A white paper from Schneider Electric takes a detailed look at the factors driving the evolution of building management systems (BMS), and names and describes the three essential characteristics that a BMS must possess in order to solve challenges of today and tomorrow.
“Building owners, facility managers, and system integrators face increasing pressure to save more energy, reduce costs, and maintain availability all while enhancing occupant experience and well-being,” the paper’s executive summary says. “Achieving these varying objectives is best solved by a new type of BMS available today that goes well beyond HVAC controls. These modern next-generation BMSs benefit stakeholders by being a more-open integration platform that uses IoT, cloud computing, data analytics, and artificial intelligence technologies to get more out of your available resources and connected systems.”
Authored by Patrick Donovan, senior research analyst for the Science Center at Schneider Electric, the paper also explains there are three factors driving the evolution of BMSs:
- Increasing demand for efficiency and sustainability
- Changing tenant/occupant requirements and expectations
- Emergence of newer IT, IoT, and smart building technologies
The document provides significant detail on each of these three drivers. It also declares and details, as its title indicates, the three essential elements that a BMS must possess. (We’re not going to reveal them here; you’ll have to download the paper to learn them.)
In the paper’s conclusion, Donovan states, “Expanding from simple HVAC controls to being a smart building integration platform, next-generation BMSs are a critical tool for operating the entire building—or even fleets of buildings—safely, efficiently, reliably and in a human-centric manner. A next-generation BMS enables you to take advantage of powerful new technologies that will simplify and improve management and control capabilities by being more proactive and eventually automated.”
