This report focusses on digital transformation in smart buildings as enabled by the key technology groups that are the focus of Transforma Insights’ research. These technology groups include:
Clearly, not all of these technology groups are directly relevant to smart buildings, but many of them are highly relevant (including IoT, Hyperconnectivity, Artificial Intelligence, Data Sharing, and others).
Accordingly, the aim of this document is not to chart the future direction of smart buildings, but to highlight the key areas of change, enabled by new and emerging technologies. The bulk of this report (Section 4) discusses these key areas of change and includes an overview of each area, together with the analysis of business impact associated with each area. We also identify key enabling technologies for each area (from the list above) and provide summary details of illustrative case studies that are available in Transforma Insights’ Best Practice & Vendor Selection database. Specific Domains of Change within smart buildings are discussed in isolation, although in reality many of the solutions that are discussed in this report will be deployed alongside each other. In particular, there is significant potential for many of the systems discussed in this report to provide valuable inputs to other systems. For instance, Smart Lighting systems can provide input to Smart HVAC systems or Building Automation & Control Systems (and vice-versa).
The purpose of the document is two-fold. Firstly, from the perspective of a practitioner working in the smart buildings area, the document highlights new and emerging aspects of change that should impact in the next few years. Secondly, from the perspective of potential vendors in the Smart Buildings space, it highlights the key emerging areas of opportunity to sell new products, services, and solutions. Our analysis of the key technologies that enable each of the identified areas of digital transformation will help vendors of horizontal (technology-specific) capabilities to identify the contexts in which they may be able to secure new business opportunities.
Specific exclusions from the scope of this report (but which are all discussed in other Transforma Insights reports) include:
The analysis contained in this report draws significantly on Transforma Insights’ Best Practice & Vendor Selection Database and analysis of the Smart Buildings Case Studies that are part of the database and are included in Section 6 of this report.
