

To address these challenges, many businesses are looking to make their offices smarter, more efficient, and more user-friendly with the goal of attracting and retaining more top talent - and for good reason. employees shows there’s lots of room to improve that happiness - with employee engagement holding steady at around 32% and employee satisfaction ratings hanging out at 33%. According to the latest research from the University of Warwick, happy people are more productive. If a building has no occupants, what is the motivation for improvement? On a similar note, if a business isn’t taking into account how its office environment is affecting its workers, it’s missing out on huge opportunities to improve its recruiting and brand loyalty efforts. Innovations must be about making buildings more comfortable, safe, and attractive to the occupants. However, no matter what the benefits and challenges are, the future of smart buildings is ultimately all about the people inside. Often times, the business case for these new systems is dependent on the ability to report the numbers, savings, and improvements, so data collection and its management must also be taken into account.

With every new system that improves energy usage, propels sustainability efforts, or enhances security, comes new appliances, hardware, and software that must be maintained, managed, and accounted for. For years, buildings have been upgraded and outfitted with new technologies that improve building functionality and performance, but at the same time those new technologies have also added complexity to the way buildings are managed.

There has been no shortage of chatter about benefits that smart building technologies can bring to the business world and workplace.
