Why Smart Building Technology is Changing the Landscape of Commercial Real Estate (CRE)

What is smart building technology?

A commercial building is full of connected or connectable things that can be unified to drive new use cases and provide a better experience for employees and tenants. Smart building technology does just that.

Smart building technology enables CRE leaders to:

• Connect previously unconnected IoT devices and sensors and optimize their performance;
• Deliver the right information to the right people in real-time to enable impactful decision-making;
• Engage building managers and tenants alike to give rise to a new kind of community in the built environment; and
• Create a world-class experience for everyone who sets foot in the building.

Why is there a movement towards intelligent buildings?

The concept of “office space” is in flux and undergoing radical change. With almost every employee in modern organizations requiring access to IT and digital services to carry out their job, the nature of work has become increasingly digital. Furthermore, office spaces themselves look entirely different from the traditional gray cubicles that we remember.

Providing a smart building with flexible workspaces has become a top priority. To attract and retain high caliber talent, smart workspaces can no longer rely on the “one size fits all” approach. There is growing recognition that intelligent buildings provide environments that help improve employees’ focus, productivity, output and happiness.

How to create an intelligent building using smart building software

How can commercial buildings provide a modern experience that so many employees want? Although IoT technology is the way of the future, it’s only half of the solution. Without a platform to pull together different smart building IoT devices and optimize their performance, systems cannot “talk to each other” and employees cannot unlock truly unique working experiences.

Creating a smart commercial building for the future of work means empowering people with the right tools and information at precisely the right time. It means providing an experience that is frictionless, modern, and inspiring. ThoughtWire’s smart building technology can do that.

Working together, our smart building technology suite drives better outcomes for people and businesses through operational intelligence and predictive self-tuning of assets and processes.

@WorkApp

With our first smart commercial building app, @WorkApp, employees can easily adjust environmental or comfort controls through a mobile app, providing them with greater control over their building experience. Other features include community engagement, building access controls, and wayfinding.

@WorkApp enables tenants and employees in intelligent buildings to:

• Access the building using their mobile device;
• Create their own comfort settings for lighting and HVAC;
• Get building and community announcements;
• Receive any critical information about building security procedures during lockdown events; and much more.

PrecisionHub

Our second intelligent building app, PrecisionHub, gives building managers visibility into an intelligent building’s end-to-end operations. Providing a “digital twin” of the building, PrecisionHub offers a comprehensive model that brings together disparate data and reveals its health, the complex workflows within it, and how employees are utilizing the space.

PrecisionHub enables building and facility managers in smart commercial buildings to:

• Remotely monitor and respond to alarms and events;
• Automate workflows for manual and time consuming tasks such as tenant onboarding;
• Take action on real-time building KPIs with advanced process control features like intelligent self-tuning of subsystems;
• Reduce energy costs through automated load shed schedules and gamification among tenants; and much more.

The @WorkApp and PrecisionHub are designed to work together as comprehensive smart building technology, making the results even more powerful. PrecisionHub allows building managers to update optimization strategies based on tenant behaviour and the @WorkApp increases situational intelligence.

Want to see how you can bring smart building technology to your commercial building? Schedule a free demo today.