A drive for cost savings and energy efficiency has brought a wave of new players and capabilities into the commercial building automation market, according to a recent ABI Research report. Rather than competing directly with the giants of the established building automation system (BAS) market, the new entrants are bringing additional managed data services to help drive greater efficiency. From 2013 to 2018, these commercial building managed BAS services will deliver annual revenues of more than US$4 billion dollars worldwide, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 29 percent during the period.
A drive for cost savings and energy efficiency has brought a wave of new players and capabilities into the commercial building automation market, according to a recent ABI Research report. Rather than competing directly with the giants of the established building automation system (BAS) market, the new entrants are bringing additional managed data services to help drive greater efficiency. From 2013 to 2018, these commercial building managed BAS services will deliver annual revenues of more than US$4 billion dollars worldwide, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 29 percent during the period.
"We are seeing a rush of investment, creativity, and revenues in developing what can be achieved with BAS data,” said Jonathan Collins, Principal Analyst, ABI. “These software as a service (SaaS) or cloud services have the ability to pull together management of multiple buildings and applications within them, simplifying the process of improving energy efficiency for building owners.”
Growing BAS network connectivity has opened up these systems to SaaS applications developed to analyze building environmental performance alongside a range of other data feeds such as local weather or energy pricing.
But it is not a market just for start-ups such as BuildingIQ, Sky Foundry, or Viridity Energy. The established giants of building automation systems including Johnson Controls, Siemens, and a handful of others have responded and are taking a range of approaches towards competing or integrating in the managed smart building market. Naturally, the largest IT and systems integrator companies have also seen potential in the market with IBM, HP, and Cisco all bringing their own approaches.
The scope of offerings and the ability of the players will be key to bringing their new services to the traditionally staid and entrenched BAS market. ABI Research has produced a new study titled “SaaS in the Building Automation Market”, which looks at the rapidly developing market for smart building automation.