The 13th Annual REALCOMM event was attended by some 400 delegates representing major Real Estate owners, property developers, major tenants and the Federal Government. The theme of this Conference was ‘BEYOND ROI’ – Driving Business Value with Technology. The focus was on how to get beyond the defensive posture of cost justification for every IT expenditure and get more productive in driving IT throughout the organization.
There are countless opportunities to apply technology, so understanding which ones will have the greatest impact on the business is key. Increased revenue generation, cost reduction, customer satisfaction and organization transparency are some of the potential goals and a keen sense of the business is required to make the right decisions. The event started with three distinct tracks:
1. CIO Roundtable – restricted to CIO participation and focused upon the introduction of technology within their organizations – historically this had been centered on administrative and related financial activities, but in the past two years towards IT and the impact on operations and costs reductions through improved management of energy costs etc. The role of the CIO as the focus for operational excellence and now the use of technology to manage the operations were very evident. Many companies now place total IT /security and operational responsibility with the CIO/CTO. Technology deployment has become a critical part of overall financial success. Yes while the wave of technology grows in size, there are still large groups of building owners who simply are not listening. Local government and federal demands for energy conservation are creating barriers for many owners to maintain occupancy. Many are finding that tenants will not move into facilities that are not wireless ready. Others are finding resale values are hard to maintain. The soft market in the USA has created renewed interest in change.
2.Innovation Summit – maintaining, operating and managing buildings has always been a very manual and physical job. The idea of ‘connecting’ a building to a network has raised the bar and begun to a paradigm shift in how we manage and operate real estate. Can this be improved through remote diagnostics that can eliminate similar functions in each facility? Once again as we have found with systems deployed in buildings in silo configurations, we find similar silos within our organizations. Sharing of resources and information is often the real issues around making change. The focus must be upon the people first followed by process.
3. Building Integrators looked at the Open architected, converged IP-based intelligent building movement that has evolved over the past 7 years. At first no one quite knew how audio visual, building automation systems, computer equipment, telecommunication technologies and other systems would all travel and potentially interact over the same IP network. Once again for the integrator was the myriad of concerns each had over their inability to gain consensus amongst their peers during any collaborative undertaking. Consultants generally were slow to embrace new ideas and innovative solutions. Many simply did not understand the value of interconnection and worried about liability. Many involved with audio visual felt those involved in building controls might move too quickly into their territory of expertise.
On one item there was agreement, the drivers were still energy and cost reductions. The entire energy landscape was critical for all and everyone thought that they had the answer for success. By this supplier, consultants, integrators were now all ‘energy experts’. DOWNLOAD The Full Report
