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What's Possible - And Profitable - About Intelligent Building Systems

Rapid evolution of building automation systems (BAS) is significantly impacting commercial and industrial facilities. Sorting through the maze of trends and technology to determine what is possible, however, can be daunting. To help you identify and analyze trends, we have excerpted below “Bottom-Line Sustainability for Business: What’s Possible - And Profitable - About Intelligent Building Systems.”

The full study is available free at ThinkESI.com where you will find insights from a dozen internationally recognized experts on reduced operating costs to improved productivity as it relates to building performance and security, energy efficiency, pending legislation, information technology, sustainability, innovation and integration of systems.

Innovation and Integration

Today’s BAS consumers are demanding more connectivity, compatibility, scalability, flexibility and interoperability among systems and components. They want parts from different manufacturers to work together at peak efficiency.

Key Driver

According to Steve Fey, President of Tridium, a global leader in open platforms, today’s key market drivers are application software frameworks, automation infrastructure technology, energy management and device-to-enterprise integration solutions, integration and innovation. “Our biggest value is in integration,” he says. “BAS is a mature industry - 30 years old - with dozens of manufacturers with third- and fourth-generation products. Building owners now have very disparate systems, so integration is critical.”

How-To

Integration does not happen on its own. As Fey puts it, “The first problem to solve is how do you integrate with the different manufacturers? How do you combine all systems? How do you set it up so that customers can have the ability to pick the best-of-breed equipment and still have an integrated system?” Many experts point out that technological advances are allowing integration of different components and systems to an unprecedented degree.

“The technology for systems is starting to converge,” says Jim Sinopoli, author of the widely read book Smart Buildings and a globally recognized authority on the subject. “Using similar cables (and) standardized databases, what this means is there can be efficiencies and functionality.”

Knowledge Base

But integration alone is not enough. Being innovative also means being able to provide buyers with the information they need to make the best decisions about their systems. BAS end-users want answers from their provider on how to achieve the greatest efficiencies and cost savings - a solutions-based approach rather than buying off-the-shelf. Information will become just as important as the equipment itself. As one industry leader notes, “In addition to technology, expertise and knowledge to provide the right kind of user-friendly interface for the disparate subsystems will be a key differentiator.”

Convergence of IT and BAS

For a long time, IT and BAS were developed in their own separate jars, each focusing on their individual technology developments and moving down the path of least resistance to market. But as buildings become “smarter,” and there continues to be a growing need to interconnect building facilities spread over different geographical locations for remote monitoring/analysis and control, the convergence of the two is inevitable.

Hostile Takeover?

Our expert panel was unanimous in their conclusion that the convergence of BAS and IT is one of the most important trends in the industry. For some, it may be a daunting prospect, but others see convergence as a natural progression. Says Chris Curtis, Executive Vice President, Buildings, of Schneider Electric: “There is a belief by some that the IT industry is going to take over BAS. Our view is that IT is the basic infrastructure - cabling, networks, data gathering, database management and display - of all the systems we use. We certainly see BAS, and for that matter any building system, fully capitalizing on IT technology and trends.”

Safety First

Many of the industry leaders who responded to interviews say the greatest impact associated with the ongoing convergence of IT and BAS has been enabling organizations to enhance safety and security by better controlling who has access to critical data and facilities. With the convergence of BAS and IT, building operators can monitor their buildings 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, they can control access and they can recognize cost savings with the shutdown of non-necessary systems.

Command and Control

“I think the biggest advantage of the integration of IT and BAS is the overall control of user authentication,” says Daniel H. Harris, Founder and Principal of en-terpret.co and one of the world’s leading authorities on information technology systems and management.

According to Ken Sinclair, Editor and President of AutomatedBuildings.com, “We are seeing a smoother approach (to user authentication) develop - face recognition, biometrics. We can buy cameras for everything, from front desk monitoring to checking the belt on a fan. It’s a whole new world - radical change.”

Harris notes that having one Smart Card to get in the front door and another to log into the IT system is both inefficient and potentially risky. Merging IT and BAS means one card could be used for both purposes. “When (the access cards are) unified, this should allow people in the front door and also in the network,” Harris says. “And locking someone out of both should happen immediately when an employee is terminated.”

“The ideal solution would have to have some component of biometrics for access and system authentication,” Harris says. “But this has one disadvantage - contact is required.” New technologies, however, may eliminate the need for touch pads and other bulky interfaces, he adds: “iClass can be read at a distance. This could be useful, for example, to lock a computer automatically when you walk away from it. There is one manufacturer - Privaris - that makes a single device that can be used for door access and system authentication. It also has a biometric capability - a fingerprint scan is required before the device will authenticate to either. This device is really close, but it is still a little expensive. Still, I think the ultimate solution will look something like this.”

Real Concerns

Despite the prevailing and apparently positive trends, there are a number of real concerns about the convergence of IT and BAS:

• While BAS experts acknowledge that the industry itself has implemented the all-important open standards and protocols for integration with IT, there remain a number of manufacturers of individual building components that are being criticized for incorporating communications options (BACnet, Modbus or LonTalk generally), that supposedly do not fit the needs of intelligent buildings.

• Peel back the layers of industry marketing hype, and there are a number of real concerns about the need for true IT and BAS integration. It is one thing to have ongoing data collection in the most simple read/write capacity, and yet another to be able to track trends, adjust schedules and incorporate change-of-value reporting.

• Integration of physical and digital (IT) security can deliver substantial efficiencies. There is some concern, however, that businesses have not realized the importance of integrating physical and digital security in the workplace. Clearly, there is an opportunity for an organization to promote the integration of fire and safety systems with BAS.

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