the building.” 

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When it comes to Håkon’s role and overseeing operations of the building, a system is only very appealing when it makes his life easier. With so many tasks to juggle at any given moment, simplifying his processes is an important factor. 

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“Defigo has helped me out a lot too. Obviously it’s great for visitors and tenants, but for me it has also been a game changer. The web based administration portal means that I can easily manage access wherever I am. And since I oversee a number of buildings, I can view them all and manage them all from the same administration portal. 

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With Defigo, I just need to add a new employee into Webadmin, and then they can be reached by visitors on the intercom. It’s really easy. 

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With some of the companies, I have also delegated responsibility for adding and removing employee access when they join or leave. This way, I’m not the middle man, and the companies can just do the administration themselves when they need to. This is one of my favorite features of Defigo, and one I think a lot of building managers appreciate.” 

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On a few occasions, Håkon has used Defigo support for such things as getting assistance  setting up a new company in the building on the intercom. 

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“The support from Defigo has been brilliant. We’ve occasionally needed some assistance with setting up a new company on the intercom. All it took to sort things out was to reach out to support. I got help very quickly, and everything was resolved within the day. I couldn’t ask for anything more than that!” 

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It’s now been just over a year since Canica started using Defigo for their visitor management, and Håkon doesn’t see them using any other system. 

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“Defigo has solved all of our visitor management needs. We are very happy and recommend anyone in commercial real estate to use Defigo. It’s a simple system that can be easily used by everyone in the building.” 

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