Must-Have Building Management System Features to Improve Operations

As smart building technologies continue to advance, the role and very definition of building management systems (BMS) is changing. Today, a BMS is not just about proprietary protocols and the ability to get alerts about every setpoint change or damper fluctuation. Modern building management systems, also referred to as building automation systems (BAS), or even integrated automation systems (IAS), the focus for  owners and facilities managers is on making better and faster operational decisions, increasing automation, streamlining systems, and optimizing overall performance.

However, a BMS alone can’t deliver all of these advantages. Integrating the right technologies and adding an analytics layer to your technology stack is essential to gaining the building management system features you need to improve operations in your commercial properties. 

The Benefits of Future-Focused BMS With Analytics

Data analytics is transforming the way buildings are understood, maintained, and improved. By collecting and interpreting vast quantities of data from integrated building, technology, and energy systems, analytics can offer unprecedented visibility into complex networks and uncover new possibilities for management. 

When analytics are deployed on top of a future-focused BMS, you can gain valuable new capabilities that would not be possible with a BMS alone. These include:

• Enabling you to understand the interconnections between devices on the BMS and the alarms they’re generating so your operations team doesn’t need to chase down every setpoint that’s out of range and can instead focus on the highest value issues across systems.
• Effectively and securely monitoring and controlling systems from a central location.
• Enhancing accountability and transparency, including with contractors. You are able to see how each system operates, verify fixes, and more easily identify billing inaccuracies via unbiased data. 
• Minimizing reliance on human oversight and vulnerability to human error.

Ultimately, you can make smarter operational decisions and refine your facilities management strategy with analytics that operate on top of your building management system.

Key Features of Building Management System With Analytics

The proliferation of smart building technologies can make it difficult to know what approach will be best for your building. By working with an experienced integrator and knowing what to look for in a BMS, you can find solutions that make sense for your needs. 

Must-have features of a building management system with analytics include:

Insightful Fault Detection & Diagnostics

System failures cause unnecessary downtime, energy waste, and, often, large bills from service contractors that are continually responding to emergency repair calls. An integrated building management system with analytics that enable state-of-the-art fault detection and diagnostics minimizes these occurrences by making the alarms you receive more useful for solving problems, recognizing or even predicting problems before they become major breakdowns and providing reports to track progress or issues and recalibrate strategies as needed.. 

With intelligent analytics, vulnerabilities and malfunctions are recorded and identified in their earliest stages, allowing you to take a proactive approach to maintenance. Rather than responding to emergency “hot calls” and going through a time-consuming manual diagnostics process, a well-architected system can flag and isolate problems as they arise, suggest solutions, and make automatic operational adjustments when possible. As a result, contractors can be deployed only when required for targeted maintenance and repairs rather than making unnecessary maintenance visits or going into emergency calls blind. 

Automated Controls and Optimization

Analytics platforms with machine learning (ML) capabilities open up opportunities for automated command and control over all BMS-connected systems and equipment. By collecting and normalizing relevant data from current and advanced sensors, intelligent analytics will enable efficient, coordinated, and automated responses according to user preferences. For example, as the platform learns the patterns of occupants across your building or portfolio, it can adjust lighting conditions upon your arrival and preemptively change the temperature based on predicted users.

Advanced building management system automation minimizes the need for manual intervention and helps you achieve your performance goals, whether you’re looking to reduce energy use, streamline internal systems, or optimize the occupant experience. 

Comprehensive, Customizable Reporting

The best analytics platforms offer convenient access and easy-to-understand visual representations of clearly organized data via a centralized dashboard. This may include detailed energy reporting, evaluation of key performance indicators, occupancy data, and floor plan data. Customizable reporting for all stakeholders ensures that data is prioritized and made visible in a way that is meaningful to each audience.

Mobile Interface

An intuitive, mobile-first system that is configured to meet each user’s needs allows you to access relevant, actionable insights from any type of computer or mobile device and virtually any location. From troubleshooting equipment to setting personalized temperature preferences, bringing your BMS systems, devices, and controls together into a powerful web-accessible interface can revolutionize operations and greatly improve efficiency.

Open Communication

For ease of deployment, you need a building management system with open communication. By leveraging an industry-leading open-protocol control system, such as one that communicates BACnet and integrates with Tridium’s Niagara 4 framework, you have a solution for comprehensive system integration, simplifying your network operations, and ensuring seamless productivity. 

These features can give you the ability to improve operations and facilities management in thoughtful, practical, and measurable ways. 

Intelligent Integration

Ultimately, integrating your BMS with intelligent analytics transforms the vast amount of data generated by building equipment into a rich source of insight that can spur significant refinement of building operations. The clarity and capabilities made possible through an analytics-driven building management system features allow you implement changes that ensure optimal business outcomes and increase overall efficiency.

onPoint Analytics is a premium mobile-first platform designed to work with all open-protocol control systems and includes a full suite of must-have features. This comprehensive analytics package offers total system visibility and uses machine learning algorithms to provide predictive analysis, produce 4D insights, and expand opportunities for automation. When deployed on top of your BMS, onPoint can identify opportunities for operational improvement that would otherwise go undetected and guide progress toward your goals.

Smart buildings are the future. By integrating leading-edge technologies now, forward-thinking property owners and facilities managers can reap the benefits as soon as possible.