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The modern commercial facility builds on standards

Today, modern commercially-focused facilities, from corporate office buildings to retail environments, make use of global technology standards. It ensures more efficient and flexible management of systems, is more cost-effective and it’s infinitely more secure than trying to manage multiple disparate point solutions.

Neil Cameron

As the various solutions used by facilities (CCTV, HVAC, access control) continue to advance rapidly and begin to converge with IT and other external systems, the key to optimised facility and security management is having a standards-based building management system (BMS) platform in place. With the ability to integrate multiple systems comes greater control, and better management of risk.

The choice of the BMS platform is key, as it forms the foundation of, and is the command centre for, facility management. It needs to be able to access data from disparate systems, facilitate the analytics needed to make smarter decisions, and provide a central communication hub for systems. What is critical is that organisations select a world-class solution that is continuously evolving.

While there are pros and cons to the selection of all specialised systems, putting the right framework in place is half the battle. By making use of a platform that is keeping pace with new developments and constantly integrating new standards and technologies, organisations will be able to utilise new technologies as they emerge, while also ensuring the orchestration of the entire system.

To ensure they have the range of features and functionality they need, as well as a future-proof platform that enables them to scale and grow, organisations would do well to seek out BMS providers that have a large client base reaching across multiple geographies and industries, and that have a strong track record with significant ongoing investment in R&D.

Security will also be a key factor to consider. With open systems, standards-based platforms make integration easier. However, organisations would do well to select integrators that are also aware of security issues. Use of more digitally-based technology and the increased integration of IoT devices and data provide new entry points for threats and these need to be well managed.

What does the commercial business ­environment need from a BMS to optimise security? An intelligent platform that incorporates world-class standards, the standards that all modern systems from CCTV to access control and HVAC management systems are built on.

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