5 things to know before choosing your building management tool
Gone are the old school building management solutions, the under-utilised data, the lack (or absence) of global management... The building sector is at a real turning point, the search for intelligent building management solutions is part of the priorities of companies looking to improve their productivity or to offer a healthy and stimulating work environment. Many platforms are proliferating on the market and it is difficult to differentiate them. The Sensinov Blog has compiled a checklist of essential features to help you recognise THE solution that will support your building management.
1. Interoperability of systems
The solution must allow buildings to free themselves from proprietary confinement and to interface with any type of equipment, regardless of the supplier or the communication protocol at field level (Modbus, BACnet, Sigfox, LoRa, 4G, 5G, etc.) or any external data: BIM, CMMS, Dashboard, etc.
The desire to make buildings more efficient is commonplace today by integrating new IoT sensors that collect data on temperature, presence, etc. But it is only by combining these new sensors with existing equipment that they bring value.
Similarly at the asset level, with its uniform data approach and APIs, the solution should offer the possibility for application developers to easily deploy services independently of each other.
2. Centralized and unified data management
Access to information should be simplified by managing data on a single interface (like the Building Operating System):
- A collection of data from both BMS/BMS, IoT sensors, security systems, etc. on a central instance. The data is collected either locally on the building systems or from external databases (weather data
- Processing and structuring of this data by unifying it in a common reference system
- Semantic enrichment of this data to facilitate its sharing with applications
- Making the data available to service applications via secure and open APIs.
3. A high-value cybersecurity system
The architecture must be built to ensure a set of protective measures and mechanisms to achieve a high level of system cybersecurity and combat malicious acts. Opt for a solution that:
- Ensures data security and confidentiality (AAA approach, asymmetric key encryption, certificates, TLS protocols, etc.)
- Provides a secure architecture (network firewall, web application firewall, anti DDOS, ...)
- Implements an access management system to regulate each connection and manage specific rights for each user on the platform, in compliance with the regulation
4. Real-time management of the building database
The digital representation of the building's physical environment must be updated in real time thanks to the digital twin.
This "digital twin", enriched daily with data retrieved from the equipment in the field, constitutes the internal database of the solution and becomes the unique reference of the building. It can also interact with an existing BIM (Building Information Model) which serves as the basis for the digital twin.
5. A global vision and management of the building stock
You should be able to answer to those questions :
- How much does the park consume?
- Which buildings consume the most energy?
- Which buildings should I prioritise for action?
To do this, you need to be able to take stock of your building stock on a single platform. Creating performance indicators at the asset level becomes possible (and is even essential) to really measure the impact of energy efficiency actions and take corrective measures if necessary.
But beyond visualising all the data of a fleet, the solution must go as far as piloting, controlling and automating the operation of all the equipment in the fleet.
In short, it is essential that the tool you choose allows you to :
- implement actions with a rapid return on investment and without modifying the existing architecture (apart from possibly adding new IoT sensors).
- to focus on high added value actions by automating the tasks that make you lose time on a daily basis.
Sensinov offers you to apply your own strategy to your buildings. Our solutions meet the challenges of openness, interoperability and are 100% in line with the new standards (R2S label, BACS decree, tertiary decree). BOS Sensinov supports building professionals in their daily work on several subjects, particularly in the areas of Hypervision and building supervision, equipment control and energy consumption optimisation.