Dive Brief:
- Honeywell unveiled an AI-powered building management system Tuesday that enables building operators to control their software, services and devices through a single interface.
- Facility managers, multi-site operators and integrators can connect building systems to the platform, called Connected Solutions, through an AI-enabled installation process that can be completed in hours, according to Honeywell. Once a building or campus is fully connected, operators can gain data and real-time visibility into how critical systems operate and how to troubleshoot challenges, the company said.
- "From aging buildings and rising downtime costs to skilled labor shortages and growing cyber guidelines, building owners and operators face a complex landscape of global trends that are constantly making operations more complex and costly,” Billal Hammoud, president and chief executive officer of Honeywell's building automation segment, said in a statement. “To address this, Honeywell's Connected Solutions allows building managers to link critical building software, technologies and devices together to streamline management and compliance and help protect uptime.”
Dive Insight:
Connected Solutions is built on Forge, the company’s IoT enterprise performance management software-as-a-service that uses AI and machine learning to provide autonomous control of devices, while serving as a repository for domain knowledge from the industry.
The new platform uses advanced encryption for security and remote monitoring for convenience. It offers predictive maintenance prompts to help building operators tackle issues before the become a problem and has an energy-management component. These capabilities can reduce labor time, cost and disruption compared with traditional systems, the company says.
Two early adopters — Verizon Communications and Vanderbilt University — have begun testing the solution. Verizon has been using it to help predict building and system issues before they become dire, Honeywell said.
Vanderbilt aims to enhance building system efficiency, reduce energy consumption and optimize user experience, particularly in older facilities, Honeywell said. Almost 10% of the University’s campus is using the technology, according to the company.
“Connected Solutions … [offers] the tools to use real-time data and AI-driven insights to help us optimize our buildings," Alex Kohnen, chief facilities officer at Vanderbilt University, said in a statement.
The launch is in line with Honeywell’s plan to roll out product offerings as it prepares to split off its aerospace and advanced materials businesses, with the goal of standing up three public companies.
“As you … look at our three large segments, their needs are diverging in terms of the capital investment needs as far as innovation themes in each industry,” Mike Stepnik, senior vice president and chief financial officer at Honeywell, said at an industry conference in May.
Over the past few quarters, Honeywell has seen better-than-expected performance in building products sales as part of its building automation unit, according to its Q1 earnings report. The segment includes building infrastructure, fire detection and building management systems.
“We use projects and services predominantly to pull our content and continue to advance our [product introductions],” Stepnik said. “The most exciting thing about the building automation business is the fact that this is a business that truly exemplifies what we’re trying to do with the rest of the portfolio, meaning to create install base and then mind install base with value-add services, connected offerings, etc.”
