It’s time to take legacy solutions like BacNet, Modbus, LonTalk, etc… out of base buildings…forever. While every other industry on the planet has standardized around Internet Protocol (IP), and gained the benefits of open communication, information exchange, and technology that gets more functional as it becomes less expensive, the real estate development and property management industries have standardized around antiquated, limited technologies that are only utilized in their vertical.
Walk into the headquarters of every manufacture of legacy base building solutions and you will find that 100% of them run their mission critical business systems on an IP network with current web enabled applications. Why, because there are no Modbus phones, no LonTalk high density storage devices, no BacNet computers etc… These solutions are based on technologies (ARCnet, Token Ring, RS-232 etc…) that have long been abandoned by mainstream global communications. They were abandoned because they are too slow and too limited in their interoperability to be practical.
That is why in today’s “speed of business” & “on demand” world… property management is still reactive, driven by individuals utilizing “paper in binders” to get the job done. They don’t have the tools that every other industry has.
The returns in construction costs and long term operational & energy savings are available today. The IP solutions for base buildings have been around for years, tenants are demanding more, it’s now time for owners to get involved and challenge the construction industry to stop building and retrofitting facilities with technologies that were obsolete before they were installed.