In January of 2020, the adoption of a smart building was not imperative for many building owners. Barriers existed, and time and time again, the adoption of a smart building was not technological; it was cultural. Within a few months, facility managers are managing through unprecedented times, and the industry inflection point is here. Similar to the War on Talent when a human resource manager became a chief people officer and employees became the most significant asset, technology-advanced built environments and the FMs that run them, are at the forefront of organizational performance. Like how HR mastered workforce analytics, facility teams need to understand the building data available to them to support their strategic planning and technology implementations and hold their teams and the organization accountable.

Before COVID-19, a smart building was generally defined as an integrated set of technology, systems, and infrastructure to optimize building performance and occupant experience. This definition has not changed. The foundation is 100 percent valid. What has significantly changed is the prioritization of what building technologies are vital for an organization to succeed and the integration of these systems. Organizational leadership expected a slow rise to smart buildings. The trajectory has shifted, and to realize the benefits and long-term value of a building, FMs must lead the organization beyond the installation of random, siloed technologies. Smart buildings require an integrated, organizational-wide adoption and deployment model with data aggregation, reporting, and analytics at the frontline of decision-making.

Reporting data now & in the future

As occupants arrive back to facilities and spend hours learning, working, living, and collaborating, people, building, and organizational-based reports are essential. Access to the data, in many instances, on-demand, is the defining moment of truth for facilities managers as requests come hard and fast.

Those already deep into reopening plans know that requests will be ever-changing, exposure to building systems and their operations vast. Sample reporting includes current and past information on the building(s):

  • Occupancy

  • Occupant health and wellness

  • Building performance such as air quality including CO2 and humidity

  • Weather

  • Cleaning and disinfection

  • What technology currently exists in the building that can work for today and future requirements?

  • Can the existing building technology infrastructure support current and future needs? (POE, wireless, structured cabling, etc.)

  • Does the system vendor have a path to interoperability?

  • Can new technology support future requirements?

  • Are there aesthetic issues or non-intrusive attributes to consider?

  • How is cybersecurity addressed to meet information technology standards?

The above examples also include alerts and notifications of occupancy breaches, health issues, and more. The data is sent to personal devices, digital signage, websites, and used by communications professionals on employee and visitor messages to keep them calm and informed and better an organization's reputation.

The longer tail for FMs to address is the data that will be needed to support responses to building insights gathering such as employee engagement studies, visitor feedback polls, and patient satisfaction surveys. Identifying issues and trends will require data to either prove misinformation or implement critical changes to building systems. Once findings are shared, FMs must be visible and communicate with stakeholders using available data to hold themselves and the organization accountable.

Systems integration & data aggregation

Accessing data with a click of a button to support the reporting is not reality. It took years for finance leaders to "easily" provide gross margin reports or the inventory at distribution facilities. Organizations had to implement the right software and hardware systems that could integrate and efficiently provide the manufacturing, supply chain, distribution, and sales data. For smart buildings, selecting the right technology cannot be done in isolation either. The use of systems thinking is needed to understand the relationship and opportunities that exist with building technologies. By using systems thinking, FM can better predict outcomes and ensure the built environment is safe, efficient, cost-effective, and has a lower environmental impact. Great building technology exists today, and powerful innovations will continue to come to the market to transform the industry. With data in mind, the following are a top list of considerations.

Using the systems thinking approach, FMs will also begin to see how building systems work together as an interconnected ecosystem. It's a good reminder when presented with cool technology not to evaluate it for its single usage, consider its ability to participate, and improve the power of the building's technology ecosystem.

Like the CFO, the gross margin does not magically appear. Data aggregation brings all the data from disparate sources into a central point for analysis. Buildings have a lot of available data today. As smarter, more advanced technologies are implemented and effectively used, more data will be available. However, FMs must ensure they have the correct data in a consistent, integrated format to make informed decisions and present the data in a meaningful way. The integration of systems and the mapping of data is imperative.

By 2025, nearly 30 percent of the data generated will be consumed in real-time - think autonomous vehicles. With this example alone, ponder how critical it is for the data to be flawless, informing a driverless car. Today, the availability and aggregation of occupancy and air quality data are as crucial.

The chosen building technologies must have open protocols or an Application Programming Interface (API). API is a set of functions and procedures allowing the creation of applications or reports that access the features or data of an operating system, application, or another service. API is not building technology specific. APIs, a technology standard, enable CFOs to track inventory and doctors to receive cardio readings from patients.

A machine learning on-ramp

Managing a building system implementation during a crisis does have its advantages. In April 2020, McKinsey referenced a European survey citing 70 percent of executives from Austria, Germany, and Switzerland said the pandemic is likely to accelerate the pace of their digital transformation. They further state that the COVID-19 crisis seemingly provides a sudden glimpse into a future world, one in which digital has become central to every interaction, forcing both organizations and individuals further up the adoption curve almost overnight.

When building systems are fully integrated and sharing data, the path to effectively using machine learning and artificial intelligence is not a winding road. Machine learning has been part of technology innovation for quite some time. For smart buildings, having available data for machine learning has been the roadblock. The more building systems can use machine learning, the smarter the entire building ecosystem becomes. The addition of more smart devices, APIs, and external data sources to the building ecosystem allows for greater building autonomy. Buildings are fully integrated and connected and become more self-aware, providing leadership with predictive solutions instead of habitual responses.

Once machine learning is established and mature, an organization can start considering artificial intelligence (AI), where it makes sense for them. According to Prescriptive Data, AI has been shown to reduce tenant hot and cold complaint calls by 43 percent and lower utility costs by 21 percent. AI will enable predictive actions for optimal building management system (BMS) performance, occupancy, energy use, peak demand, carbon emissions, and more and support overall health and wellness initiatives that are priority for the foreseeable future.

Even in such uncertain times, a technologically advanced built environment is essential for occupants and building owners. Mastering the use of smart building data for reporting and predictive analytics is also essential for facility leaders to continuously improve occupant experience and building performance. Transformation is happening; the responsibility is more significant than ever before. The available data provides facility leaders what they need to provide insights, build trust, showcase outcomes, and hold their teams and the organization accountable.