Dedham, MA, July 8, 2002 -- The worldwide market for Building Automation Systems Hardware, Software, and Services exceeded $19 billion in 2001, according to a new ARC Advisory Group study. It is expected to grow at a Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of more than 5% over the next five years and exceed $24 billion in 2006. David Clayton, ARC senior analyst and author of the study Building Automation Systems Worldwide Outlook stated, "Despite signs pointing toward a global economic recovery, there remain tremendous pressures on all companies to find ways to lower their variable costs and become more profitable. A key factor to reducing costs, which is often overlooked, is the strategic management of brick and mortar assets. When managed strategically, brick and mortar assets can become tools, which support the company''s strategic goals, as opposed to costs, which drag profits down. Comprehensive facilities management, however, requires a new approach to managing brick and mortar assets, one which utilizes integrated Building Automation Systems (BASs). "
Successful Facilities Management Requires Integration
The lack of integration between automation systems in many buildings today is a leading inhibitor to optimizing facilities management. Many facilities managers continue the outdated tradition of considering facilities management as a series of unrelated functions. Consequently, BASs typically operate independent of one another and suffer from an inherent lack of functionality, which significantly limits the company''s ability to optimize facilities management. To truly optimize Return on Assets (ROA), facilities managers must be able to measure key performance metrics against the company''s strategic goals. Ability to gather real-time performance information from a building''s many systems is essential. Interplay between the many building systems, however, is too complex and too dynamic to measure and manage unaided.
Integrated BAS Systems Improve Facilities Management
The integration of Internet and IT technologies with BAS systems has turned the traditional thinking about controls and automation on its head. As the cost of implementing Internet and IT technologies continues to decline, the approach facilities managers take toward the automation of building controls is changing dramatically. BASs are increasingly becoming an integral part of companies'' IT systems. As BASs become part of a much larger IT infrastructure, systems for handling energy optimization, ventilation, fire and water alarms, and security are not only communicating with one another, they are also seamlessly sharing critical information among one another. The ability for the various building systems to share critical information in real time greatly expands the opportunities available to facilities managers.
Integrated BASs have become an invaluable tool for facilities managers striving to increase their company''s ROA by tracking key performance metrics against strategic goals. The development of Internet-based BAS applications empower facilities managers by integrating the facility''s many systems and providing them the necessary information to make informed strategic decisions in real time. Comprehensive facilities management strategies using integrated BASs can quickly signal problems and opportunities, and help facilities managers evaluate possible actions accurately and quickly. "Facilities managers benefit from integrated BASs because their operational decisions become based on real-time performance data as opposed to educated guesses or hunches," continued Clayton.