Proptech Is Paving the Way for More Efficient Buildings (BOMA 2024)
Unless you’ve been living off the grid for the past several years, you know that data collection is essential to operating a building efficiently. But what good is data unless you know what to do with it? That’s where proptech companies have stepped up their game to help building owners and facilities managers make more intelligent decisions with their latest solutions.
These technologies were front-and-center at the 2024 BOMA International Conference and Expo this year in Philadelphia. As we walked the show floor, we spoke with several companies that are helping to improve building efficiencies with platforms that can help distill their data and turn it into actionable intelligence.
Here are a few of the companies we saw and the advice they gave for facility professionals today.
Track and Reduce Waste in Real Time with Brightly
Brightly, a Siemens company, is a global leader in intelligent asset management solutions because it understands that smarter assets drive more sustainable communities. Brightly pairs its complete suite of intuitive software—including CMMS, EAM, Strategic Asset Management, IoT Remote Monitoring, Sustainability and Community Engagement—with tailored consultancies and support services.
This year, the company showcased its waste tracking services that provide real-time submetering analytics by load type. Adam Blesser, senior account executive—Energy, said that customers have been asking for ways they can improve their data coverage. He noted that buildings today are essentially living organisms and capturing and analyzing data can be daunting. Blesser described Brightly as “a platform for a single source of truth” that helps owners and managers benchmark their buildings.
The question is, “How do you spend your dollars wisely? Where is the ‘best bang for your buck” and how do you prove it?” he said.
His best advice for facilities professionals who are inundated with data about their buildings? “Get out of Excel and find a partner who can distill your information,” he urged, adding that AI-driven solutions can now help eliminate alarm fatigue.
Unlock Hidden Energy Savings with Gridium
Energy is over 33% of a typical building’s OpEx budget, so strategic management is important. “Today, it’s all about how you keep buildings optimized while maintaining tenant comfort,” said Will Evans, VP of Sales for Gridium. He said when it comes to sustainability, everyone knows efficiency is critical, but how can that be accomplished without costly new equipment? That’s where Gridium comes in.
Gridium partners with leading building owners and operators to cut energy costs 5 to 7% or more, streamline reporting, lower compliance risk and achieve deeper efficiency with no CapEx—all with no hardware required and a fast payback. The company’s AI-powered analytics and on-demand strategic energy guidance to help clients cut costs faster and boost the value of their assets through energy performance management to budgeting and reporting, to turnkey no-CapEx retrofits.
Evans observed that a lot of proptech solutions today aren’t necessarily designed with operators in mind. His advice? “Find solutions that fit well into your personal workflow.”
Keep Networks and Data Secure with Montgomery Technologies
Every day, commercial buildings are being hacked through their building system networks. Intelligent Riser from Montgomery Technologies protects against cyberattacks by securing the networks that run the building systems. It is a smart building platform that employs enterprise-class network security across all building systems. The systems are then monitored 24x7x365 to ensure they are secure, up, and running. Remote access by vendors and building staff is also provisioned and monitored.
Will Clifford, building technology manager at Montgomery, said that data, redundancy and cybersecurity are the big trends influencing the proptech market today. “If your data isn’t accurate or secure, you can’t identify inefficiencies [in your building],” he said.
Additionally, getting spaces leased and standing out from the competition is also important to facilities professionals. “People are trying to differentiate themselves from everyone else, but how do they do it?” he asked.
Clifford suggests that building owners get a baseline assessment of their properties and not be reactionary or rely on one-off, bolt-on solutions.
AI-driven Building Envelope Energy Audits with Lamarr.ai
Similarly, Tarek Rakha, CEO of Lamarr.ai, offered the following advice to owners and managers of properties: “Do an analysis of the state of your building—especially the envelope.” He noted that the envelope is often ignored because the assumption that intervention will be too costly to implement. However, with Lamarr.ai’ s building performance inspections done by drones using infrared and thermal imaging technology, the company can “give customers what they can’t see” with the naked eye.
Lamarr.ai partners with building owners and operators who are serious about energy efficiency. Its highly accurate, detailed insights allow customers to intelligently and confidently plan envelope projects spanning from surgical and cost-minimizing weatherization measures to multi-million dollar façade retrofits. The company automates building envelope energy audits using its patented AI to rapidly analyze thermal imagery captured by drones of building exteriors and roofs. This approach has been proven to be up to 10 times faster, five times cheaper and 50% more accurate than traditional envelope audits and includes defect detection, classification and root-cause.
Stay tuned for more products and solutions from the BOMA show floor!
