How to Turn Your Building Analytics Dashboard Into Action Items

Analytics software with machine learning (ML) algorithms is an invaluable asset for facilities managers. These platforms make sense of the raw data the sensors collect from a building’s various systems to detect anomalies, trends, and opportunities for improvement. They drive advanced automation strategies and act as the brains of cutting-edge smart buildings.

The best software gives you an extraordinary window into the workings of your building via a user-friendly dashboard. Learning what this building analytics dashboard can do is essential to fully harnessing the potential of this powerful technology.

What a Building Analytics Dashboard Does

Analytics for buildings relies on a set of rules that use predefined benchmarks for performance and operations. Data on energy usage, faults, and other critical aspects of building systems is continuously collected and interpreted to reveal prioritized insights. These insights are made visible to stakeholders through the building analytics dashboard and can serve as the basis for both day-to-day management and long-term optimization strategies. 

Types of Analytics

To turn insights into action items, you must consider which type of analytics to use. Each type offers a different approach and answers different questions. Understanding how these methods work is the first step toward making data actionable. 

• Descriptive analytics gives you information about events that have already occurred. It asks, “What happened?”
• Diagnostic analytics tells you why a certain issue has occurred. It asks, “Why did it happen?”
• Predictive analytics tells you what is likely to happen in the future. It asks, “What happens if something occurs?”
• Prescriptive analytics tells you which actions will achieve the best outcome. It asks, “How can this be made to happen?”

Building management has historically relied primarily on descriptive and diagnostic analytics. But smart technology and machine learning are making predictive and prescriptive analytics powerful solutions for improving operations. Facilities managers who use advanced analytics platforms with these capabilities see vastly improved decision-making and better overall building performance.

Taking Action 

Improved performance. Improved efficiency. Improved comfort. 

Improvement is the key benefit of analytics software. That starts with understanding what there is to improve.

When you use an advanced building analytics dashboard, you see the intricacies of a building’s operations represented in user-friendly visuals that represent both real-time and historical data. This data is generated by equipment, sensors, and devices throughout your building and is a treasure trove of information. It can show you everything from when and how much energy is being used to how an equipment malfunction affects related systems to how many people are in a particular room at any given time. But it doesn’t just tell you how things are; it tells you what can be. A platform with robust diagnostic, predictive, and prescriptive analytics empowers you to take smart, effective actions that make your building better. 

Advanced analytics:

• Identifies problems in the earliest stages and recommends solutions.
• Allows for better planning.
• Promotes better decisions. 
• Tracks key performance indicators (KPIs). 
• Correlates complex variables.

With these capabilities, you know what needs your attention and can easily prioritize tasks, whether that means fixing faulty equipment or working toward long-term efficiency goals. You can also use your building analytics platform dashboard to implement sophisticated automation strategies. Taking advantage of automation opportunities is an excellent way to ensure your team focuses on the actions that truly need your attention. 

onPoint: Innovation in Analytics

Every system integrated into an automated BMS produces data. onPoint transforms that data into action.

onPoint’s customizable dashboard gives you deep insight into what is happening in your building, why it is happening, and what is likely to happen in the future. It also gives you extraordinary control; through an intuitive, mobile-first interface, you can easily make adjustments from virtually anywhere. Custom reports based on descriptive, diagnostic, predictive, and prescriptive analytics allow you to share action items with relevant stakeholders and make collaboration easier than ever before.

With onPoint, your building analytics dashboard is the springboard for streamlined building management and outstanding performance.

Buildings IOT offers state-of-the-art solutions that help you get the most out of your building analytics dashboard. Contact our team of experts to learn more about what we can do for you.