While consumers have readily tapped into emerging technologies like tablets, cloud computing and social media, the same can’t be said for the business market. And according to Tom Brauser, COO of BuiltSpace Technologies, no industries have dragged their heels more than construction and real estate.
During his presentation on advanced technologies for buildings at Toronto’s PM Expo on Dec.5, Brauser pointed to a study that found construction and real estate were at the bottom of the pack in a ranking by industry of contributions to productivity between 1960 and 2007.
But, from his perspective, that simply means there’s a greater opportunity to improve as companies in these industries pursue better, cheaper and faster ways to do things.
The four key trends to watch, he said, are mobile dominance, cloud computing, socializing information and the “Internet of Things.”
As smartphone and tablet sales start to outpace desktop computers and laptops, business professionals are still using smartphones primarily to make calls and check emails.
“You’re not really using your smartphone for what your smartphone is capable of,” Brauser said. “In the consumer market, it’s a whole different story, and the same holds true for cloud computing.”
As cloud computing applications offer quick, flexible, pay-for-use systems, companies continue to prefer software packages that divert attention away from running the business and toward IT, he explained.
What’s more, Brauser cited a 2012 McKinsey Global Institute study that found as social media makes it easier to communicate and co-ordinate, knowledge workers are spending approximately 48 per cent of their time writing emails, searching for information and collaborating internally. By harnessing the potential of social media, the study projects that companies could improve the productivity of knowledge workers by 20 to 25 per cent.
The Internet of Things may be the one area where consumers aren’t ahead of businesses. Brauser said that today, people create 99 per cent of all content on the Internet. The Internet of Things is the idea of tagging individuals and objects to generate self-managing data.
The example Brauser offered is the case of a Dutch farmer who has tagged his herd of 125 cattle. Those sensors collect information about the health of each animal, and also manage their feeding and medication. When an animal goes to an automated feeding system, the sensor is read to allocate the appropriate amount of food and any medication as needed.
The way this technology is playing out in the facilities and property management context is the ability to assign QR codes to both assets and spaces. For example, a piece of equipment such as a boiler can be assigned a code that can be scanned by a building operator to pull up a checklist for inspection. Once that building operator has completed the checklist digitally, that information is stored and accessible to others on a permission basis.
Brauser explained that the main reasons these tech trends have gained traction with consumers but not businesses are due to legacy systems, change management and people.
“Everybody’s got systems that they use to run their business, and these are typically proprietary systems that simply can’t keep up with the changing world,” he said.
It’s not as easy to adopt a new application within a business as it is for an individual. Whereas an individual can simply decide to download an application and start using it immediately, a business requires change management. And people can be resistant to change and new technology.
That said, Brauser believes that businesses will need to make certain changes or risk being left behind. To that end, he identified five strategic imperatives:
- Enabling mobility: This is particularly relevant to construction and facilities management, since people are on the move and that’s where they need to access information;
- Embracing the cloud: This is a way of enabling the aforementioned mobility;
- Social collaboration: Projects can be managed differently — for example, via project-specific social networks — and global experts can be engaged from a distance;
- Digitizing everything: Again, this is designed to support mobility;
- Integrating: Ensuring that any systems being used possess inter-operability and can “talk” to one another.
Michelle Ervin is the editor of Canadian Facility Management & Design.
