Internet-compatible protocols have evolved and now are open and standardized, making the transfer and sharing of information from one data point to another not only possible, but seamless — even beyond building systems.

Building-related data — including energy, security, and life safety — is accessible through a Web browser instead of being trapped in a building-management system's workstation. What's more, real-time energy-consumption data now is available to management outside of facility departments. As a result, an organization can use its energy-consumption database to estimate next month's energy bill, merge this information into enterprise databases for budget forecasts, and print a report that identifies resultant enterprise expenditures. Environmental alarm data can be merged with production data to find correlations between employee comfort and productivity.

IP-based control and monitoring, whether in a wired or wireless environment, is the new expressway to expanded enterprise applications. Specifically, these applications can help relieve the pressure associated with documenting and reporting progress on environmental and energy issues.

DEVELOPING EXPERTISE

The proliferation of technology and the increasing convergence of building, IT, and business systems means recruits to the industry are more technically savvy than their predecessors. For facility professionals, keeping pace with new, diverse technologies and methods to operate and maintain building systems requires a broader knowledge base. This involves full understanding of IT infrastructure and cooperation with those who implement a network for an enterprise. Recognition of what motivates an IT department when teaming with a facility staff also is important.

In what is seen as an emerging best practice, a single point of responsibility for the building of network infrastructures, both wired and wireless, is assigned. In this approach, a technology contractor brings an enterprise-wide perspective to managing the planning, design, installation, integration, commissioning, and servicing of building systems. Technology contracting can save time, reduce risks, and decrease construction and operating costs.

THE SUSTAINABILITY MANDATE

For facility and IT managers, energy efficiency is at the heart of the challenge to design, build, and operate buildings in the most economical and environmentally responsible way possible. According to a recent survey of corporate executives, nearly 40 percent said they expect legislation mandating energy efficiency to be passed by 2010.²

An organization's success in recruiting the next generation of employees likely will be affected by its sustainability efforts. The survey of corporate executives noted that nearly one-third of organizations say “green buildings” will be important in attracting and retaining future employees.²

FACILITY AND IT BENEFITS

Benefits of blending an organization's building systems and IT architecture into a seamless entity, sharing resources and benefits, include:

• Less duplication, greater efficiency. In an integrated environment, a BAS is less expensive to install because it can use the existing IT infrastructure. Better performance can be achieved more economically because a single high-speed network avoids the redundancy required with a separate BAS infrastructure. In addition, fewer wires, bridges, routers, and repeaters reduce the likelihood of component failure and downtime.

• Reduced operating expenses. More than 75 percent of a building's total life-cycle costs are consumed in the “maintain and operate” phase. Therefore, IP-based control and monitoring is a prudent bottom-line decision because it can accommodate current and future technologies. Already accustomed to the concept that network technologies evolve constantly, IT managers regularly budget for upgrades. In a shared network, the facility system benefits from ongoing IT-network improvements.

• Increased energy efficiency. It is unfair to claim that an IP-based system saves more energy simply because BAS and IT information is flowing over a common data highway. However, it is possible to claim credit for making facility-improvement measures easier to undertake. One study suggested that retrocommissioning HVAC equipment and controls can reduce applicable energy costs by 10 to 30 percent.³

• Seamless accommodation of system additions and modifications. In a converged-network environment, facility and IT managers can leverage the existing wired or wireless building network to extend building-control capabilities across the entire network infrastructure without increasing installation costs and with the assurance that future technologies can be incorporated seamlessly. For example, companies with converged networks can use real-time pricing schedules provided by energy utilities over IT data networks to refine energy-cost-saving strategies.

• Improved enterprise-wide planning, coordination, and budgeting. As described previously, a technology contractor brings a coordinated, enterprisewide perspective on leveraging technology and the authority and technical expertise to make decisions and influence how an IT network will be chosen, installed, and operated. A building is seen not as a collection of systems, but as a functioning whole, integrated to maintain a competitive edge, improve productivity, and facilitate organizational collaboration.

THE CASE FOR CONVERGENCE

Ave Maria University, near Naples, Fla., is among the world's most technologically advanced universities. By employing industry best practices, the university successfully converged 23 systems on a single IP network, combining the university's IT-infrastructure, fire, security, HVAC, and building-control systems on a common platform.

Convergence has installation- and maintenance-cost advantages. A single cabling infrastructure is easier and cheaper to install and service than multiple proprietary networks. In fact, when the university opened its doors in August 2007, Bryan Mehaffey, vice president of technology systems and engineering for the university, estimated that the university already had saved $1.5 million in construction costs. The university estimates it will save $600,000 in utility costs and $350,000 in staffing expenses each year.

For other organizations, the path to increased efficiency and building performance is not always as clear. That is where the emerging discipline of technology contracting comes in.

Once a small town on the plains, Aurora, Colo., is the third largest city in the state and a business leader in key growth industries, such as biotechnology, aerospace, and high technology. Although the city has enjoyed significant growth, its infrastructure has not grown proportionally. The city sought to increase operational efficiency across its 100 facilities by replacing outdated systems, maximizing energy efficiency, and improving occupancy comfort.

The Aurora Municipal Center (AMC), designed in 2002, consolidates 28 municipal departments scattered throughout the city. Because it needed to move into the new facility quickly, the city commissioned a technology contractor to work closely with mechanical, electrical, and security engineers and a general contractor to develop specifications for the project, customized to fulfill the city's desire for fully integrated systems.

All major building systems and equipment at AMC are integrated, and a common Web-based user interface will accommodate the addition of existing and new buildings. The technology contractor established baselines against which the performance of key systems can be measured. As a result, AMC has achieved annual operational savings of $15,000 since opening.

CONCLUSION

The challenge for building managers and owners is to design, build, and operate buildings in the most efficient, economical, and environmentally responsible way possible. Fortunately, the technology, standards, and expertise required to meet this challenge have evolved.

Networks that converge via IP-based control and monitoring are gaining acceptance. A holistic approach to building technology, embodied by the technology contractor, provides a greater ability to increase efficiency.

Advances in technology, standardization, and expertise are giving facility and IT managers new opportunities to improve building and business performance.

REFERENCES

• Colebrook, P. (2006, September). IT convergence & building systems. Paper presented at ibexcellence, Berlin.

• Johnson Controls. (2008, April). Final report: IFMA North America. Retrieved from www.ifma.org/tools/research/surveys/2008_energyeffindex.pdf

• IFMA. (2008). Benchmarks V: Annual facility costs. Houston: International Facility Management Association.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Terry Hoffmann is director of marketing, building-automation systems, for Johnson Controls Inc. and an adjunct professor for the Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE). He has a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Marquette University and a master's degree in engineering management from the MSOE.

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