Intelligent, connected buildings are no longer just a futuristic concept. From hospitals to schools to corporate headquarters, organisations around the world are digitally transforming their facilities to improve performance and drive value for building owners and occupants.
From supporting technology, operational and sustainability goals to improving patient healing time or student test scores, an intelligent building can offer a variety of benefits.
While technology convergence is now possible, it doesn't happen without deliberate effort. Constructing a smart building that meets energy, technology and operational goals throughout its lifetime depends on early collaboration. The owner, design and construction teams need to share informed, data-driven decisions about connectivity and interoperability.
With deliberate expert attention applied early in the planning phase, pitfalls can be avoided and the building can be designed, delivered and maintained in a way that achieves the owner's defined outcome.
This is why, increasingly, building owners are selecting a single point of responsibility -- the technology contractor -- for technologies early in the process.
A technology contractor will consider the various technology systems and integrations upfront and bring an enterprise-wide perspective to managing the planning, design, installation, integration, commissioning and service of systems, business applications and supporting infrastructure.
CRITICAL CONTINUITY
Having someone who can provide critical continuity throughout pre-construction, installation and service ensures that equipment and systems will live up to their full potential and support any future innovations while protecting the existing investment. Engaging a technology contractor can lead to benefits lasting throughout the building's life cycle in many ways because:
The design process aligns technologies with desired outcomes and works from Day 1.
A holistic approach to optimising technology spending takes technology life cycles into account.
Integration of individual systems provides a more comprehensive use of technology to support business initiatives while reducing interoperability risk.
Best practices identify gaps between system specifications, IT, security standards and intended use.
Ongoing technical support, training and insights are provided for the life cycle of the building.
Ongoing operations and maintenance of technology systems are critical to delivering the desired outcomes. Because commissioning benchmarks performance, the identification and repair of systems that have ceased to operate at acceptable performance levels is easy to manage.
Effective systems design and monitoring can reduce expenditure on energy, maintenance and upgrade costs. And remote monitoring of connected equipment leads to improved uptime and dramatically reduced time-to-repair.
Through a technology life cycle approach, building owners and operators can receive service from the same partner who provides the HVAC, building automation, fire protection and security, along with the IT infrastructure that connects it.
Remote support or on-site consolidated service offerings can make maintenance efforts more seamless depending on the urgency.
Planned maintenance schedules can offer consistency and help stay ahead of potential issues, which can be particularly useful on a college campus for example, when facilities become quieter during school breaks and offer a great chance to address maintenance needs before the next semester begins.
Predictive and diagnostic monitoring services can leverage building data to evaluate equipment condition, comparing it to performance of similar equipment, and make recommendations for performance improvement opportunities that can help pinpoint problems before they go undetected and become a costly interruption for the building.
PARTNERING FOR SUCCESS
Digital building transformation requires a building life cycle partner who is capable of understanding and delivering against an organisation's main goals, whether through its own services and/or through a diverse partner ecosystem that can help seamlessly achieve building and operational priorities.
The technology contractor can serve as a single point of responsibility for not only installing connected, converged building technologies but also servicing and maintaining them. That maintenance can be tailored towards achieving the agreed-on priorities and outcomes that building owners put forth in the initial design phases.
This continuity translates into a more holistic, long-term building maintenance approach -- one that continuously benchmarks against those original goals, as opposed to cobbling together maintenance or service providers along the way.
Digital, connected buildings are an opportunity to deliver an intelligent environment that drives value for those who rely on the facility, and a long-term life cycle plan can turn a building into more than just a place to do business -- it can become an intelligent contributor to business success.
Jim Nannini is vice-president of building wide systems integration at Johnson Controls.