New Entrants, Connectivity, and Investment Driving Rapid BAS Market Growth

After years of steady but low growth, the commercial building-automation-systems (BAS) market is experiencing a rapid period of change and investment, according to ABI Research. ABI forecasts that by 2018, the building-automation-services market will grow to $43 billion, up from $35 billion in 2013.

Traditionally, growth and adoption has been closely tied to new building completion but new entrants and new connectivity are driving greater investment, according to ABI. Two key factors are driving a new round of growth: greater environmental and financial demands have raised the appeal of reducing energy consumption in commercial buildings, and a new level of connectivity — from new sensors and actuators through to cloud application management and data analysis — that extends the reach and usefulness of BAS.

“This is a market long dominated by a handful of major players who deploy and manage commercial building management systems,” Jonathan Collins, principal analyst at ABI Research, said. “Now these players are developing new ways to integrate and compete with a host of new service offerings.”

Dominant players Siemens, Johnson Controls, Honeywell, and Schneider Electric are increasingly seeing demand for their BAS systems connected to third-party player software as building owners gradually look to gain savings and offer additional level of control within their properties. Within the BAS market, software and services will see the greatest revenue growth while hardware will lag as the pricing of actuators and switches fall, ABI predicts.

These findings are part of ABI Research’s Home Automation Research Service, which includes research reports, market data, insights, and competitive assessments. These reports cover the development of the commercial building automation as well as home automation markets across a range of technologies. For more information visit www.abiresearch.com.