Attended the BOMA Boston’s September Roundtable on Intelligent Buildings today. Jim Lord of Cisco and Lari Anderson of BAE Systems presented on “smart buildings” and the opportunities they provide for improved building performance. Cisco is a preferred provider for BAE Systems. BAE develops, delivers and supports systems (think software plus services), mainly for defense and aerospace companies, but also is developing systems to manage intelligent buildings. BAE devlops the system and uses Cisco’s IT architecture to run the system.
Mr. Lord briefly described Cisco Connected Real Estate (CCRE) and the IT architecture that they use to form the “backbone” of a building’s data handling network. I could not find an case study that resulted from the partnership with BAE, but to view a video of how CCRE is providing advanced service in a luxury hotel, check out this video.
Real Estate executives with an eye to the future need to consider their IT strategy which, in the future real estate market, not only involves the IT departement. Indeed, with the competitiveness of “Smart Buildings”, IT and Facilities functions will be increasingly convergent. Consider that “Smart Buildings” can provide the same amount of data, 24/7, that is available to building commissioning agents. This ability alone can allow the facilities department to pursue “ongoing commissioning” to maintain building systems and improve operations by constantly measuring and monitoring. But this will only be accomplished with an integrated IT/Facilities strategy.
