Motivation to Build, Partner, and Buy in the Intelligent Buildings Market

Intelligent building technologies have the potential to redefine the commercial facility as a business asset. Connectivity, automation, remote control, and analytics-driven insights help building owners and managers optimize their building systems to save energy. This optimization delivers clear cost-savings ROI, but really it is about much more. The implementation of intelligent building solutions translates to the digital transformation of commercial buildings. The infrastructure, analytics, and services at the foundation of the intelligent buildings market deliver insight into space and characterize systems performance, which can deliver improved comfort, operational efficiency, and streamlined productivity. The argument is that comfortable and healthy workspaces make workers and students more focused, and staff more efficient in maintenance and repairs. These non-energy benefits align with the top priorities of the executive suite.

The C-suite is driven by the bottom line, and each organizational leader may have a different set of metrics to measure business success. Intelligent building technologies are becoming vital tools. Occupant apps can be the nexus for corporate leadership. These technologies are becoming a measure of the corporate brand. Today’s employees choose where they land based on mission, work-life balance, and sustainability—these are the measures of the corporate brand.

Leadership Support for Advancing Intelligent Buildings Tech

During the Day 1 keynote at IBCON in early June, Bob Sulentic, CEO of CBRE, characterized how the intelligent buildings market has entered the “Age of Acceleration,” an inflection point for commercial real estate (CRE). He explained that a step-change in CRE is underway: defined first by complex transactions, and second by the emergence of space as a service. Intelligent building technologies are the enabler, and CRE’s capacity to shift the thinking and use of technology will have a “huge impact on talent acquisition.” This message is relevant beyond CRE as executives across sectors recognize that their human capital determines their top and bottom line.

Smartphone Apps Grow Steadily More Popular

There is a notable uptick in market activity around occupant engagement technologies as the world of smartphone apps for comfort, convenience, and productivity begin to permeate the commercial buildings market. For many years the facilities management industry addressed occupant engagement as a process of managing hot and cold calls. Today, in the era of the intelligent building, the approach is changing and occupant engagement is a priority that extends far beyond the boiler room and into the executive suite.

What Is the Market Response?

The market is reacting to these demand-side dynamics with notable investment in occupant apps. Major market incumbents are building, buying, and partnering to introduce new analytics solutions. In mid-June, Honeywell introduced Vector Space Sense, and at the end of the month Siemens announced the acquisition of Comfy.

Other notable moves this spring underscore the value of analytics for optimizing the occupant experience, such as Acuity’s acquisition of Lucid. These are not the first acquisitions of their kind in the building technologies market. Integrating nimble, innovative startups into legacy corporate cultures can be hard, so the integration strategy is important, but the scale of growth has the potential to be market changing. Whether the incumbents buy, build, or partner, the activity validates the argument that the buildings industry is changing. Experience, satisfaction, and productivity are becoming metrics of businesses’ bottom line health.

Read more about Guidehouse Insights analysis of the evolving world of the Internet of Things and analytics in commercial buildings in the Intelligent Buildings Market Overview report.