We live in an increasingly digital world – one in which we are inundated by IoT devices, connectivity, data, applications, and new experiences every moment. Our economy and our way of life are rapidly transforming into a digital one for most parts. This change is requiring businesses and institutions to rapidly reinvent themselves in this new world order, not only to thrive but sometimes just to survive. The noise and hype in this novel space is not unnoticed, with 75 percent of CEOs believing technology will reshape industry competition and 80 percent of CEOs thinking artificial intelligence (AI) will significantly change the way they do business, according to recent PwC studies.
As businesses and institutions go through this transformation, there is an increasing realization that their facilities play a pivotal role in this transformation journey. Businesses and institutions are defined by their mission, strategy, operating model, and people. Each business and institution has a mission that is enabled, augmented, and executed by its workforce, operating in its workspaces, through its workflows. They all come together in a building. Therefore digital transformation of buildings becomes a critical component of the digital transformation agenda of any organization. Citizen's experiences and city-scale decision making is also being rapidly impacted by design, data, and digital technologies.
The current improvements in Internet of Things (IoT) technologies are redefining how building management is perceived and executed. Different building domains like HVAC, fire, security, and lighting, which historically evolved in silos due to specialized networks, bandwidth constraints, procurement cycles, and functional separations, are now being evaluated for convergence to create better outcomes and experiences for building operators and occupants. Building automation and management are now being reshaped by new digital technologies and the power of data analytics. This combined with a rich and diverse set of intelligent equipment, rapid strides in standard communication protocols, and a demand for future-proof infrastructure, has led businesses across industries to consider and/or pursue a digital transformation. In our books "Building an Effective IoT Ecosystem" and "Reimagining Business with AI" we talked about how transformative technologies have historically revolutionized the way industry works, not because a single new technology is created, but rather because consensus around a group of existing and emerging technologies emerges that provides a cohesive way to think about business innovation.
This book is a detailed discussion about this future.
