Integrated Analytics and Professional Services

While the Analytika platform can uncover problems that undermine the facility’s operation, resolving those issues can be a challenge. Analytika’s professional service group provides building managers with a responsible, expeditious, and accountable way to ensure closure on open issues. With transparency being one of our core tenets, our consultants work openly and collaboratively with building managers as well as equipment and system vendors, leveraging information from Analytika to find the best data-driven solution for the facility.

While traditional maintenance servicing can remedy many problems, gritty issues often span multiple disciplines, technologies, and equipment manufacturers. Solving these requires a unique skill set that is not typically found in the industry today. Analytika consultants establish a new breed of high-touch professionals, broadly experienced and ready to assist building owners as well as BAS industry players in need of help solving the most critical and challenging issues uncovered by analytics.

Optimizing large and complex buildings is a challenge

The advent of big data analytics combined with professional services has created a winning combination to solve this dilemma, but how should building owners and managers decide to apply these powerful tools, given their particular circumstances?

Awareness from analytics

Cloud analytics platforms provide a way to gain visibility of how a building system is performing. By creating a digital twin in the cloud, Analytika can simulate complex engineered building systems to uncover sub-optimal operations. The Analytika system alerts facility managers of issues that require an engineering solution regardless of cause and tracks all issues to resolution.

Engineering capability to address issues

In most cases, problems uncovered by Analytika will need attention by an engineer. For this, the availability of in-house and external resources is critical to fully resolve issues detected to ensure the system continues to perform optimally. The technical skillset required for this work is broad, from BMS controls to IT networking and knowledge of mechanical HVAC equipment.

A mapping of a building owner’s digital awareness from analytics, compared to their engineering capabilities can provide a useful understanding of the challenges and dynamics at play in the quest to achieve the best-optimized building solution.

The matrix above produces four quadrants:

Declining Performance

Owners and managers in this quadrant either don’t know how and/or do not have the resources to ensure their buildings become and remain optimized. Typical sentiments here include:

Fix equipment only when they break
Occupants are content, presumed comfortable
Energy costs are within budgeted numbers
No desire for sustainability or environmental responsibility

The consequence of continuing on this quadrant:

Equipment likely not operating efficiently
Energy costs probably not the best it can be
Occupants are underperforming

Hidden Opportunities

Buildings in this quadrant are likely to have issues that are not apparent or visible to facility managers. Available resources are not addressing the most pressing problems. Notable outcomes in these buildings include:

Equipment failures are typically significant problems
Onsite engineers need to address hot/cold calls daily
Energy costs savings are possible, but no info on how to achieve
In-house and external engineers are not being used effectively

Recommended action:

Install analytics to guide the actions of engineers and vendors
Consider a balanced in-house vs. external engineering resources

Actionable Improvement Opportunities

Through the use of analytics, facility managers in this quadrant have a significant awareness of the issues that need addressing in their system but do not have the time or resources to address them. Typical attributes include:

Needing to prioritize a sizable list of issues to address
Inability to commit to capital expenditure, for whatever reason
Not having the right technical expertise to address issues
Unable to properly manage vendors who are providing services

Recommended action:

Engage specialized professional services firm to supplement in-house resources
Fund the cost of services from savings derived from addressing issues

Fully Optimized Building

These facilities depict well-optimized buildings through the reliance on analytics and availability of in-house and external resources. Notable sentiments in these buildings include:

Happy and productive occupants
Moderate amount of downtime due to continual maintenance work
Building owners and managers with good visibility of areas of concern
Energy costs are the lowest possible, visibly proven

A truly optimized building is a delicate balance of well designed and maintained system through the use of digital analytics tools and a cadre of available engineers to address matters before they become major issues.

One stop solution

Building and facility managers can rely on this one-stop solution for all aspects of the necessary work, from project management, implementation, vendor management and verification.