A Facility IT Interview with PhoenixET

This interview is one from a series of interviews by Anto Budiardjo on the subject of Facility IT. 

Facility IT is a discipline lying at the intersection of Building Automation Systems (BAS), Facility Management (FM), and Information Technology (IT). It's best described as the use of information technology to ensure that the building systems are performing and delivering on the needs of the organization who pay for and rely on the facility. 

Facility IT emerged from the New Deal for Buildings initiative. 

Anto Budiardjo: What is your take on the Facility IT movement? 

PhoenixET: I think it's long overdue. There's a ton of market confusion as I've had to deal with from a sales and marketing standpoint with our company. There are so many acronyms floating around (BAS, EMS, EEM, IoT, M2M). 

Anto Budiardjo: Would you consider PhoenixET a Facility IT company? 

PhoenixET: Yes. From a strategic implementation "go to market" point of view - I believe the term "Facility IT" captures the essence of "what we do" for our customers. In doing my "homework" and studying up on the three-sided pyramid of what makes of "Facility IT", I see the oft-neglected component: "Facility and Engineering Services". 

Anto Budiardjo: What attribute of PhoenixET is focused on Facility IT? 

PhoenixET: It seems in these days of SaaS offerings, like our own platform Enterprise Data eXchange ("EDX") - sometimes the support services side is over-looked. Although most commercial and industrial customers can manage their own portfolios of facilities with their own tools, some customers, like our retail store customers need additional services added on (monitoring, call management, energy, and analytics, maintenance and scheduling, re-commissioning) in order to best utilize the enterprise software solution to its fullest. 

Anto Budiardjo: How does Facility IT add value for your customers?

PhoenixET: By integrating together, and helping customers better manage and optimize their portfolio of facilities. The underlying activities of Facility IT strategically align in order to support the business goals of the client. More efficient, comfortable and "smarter facilities". 

Anto Budiardjo: What would you say to readers keen on understanding Facility IT?

PhoenixET: Supporting an initiative such as Facility IT is good business. Many times when IT departmental support is needed in order for strategic business and operational goals to be met, IT can become at times, a roadblock instead of an enabler. Facilities consume a great portion of the world's total energy available and energy efficient facilities reduce carbon footprints and is good for our planet. This should be weighed in the balance when deciding which projects are supported and which are not. 

To read the original article on AutomatedBuildings.com, please click here. 

Posts in this series

Top 3 Benefits of Benchmarking for Facilities Management
What Facility Managers Need To Know About Smart Buildings
Are You Managing Your Energy Spend?
4 Common Myths of Energy Conservation in Building Management
Precision Building Management: Understanding Closed Loop Control