Choosing the Best Smart Building Solutions Provider
Smart buildings are changing commercial real estate. From streamlining maintenance to reducing...
Natalie Patton
As a service contractor, you have a lot on your plate, from equipment downtime to emergency calls and staffing concerns. And while your clients are using their building management systems (BMS) every day to manage daily operations, there’s some automation you could establish on your own to optimize your work day and get more value out of your projects. That’s where analytics come in.
As a contractor, you don’t typically have access to automated reporting on your customer’s systems, or insight into equipment operation that can reduce the amount of emergencies your team is responding to. You’re used to only being called when there’s a problem, and that doesn’t have your customer very excited to call you. It doesn’t help to hear about a fault only after it happens. Analytics can help your team see anomalies and address the small issues that can quickly become major problems across your portfolio of service contracts.
By adding building analytics into your internal systems, you gain visibility into your client’s systems securely and remotely, so you can actually maintain equipment before it breaks down, as well as offer clients the ability to streamline their facility assets, help increase equipment uptime, and achieve greater operational efficiency. And they don’t just have to take your word for it, the best analytics systems provide automated reporting that can validate your work and its value to your end customer.
Benefits of a BMS (Building Management System) With Analytics
At the building level, when building analytics are deployed on top of a BMS, data from complex networks of equipment, sensors, and devices is continuously collected and analyzed. This not only provides a comprehensive view of operational systems but offers 24/7 facility monitoring, control, and opportunities for automation. As a result, you gain deep insights into everything from HVAC equipment to energy consumption to air quality and can take meaningful steps to improve operations while minimizing reliance on human intervention.
Let’s take a closer look at some of the key benefits of integrating analytics in your system:
Standard BMS |
BMS + Intelligent Analytics |
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Basic monitoring of primary building equipment and conditions |
Whole-system and equipment monitoring |
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Basic faults detected when alarm levels are met or there is an equipment breakdown. False alarms are common, and unprioritized alarms can delay identification of the primary point of failure. |
Historic data is continuously mined to log trends and identify anomalies that point to system vulnerabilities, allowing for proactive maintenance and early detection of faults. Prioritized alarms, advanced diagnostics, and suggestions for corrective action allow you to rapidly isolate and address the causes of diminished performance or equipment malfunctions even in complex building systems. |
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Identifies the need for major equipment setpoint adjustments |
Set points are monitored 24/7 to evaluate the system controls. Analytics gives you the ability to schedule equipment based on certain events (i.e. operating hours, holiday schedules, weather events) and make automatic adjustments based on real-time sensor data. |
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Strong reliance on human oversight and manual intervention |
Intelligent analytics with machine learning capabilities can reliably identify and address many operational, energy efficiency, and occupant comfort concerns. |
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Produces long data lists that may obfuscate critical information |
A centralized user-friendly interface allows you to gain insight from prioritized data, view customized reports, and manage issues remotely. |
For service contractors, deploying the same analytics software can provide the benefits outlined above to your clients while enabling you to give them better data-driven service. From analyzing control logic to ensuring maximum efficiency, the benefits of a building analytics system are significant and can transform the way you manage the buildings under your care.
Building Maintenance, Service Contracts, and Intelligent Analytics: Reaping the Benefits
Today’s increasingly sophisticated equipment and building systems have dramatically expanded opportunities for improving operations, reducing energy use, and lowering costs. Ongoing data collection and analysis are essential for unlocking these opportunities at the building level, for owners and operators, but also for the contractors who are hired to maintain equipment, help during a crisis, and lessen the load for their clients.
When your clients are asking for healthy building environments, energy efficiency, and real-time data reporting, you have to produce the right results. By working with the right smart analytics provider, you will know where the problems are, sometimes even before they happen. onPoint Analytics will help you monitor and protect your clients’ assets—big and small—and they can help you show your value to your customers every day, instead of just during a crisis.. With onPoint, you can make the best use of your team’s time by directing their efforts to the issues that will make the most impact on your client’s buildings, ultimately helping your client achieve the best return on their investment in your service contract.
onPoint offers the intelligent analytics and streamlined automation you need to add value to your service contracts. Contact us today.
