by Brianna Crandall — August 29, 2014—The transition to smart buildings is progressively gaining momentum as a burgeoning global population strains aging infrastructures, according to new analysis from Frost & Sullivan, “the Growth Partnership Company.” Market growth will also be fueled by greater demand for, and improved affordability of, building level sensors. The evolution towards a connected world will further spur the adoption of smart building systems.
As many facilities managers and owners have found, the need for energy efficiency drives the smart building systems market since the landscape is increasingly competitive and organizations look to save capital wherever possible. When compared to legacy alternatives, smart buildings can save 40 percent or more of energy used, notes Frost & Sullivan.
“Increased focus on operational cost savings, occupancy efficiencies and environmental sustainability will open up new, as well as retrofit, opportunities for smart systems,” says Frost & Sullivan Visionary Innovation Consultant Pramod Dibble. “Advanced capabilities such as remote monitoring, automated fault detection and diagnostics, predictive maintenance, and data governance will also facilitate the shift to smart platforms.”
However, lack of understanding about these benefits on the part of building owners and facilities managers is a key issue, the analysis found. The perceived high cost of acquiring a system also deters many clients, holding this market back from its true potential. Most organizations compare building systems based on solely the first cost or by using simple payback analysis tools, neither of which give a true economic estimate of total cost nor expected value of the product.
“A concerted educational effort will be vital to effectively communicate the value proposition of smart building solutions and provide prospective customers with the tools to perform a thorough cost-benefit analysis of competing systems,” notes Dibble. “These tools must be developed by an expert third-party organization with demonstrated excellence in economic modeling and exhaustive industry knowledge.”
Additionally, support must exist for open source protocols to drive costs of smart building systems down, which will subsequently increase adoption rates.
The new analysis finds that the market earned revenue of $2.5 billion in 2013, and estimates this will reach $4.29 billion in 2018 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.4 percent. Companies that invest early will be best placed to reap rewards in emerging markets, especially as the Internet of Things becomes a reality, concludes Frost & Sullivan.
The Smart Building Systems Market in North America is a Market Insight report that is part of the company’s Building Management Technologies Growth Partnership Service program. All studies included in subscriptions provide detailed market opportunities and industry trends evaluated following extensive interviews with market participants.
