Gone are the old-school building management solutions, underexploited data, lack (or absence) of global management... The building sector is at a real turning point, the search for intelligent building management solutions is among the priorities of companies seeking to improve their productivity or offer a healthy and stimulating work environment. Many platforms proliferate in the market and it's difficult to differentiate them. The Sensinov Blog provides you with a checklist of essential functions to recognize THE solution that will accompany you in your building management.
1. System interoperability
The solution must allow buildings to free themselves from vendor lock-in and interface with any type of equipment, regardless of supplier or communication protocol at field level (Modbus, BACnet, Sigfox, LoRa, 4G, 5G, etc.) or whatever external data: BIM, CMMS, Dashboard etc.
Wanting to make buildings more efficient is common today by integrating new IoT sensors that provide temperature, presence data, etc. But it's only by combining these new sensors with existing equipment that they bring value.
Similarly at the asset level, with its approach of standardized data and APIs, the solution must offer developers the possibility to easily deploy services independently of each other.
2. Centralized and unified data management
Access to information must be simplified through data management on a single interface (like the Building Operating System):
- Data collection from both BMS/BAS, IoT sensors, security systems, etc. on a central instance. Data is collected either locally on building systems or from external databases (weather data)
- Processing and structuring this data by unifying it in a common repository
- Semantic enrichment of this data to facilitate their sharing to applications
- Making data available to service applications, via secure and open APIs
3. High cybersecurity system
The architecture must be built to ensure a set of protection measures and mechanisms to achieve a high system cybersecurity level and fight against malicious acts. Choose a solution that:
- Ensures data security and confidentiality (AAA approach, asymmetric key encryption, certificates, TLS protocols, ...)
- Provides secure architecture (network firewall, web application firewall, anti DDOS, ...)
- Implements an access management system to regulate each connection and manage specific user rights on the platform, in compliance with GDPR regulation
4. Real-time building database management
The digital representation of the building's physical environment must be updated in real-time through the digital twin.
This "digital twin", enriched daily by data collected from field equipment, constitutes the solution's internal database and becomes the building's unique repository. It can also interact with an existing BIM (Building Information Model) that serves as a base element for the digital twin.
5. Global building portfolio vision and management
You must be able to answer these questions:
- How much does the portfolio consume?
- Which buildings are the most energy-intensive?
- Which buildings require priority action implementation?
For this, you must be able to assess your real estate portfolio on a single platform. Creating performance indicators at the asset scale becomes possible (and is even essential) to actually measure the impact of energy efficiency actions and take corrective measures if necessary.
But beyond visualizing all portfolio data, the solution must go as far as controlling, managing and automating the operation of all portfolio equipment.
Conclusion
Ultimately, it's essential that the tool you choose allows:
- Implementing actions with rapid return on investment and without modifying existing architecture (except possibly adding new IoT sensors).
- Focusing on high-value-added actions by automating tasks that waste your daily time.
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 new standards (R2S Label, BACS decree, tertiary decree). The Sensinov BOS supports building professionals in their daily activities on several subjects including Hypervision and building supervision, equipment control and energy consumption optimization.
