What Companies Need to Know While Investing in IoT

Construction is an industry that has regressed in comparison to other industries when it comes to the adoption of technology but leaders are emerging in this space with more companies taking steps towards achieving smart infrastructure.
Adoption of IoT and PropTech will provide a strong competitive edge to builders, property owners, and managers. There are some important questions though – what should be the goal of investment in technology, the benefits of investing, and the factors that influence decision making. The panel discussion on “Tales from the Front Line: How Buildings are leveraging IoT” focused on these questions.
The panel included Adrian Wang (Tridel), Justin Gress (AXA XL), Elliott Samuel (Eddy Solutions), Brandon Vaters (1VALET), and the discussion was moderated by Julie Morin, Director of IoT Solutions – Smart Infrastructure, Microsoft.
Adrian Wang, Director of Innovation and Sustainability at Tridel, said the goal of investment in technology is not for just the sake of change but to ensure that these investments increase the value for shareholders and residents. He spoke briefly about construction technologies, building information modeling, and highlighted Tridel’s partnership with Eddy’s active leak protection systems – an initiative that helped contain the leaks during the construction phase and also post-occupancy to less than 1%, avoiding potentially catastrophic damages.
On the question of what should buildings and homeowners be thinking in terms of risk management and mitigation,  Justin Gress, Director of Strategic Operations, AXA XL remarked that they should be thinking of taking a multifaceted approach, one that allows them to integrate IoT technology to mitigate risk. “Water is the new fire when it comes to PropTech” he went on to say and emphasized that collecting data and then linking it together into a comprehensive risk management plan is extremely important.
Speaking of benefits, Brandon Vaters, VP of Operations, 1VALET, quoted “It also comes down to how much time you can save for the property management team and help them be more efficient”. He shared specific examples of IoT being implemented in buildings – a virtual system that eliminates the need for an onsite-concierge, and thermostat controls to heat or cool down environments where smarter thermostat controls can save up to 20% of energy costs for a building.
The question of how companies should approach IoT and PropTech is an important one. Elliott Samuel, Senior Director of PropTech and Sales, Eddy Solutions said “ Companies should be very conscious of what tech they choose as there is a lot of noise out there, with a lot of nice-to-haves but eventually the solution a company implements should save costs, mitigate risk on site, but also in a cohesive way help with the long term strategy, ensuring there is a simplified and unified place for people to interact with building systems whether it is frontend or backend”.
In conclusion, the panel agreed that while the mentality in the industry is changing towards adoption, addressing a few factors such as ROI, the availability of use-cases, cybersecurity, and a seamless product experience for the user as well as the operator would accelerate the pace of adoption.
These are important considerations, as they say, “What got you here, won’t get you there”.
Watch the full discussion here.
About the Author: Parthi Radha

 
Parthi Radha is a marketing professional and is currently working with Eddy Solutions as an Events Marketing Coordinator.