The journey towards truly smart buildings is often depicted as a seamless technological progression, yet the reality on the ground presents a more nuanced picture. As a market engagement specialist, my focus lies in extracting the genuine, actionable insights from the front lines – the invaluable “lessons learned” that accelerate best practice and enable tangible progress. This commitment led me to instigate and moderate the inaugural panel of the “Lessons Learned” series at the Realcomm Events CIO Forum in London last year.
This session, titled ‘Evolving Smart Building Technologies – Lessons Learned,’ brought together a distinguished group of experts, providing a vital platform for candid discussion:
- Fiona Sawkill: Head of Digital Placemaking, British Land
- James Atkins: Director, FPC Global
- Kathy Farrington: Digital Buildings Lead (REWS), Google
- Harri John: Head of Digital Advisory | Strategic Transformation, CBRE Consulting
The Current Landscape: Slower Than Anticipated Progress
The panel immediately confronted the reality that, despite significant advancements, the smart building industry is evolving slower than many anticipated. Kathy Farrington highlighted this, observing, “It’s just moving way slower than than we expected.” This slow pace is compounded by challenges in IP device management, security, and achieving consistent stakeholder alignment.
A pervasive theme was the necessity of establishing a clear strategy upfront. As Harri John powerfully put it, “You can’t track results unless you know the why of what you’re doing.” The panel stressed that defining a robust digital building strategy from the outset, encompassing data management, maintenance, success measurement, and stakeholder engagement, is essential to avoid costly mistakes and ensure project success. Attempts to “just make progress” without this foundational strategy often lead to stagnation, with projects failing to advance even two years down the line.
Bridging the Divide: Development to Operations
A critical aspect of the discussion revolved around bridging the inherent gap between development and operational teams. The panel underscored the importance of integrating digital considerations into the early stages of new building development processes to avoid costly retrofitting later. This necessitates:
- Centralised Decision-Making: Consolidating digital building initiatives and resource allocation within organizations, ideally under a Chief Operating Officer (COO) function.
- Clear Communication & Collaboration: Fostering transparent dialogue and seamless collaboration between development and property management teams.
- Operational Contracts: Incorporating digital considerations directly into operational contracts with vendors to ensure data utilisation, action implementation, and clear ROI realisation. James Atkins emphasized this, advocating for contracts that drive accountability for actual outcomes.
Redefining the MSI Role and Future Aspirations
The evolving role of the Master Systems Integrator (MSI) also featured prominently. The discussion pointed to a potential shift away from reliance on middleware layers towards direct device integration using native protocols, which could redefine the need for certain MSI functions related to data integration. The panel envisioned a more standardised and clearly defined role for MSIs, potentially as client-side representatives focused on validation, configuration, and post-handover support. As James Atkins suggested, “I do think there is the need for an MSI but I think we need to better define what they’re doing.”
Looking ahead, the panellists envisioned a future where smart buildings are the norm, and security is a given. The focus, as Fiona Sawkill hoped, would shift from “having to sell smart buildings” to being able to offer truly innovative applications that drive user value. Kathy Farrington echoed this, stating, “We need to stop having to sell smart buildings. It should be people are coming to us and saying hey you’ve delivered a smart well you know we’ve got a smart building. I want that next thing.”
Key Takeaways for Advancing Smart Building Initiatives
The panel underscored that unlocking investment in smart buildings requires a holistic approach that moves beyond simple financial ROI calculations. It necessitates a clear strategy aligned with business objectives, a deep understanding of occupier needs, effective collaboration across teams, and the ability to demonstrate tangible value, encompassing not only efficiency gains but also enhanced user experiences and contributions to sustainability goals.
The discussion concluded with a strong call for the industry to invest in developing standards for smart buildings and to investigate improved methods for device management, aiming for solutions that can reflect smart building investments in property valuations.
This foundational “Lessons Learned” panel exemplifies my approach to market engagement: initiating and moderating crucial industry dialogues that extract practical insights from experienced leaders, directly addressing the challenges and accelerating the adoption of truly smart and sustainable built environments.
You can listen to a 15-minute AI-generated podcast summary of the panel discussion I published on LinkedIn here
