The Smart Building and Internet of Things (IoT) debate continues to gather momentum. But within the commercial office arena, who is responsible for it? Is it Corporate Real Estate or IT?
The term “Smart Building” has been around for years, it started with the converged cabling infrastructure, resulting in lower installation and support costs compared to individual proprietary cabling systems. Over the past decade “traditional” building systems converted from analogue to digital, opening the possibilities for “modern” Smart Buildings. This has been further enhanced by IoT technologies and service providers bringing to market extremely innovative offerings and long may that continue!
A recent Gartner study says the number of business connected devices is predicted to rise to 3.14 billion by the end of this year (2017) and to 7.55 billion by 2020. But companies do not procure devices, they procure solutions to improve the business. In procuring Smart Building Technologies or IoT devices, what are the challenges CRE and IT face?
Corporate Real Estate
- Desk & meeting room utilisation at around 50%
- Providing for Activity Based Working (ABW)
- Property acquisitions based on anecdotal utilisation information
- Unclear Digital Transformation strategy
- Integration with legacy systems
- Initial cost outlay and ROI scepticism
- Staff perception new technologies are too Big Brotherish
- An IoT related security breach
IT
- Unclear Digital Transformation strategy
- Bring Your Own Device (BYOD)
- An IoT related security breach
- Integration with core IT systems, HR or payroll
- Staff perception new technologies are too Big Brotherish
- Data collection, velocity and storage
- Lack of skilled/ hard to acquire resource in these fields
- Contractual risk with Landlords over data or performance
There are numerous other challenges facing each department, but of the above, half are the same: digital transformation, system integration, security and staff perception. Yet corporates still work in their respective traditional silos: Building Services & IT.
In this “always connected” and “I want it now!” world, both departments are jointly responsible for delivering a Smart Building to meet the needs of their business & colleagues today and in the future. Whether a new build or refurbishment, CRE need to ensure their design teams incorporate an integrated technology design and cyber security framework alongside Architectural and M&E designs and IT need to provide appropriate Technical resources to work with the design team from concept to completion.