Building Analytics Tools Praised For New Operational Efficiencies

Learn how a major office supply retailer gained impressive operational efficiency by rolling out EnterpriseDX, a platform that controls, manages, and monitors millions of building data points across their North American locations. 

About the Customer

This featured customer manages over 1,100 big-box retail locations, relying on multiple Building Automation Systems (BAS) connected through a third-party network.

The Challenge

The customer wished to become proactive and better manage energy use.  In order to become proactive the customer had three primary requirements in looking for a technology solution. Specifically, they required more visibility, data centralization, and effective reporting for all the assets onsite.  Let’s take a closer look: 

1. Visibility: Real-time visibility into building and equipment conditions, as well as historical data to inform operational decisions.
2. Centralization: Disparate BAS systems impacted the effectiveness of enterprise alarm configuration and management, further making the customer reactive, rather than proactive.
3. Reporting: Reporting at the enterprise level was difficult and not effective for senior leadership to communicate on asset performance at the portfolio level.
   
   

The Solution

Utilizing EnterpriseDX proprietary gateway software, Phoenix provided a software overlay to the existing BAS at each retail store to bring real-time data into a single, web-accessible platform. This provides visibility into current conditions, historical data for trending and analytics, and provides a uniform enterprise-wide alarm configuration and reporting program. 

As part of this solution, EnterpriseDX's Event Manager allows the customer to configure and report on all HVAC conditional alarms and alerts defined and maintained in an alarm console. These alarms and alerts are emailed daily to the customer's facility team, and their third-party EMS vendor responsible for the prompt resolution of each event reported.   

Further dashboard reporting is available to their team of analysts to allow the customer to manage all HVAC performance and advise on the operating efficiencies of all building assets. 

The Results

The customer successfully integrates building and HVAC asset data into a single alarm, analytic, and reporting platform. As such, they have:

• Web-accessible visibility into the current conditions of each location, with detailed information on all HVAC equipment configuration and performance and real-time visibility of store temperatures and conditions.
• Portfolio-wide reporting of conditions and performance to support corporate compliance and sustainability reporting.
• Improved overall management and performance of their retail enterprise, with a way to communicate performance confidently to executive leadership that they are compliant with corporate energy directives.  
  
  

Both the customer's Director of Energy and Director of Facilities have singled out the BI analytics data obtained from the EnterpriseDX platform, and Phoenix's strong customer support, as introducing an important operational efficiency they never had before.

Successful Energy Strategies Through Phoenix

Want to learn more about how we partner with businesses to achieve operational efficiencies and energy and cost savings? Check out our recorded webinar on how we helped PetSmart adjust its energy strategy at the height of COVID's impact (and heading into summer heatwaves) to improve occupant comfort and safety. 

Watch the webinar to learn more!

Additional Resources:

National Department Store Case Study
Retailer Gaines Enterprise-Wide Visibility
Maintenance Program Options & Implementing A Predictive Program