Part 2 of a series

Abstract

The COVID pandemic forced companies to embrace a ‘work remote’ first approach. This coupled with massive enhancements in home Internet speed, functionality of collaboration utilities and arguably human generational tendencies has seen a decrease in consistent floor plate leases within the commercial real estate sector. While ‘foot traffic’ is on the rise within commercial properties, operating costs of a commercial property have not changed, especially given the rise in cost of electricity, inefficiency of aging IT/OT systems, etc.

This insight examines some of the key concerns and potential mitigation efforts asset and facilities managers may deploy to neutralise the gap between leased (or released) floor plates and the increased costs to operate a commercial property.

The Role of IT/OT Convergence in Cost Management

    • Enhanced Data Analytics: Deployment of analytical tools throughout the environment vastly increases the visibility of the management staff as to day-to-day efficiencies and inefficiencies. Armed with this data, the management team are able to make informed decisions on lighting, HVAC status, etc. solutions to drive down cost and potentially provide insights to tenants
    • Automation and Smart Systems: Using the data gathered by the IT/OT systems then allows for greater automation. Lighting and HVAC can be automatically adjusted based on occupancy and/or time of day using sensors in each room and office area.Integrating all this data into one monitoring platform that shows status information for all IP and SCADA, MODBUS, etc. based systems and devices not only reduces effort but enables cost savings and greater efficiency.
    • Predictive Maintenance: The deployment of an integrated IT and OT system allows building managers to collect detailed information about the many devices and systems that are distributed throughout a building. A key benefit of this is to be able to gather information such as collating repeat alerts for a specific device that may indicate imminent failure allowing proactive changes to be done in a managed way.Regular reports can also be produced that will inform staff when systems and devices will be nearing the end of warranty or maintenance periods. This can result in significant cost savings as resolving issues on unsupported devices can be very expensive, as well as potentially causing reputational damage from building tenants.

Case Studies

Case Study 1: Integrated Security Systems

Background: A large commercial office building in Sydney implemented an integrated security system combining IT and OT.

Implementation: The system included smart cameras, access control, and real-time monitoring, all managed through a unified platform.

Outcome: This integration led to a 30% reduction in security-related incidents and a 20% decrease in security personnel costs due to more efficient monitoring and response

Case Study 2: Smart Energy Management in a Retail Complex

Background: A major retail complex in Melbourne adopted a smart energy management system.

Implementation: The system integrated IT and OT to monitor and control lighting, HVAC, and other energy-consuming systems in real-time.

Outcome: The complex achieved a 25% reduction in energy consumption and a significant decrease in utility costs, contributing to a more sustainable operation

Case Study 3: Predictive Maintenance in a Mixed-Use Development

Background: A mixed-use development in Brisbane integrated predictive maintenance systems.

Implementation: Using IoT sensors and data analytics, the system predicted equipment failures and scheduled maintenance proactively.

Outcome: This approach reduced maintenance costs by 15% and extended the lifespan of critical equipment, ensuring uninterrupted operations

Case Study 4: Tenant Experience Enhancement in a Smart Building

Background: A smart building in Perth focused on enhancing tenant experience through IT/OT convergence.

Implementation: The building used integrated systems for climate control, lighting, and personalized access, all managed via a tenant app.

Outcome: Tenant satisfaction increased by 40%, leading to higher occupancy rates and rental income

Benefits of IT/OT Convergence

    • Operational Efficiency: A converged IT/OT environments enables continuous monitoring of systems such as HVAC, lighting, and access control. This real-time visibility enables building managers to make informed decisions and provides the platform for automating routine tasks that would otherwise require labour, such as physically turning off lights in unoccupied rooms.
    • Cost Reduction: As described in Case Study 1 above, a 20% cost saving in labour costs was realised by integrating IT and OT solutions. Other opportunities for better efficiencies and reduced costs can also be gained by having one team monitoring the IT and OT environments, rather than two separate teams which has been the norm.
    • Improved Asset Management: Better data collection and analytics lead to more informed decision-making and asset optimisation allowing building managers to:
      • Keep on top of maintenance and warranty expiry dates
      • Know when an asset becomes end of life
      • Collate repeated alarms from individual systems that may indicate imminent failure

Challenges and Considerations

    • Integration Challenges: Whilst integrating IT and OT management and monitoring will provide many very real benefits there are considerations:
      • OT systems may rely on older proprietary systems, vendor lock in, which can make integration more difficult, or not possible.
      • All IT monitoring systems require IP based communication, while OT systems may use a specialised industry specific protocol, such as SCADA, MODBUS, etc.
      • The security attack surface will be expanded so a comprehensive security policy will be required. This is especially important for OT devices, especially aging versions, have limited security considerations in-built.
      • There may be regulatory and audit reporting requirements that will need to be met by any new integrated system.
    • Cost of Implementation: Integrating IT and OT systems is by no means straightforward so there will be upfront costs. Some of these initial and ongoing costs can be mitigated to by:
      • Engage IT and OT specialists early and gather initial cost estimates and predicted ongoing charges.
      • Create standard patterns: allocate BMS servers, switches, IP cameras etc to standard VLANs to reduce complexity as well as reducing deployment and ongoing management costs.
      • Include any required monitoring sensors or devices in the initial build to reduce deployment costs by eliminating repeat visits.

Future Outlook

    • Emerging Technologies and Industry Trends: Looking forward there are a number of new technologies and trends that will impact the industry. These include:
      • The expanding use AI and ML to spot patterns and behaviour that does not match the standard activity of the site, enhancing security, introducing greater efficiencies and highlighting new opportunities for costs savings.
      • The increased deployment of secure IoT devices is set to continue to further enhance opportunities for cost reductions, with increased automation, more effective asset management and finer environmental controls.
      • Siemens and Microsoft have announced a joint initiative to integrate Siemens BMS system with the Microsoft Azure IoT Operations tool to simplify the monitoring and management of both IT and OT environments.

Conclusion:

The integration of IT and OT systems leads to many benefits with cost savings being one. This is achieved via:

    • Providing a platform for automation, reducing labour costs and increasing efficiencies
    • Better management of environmental factors such as energy use by shutting down HVAC and lighting for unoccupied areas of buildings.
    • Enabling real time decision making by gathering, collating and analysing data across both the IT and building systems.
    • Reducing potential downtime, and unexpected costs by analysing alerts and status messages that may indicate the potential for a device or system failure.

Talk to Frame to learn how we can assist your organisation to increase the effectiveness of your IT/OT environment in an effort to manage operational costs.