Debunk Data Platforms

Your building data is one of your property's most vital assets, and the way you manage this information can significantly impact your ability to efficiently manage your building. Siloed data can affect your building management for the worse, creating data holes or inconsistencies that can reduce your overall quality of information. 

You can eliminate data silos through digital transformation, which digitizes how your organization delivers value to its customers or tenants through new technologies, processes and talent while aggregating data for informed insights. Embrace digital transformation by implementing a unified software platform into your building operations. 

This guide will discuss what silo tech is, why data silos are problematic and the ins and outs of unified tech.

What Is Silo Tech?

Silo tech refers to technologies that segregate data from parts of an organization's communication technologies and information architecture. As a result, these systems don't communicate with one another, making data inaccessible or disconnected. Siloed smart building technologies only focus and report on one or two features within a platform.

Data silos typically occur as technology expands, resulting in more challenges to information sharing and aggregated data gathering. They can also result from multiple software-as-a-service (SaaS) apps that don't integrate well with one another, or you may have purchased and implemented technologies at different times that are not meant to work together.

Siloed data is particularly prominent in smart building technologies due to their separate feature specifications. Buildings are designed in individual silos according to their various systems, such as heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC), fire safety, elevators and lighting. As a result, building owners use hardware and software networks for each individual system and they are not intended for integration with each other or digital operations technologies.

Why Are Data Silos Problematic?

Siloed data can have many negative effects on your real estate that can impact your property and tenants in the long term. There are many ways data silos can create issues for you as a building owner or manager:

• Data inconsistencies: Most data silos are not consistent with other data sets, meaning multiple teams or departments have access to different information. As a result, data errors can easily slip through the cracks, impacting data consistency and quality.
• Incomplete data sets: Silo tech prevents users from accessing complete data sets. Basing business decisions on incomplete information can lead to flawed decision-making and poor business outcomes.
• Duplicate data platforms: Through data silos, the same information is stored multiple times in different locations. These duplicate platforms use up excess storage, increasing the number of storage devices and servers an organization needs.
• Lack of collaboration: Without complete data visibility across a company, different departments struggle to work effectively with each other. Isolating data sets from various departments and users minimizes data sharing and collaboration opportunities across an organization. 
• Limited data view: Information silos create a limited data view within your company, making it difficult to identify and address enterprise-wide inefficiencies. 
• Reduced data quality: Because siloed data creates information inconsistencies across departmental data, it increases the risk of data inaccuracies and integrity issues, lowering your overall quality of data.
• Increased costs: By increasing storage device and server spending, silos lead to higher-than-necessary information technology (IT) costs.
• Decreased efficiency: Data siloes create a lack of understanding across departments when handling building projects and tasks, creating company-wide bottlenecks that can impact overall efficiency.  
• Poor customer experience: Since silos create so many drawbacks for businesses, they can result in poor experiences for your building tenants.

What Is Unified Software Technology?

You can eliminate data silos from your building by leveraging a unified software platform. Unified building technologies connect and integrate all of a building's intelligent control systems, sensors, components and devices from a single platform to improve information access and management. This type of platform replaces traditional building systems by promoting integration and aggregation across your real estate and its operation technologies, resulting in a more unified, data driven view of your buildings.

With a unified software platform for your smart building, you can better integrate the following systems:

• HVAC
• Energy
• Security
• Mechanical
• Occupancy
• Maintenance
• Amenities
• ESG
• Sensors
• Communication

Benefits of a Unified Smart Building Platform

Smart building technologies are in higher demand now than ever before, with the global market for these platforms projected to increase from $80.62 billion in 2022 to $328.62 billion by 2029. That's why it's vital to invest in advanced smart building solutions to achieve the best possible results for your real estate.

When you invest in truly unified tech for your smart building systems, you can eliminate data silos while leveraging these advantages:

• Unified access: A unified building management platform allows for singular access to building and security management. That means you can achieve continuous building monitoring and control while supervising physical and cybersecurity systems across the premises.
• Greater insight into workflows: Smart building solutions with unified tech offer automated workflows and digital smart controls for your management teams and users. These features result in greater visibility into relationships between your buildings and tenants.
• Improved data intelligence: With all-encompassing building data comes value-driven intelligence. These intelligent technologies promote greater building health and efficiency, allowing you to attract and retain tenants through improved workplace experiences.
• Energy conservation: A unified automation approach can improve efficiencies through increased energy savings. For example, building owners can minimize energy waste by using smart building technologies to shut off lights and HVAC systems in unoccupied rooms and facilities. 
• Streamlined infrastructure: Because unified building technologies eliminate siloed servers and storage devices, they create streamlined infrastructure environments. 
• Space utilization: Smart building technologies can monitor building traffic and track the number of people in a space at any given time, allowing facility managers to optimize space usage and make flex spaces when and where appropriate. 
• System breakdown mitigation: A unified smart building platform can identify abnormal behaviors in systems like power, plumbing and HVAC and deliver notifications to ensure this equipment is repaired before major breakdowns occur.
• Significant cost savings: Unified tech for smart building systems delivers actionable insights regarding your building systems and tenants, enhancing process visibility to improve your building performance by saving time and capital. For example, by reducing your building's energy and maintenance costs, unified building tech lowers your total cost of ownership.

Eliminate Siloed Data in Your Buildings With the Unified Smart Building Platform From Cohesion

Eliminate information silos and improve business outcomes by investing in the unified smart building platform from Cohesion. Our autonomous building technology includes many innovative features that work under a single unified software platform, such as amenity management, indoor air quality (IAQ) optimization, mobile keycards, and environmental, social and governance (ESG) reports. We deliver value-driven intelligence to commercial real estate worldwide to help owners and managers gain actionable insights and increase their portfolio value.

Book a demo of our Unified Smart Building technology today!