Reducing Office Building Operating Expenses Utilizing Automation

Smart technologies make it possible to understand what is happening in office buildings like never before. But the best smart solutions don’t just give you more information; they offer a roadmap for improvement and the automation capabilities you need to achieve your goals. With these innovative technologies, you can reduce office building operating expenses and maximize ROI. 

Why Operating Expenses Matter

When installed and utilized properly, smart building automation will reduce many of the costs of running an office building. These include:

Electricity

Water

Maintenance

These expenses can have a significant impact on your profit margin and, ultimately, the viability of your business. In addition to the direct impact, higher costs affect vacancy rates, turnover, and satisfaction. By reducing office building operating expenses, you create a more attractive property for both new and existing leaseholders. 

How Automation Reduces Office Building Operating Expenses

A smart BMS that combines IoT sensors with an intelligent building management platform continuously monitors energy consumption, occupancy, indoor climate, equipment condition, and other factors that affect operating expenses. This opens up the door to a host of automation possibilities that help you minimize your bottom line. 

Predictive Maintenance

Conventional maintenance is reactive and expensive. Reactive service calls (emergency maintenance) are, on average, three times as expensive as proactive calls. That’s why predictive maintenance is one of the most effective ways to reduce office building operating expenses. 

An IBMP with machine learning capabilities makes predictive maintenance possible by forecasting future conditions and equipment performance based on historical data, giving maintenance teams ample time to intervene. Rather than waiting for an emergency and constantly playing catch-up, maintenance teams can leverage predictive maintenance to stay ahead of equipment deficiencies without adding more overhead to their workload. 

Energy Efficiency

Automation plays a key role in improving energy efficiency and minimizing office building operating expenses. With a smart BMS, you can create automation strategies based on variables like:

• Occupancy
• Time of day
• Weather
• Season
• Daylight
• Peak demand

For example, a smart lighting system can turn off lights in unoccupied areas and dim lights as natural sunlight reduces the need for artificial illumination. HVAC systems can heat and cool rooms as they fill with occupants while eliminating unnecessary heating and cooling of empty spaces. 

A smart BMS will also:

• Track energy consumption and alert you of anomalies
• Identify malfunctions that affect energy consumption
• Facilitate space optimization 

The right IBMP is a powerful way to optimize energy efficiency and see the results in your utility bills.

Optimized Janitorial Work

Janitorial services are vital to keeping office buildings running smoothly. Smart automation allows you to make the most of janitorial and minimize costs. For example, basing restroom cleaning schedules on occupancy sensor data rather than an arbitrary schedule ensures that sanitation happens when it’s needed and that cleaning staff isn’t being deployed unnecessarily. The result is an improved ability to staff according to needs and allocate janitorial more efficiently. 

Beyond Cost Savings

Smart technology is already reducing office building operating expenses in cutting-edge properties around the world. With an advanced IBMP, like onPoint, initial reductions are only the beginning. As more building data is collected:

• Adjustments become more refined
• Forecasts become more reliable
• Fault detection and diagnostics become more accurate

onPoint goes beyond simple automation to give you deep insight into complex systems and greater control over your assets. Ultimately, it gives you more than cost savings; it gives you a way to harness the full potential of your building.