Very interesting news this week with IBM and Johnson Controls announcing an enhancement to their existing relationship to provide an integrated, enterprise wide solution for smarter buildings. In summary they are providing a platform for integration of building systems, business systems and devices.
Importantly, they are including not just the platform to do it with but also the applications to derive value. So now Maximo will integrate with Gridlogix will talk to each other, IBM’s space management tools will be linked building devices to track occupancy and an integrated energy management solution using Metasys and Business Intelligence tools to create new solutions around waste and energy management including automating bill payment from the meter and creating opportunities for true demand and supply management.
This is a long overdue innovation that will drive their competitors to change and catch up. Tridium and Honeywell will need to find an enterprise partner who can boost them into this space. If they want to get into fortune 500 CRE space they will need someone like Oracle. The alternative is a property industry player like Qube or MRI.
What this also means is that Cisco, with their Richard Zeta box now need to get beyond their promised Service Delivery Platform and get the applications that deliver value connected. Ed Richards showed some great application of the RZ box at last years Realcomm using Google but this was challenging the status quo for most CIO’s and will take some time to get acceptance
The opportunity to provide intelligent, value creating remote monitoring and energy management is not far away now….
February 25, 2010 at 6:24 pm |
CePORT has been doing this for two years and we use all open source software which means licensing cost are very low. Too bad we don’t have the heavy hitter reputation of IBM and Johnson, but my guess is there is a huge market below these guys. Hopefully they will legitimize the market segment we have been after since 2008. I wish them much success.
February 26, 2010 at 8:49 am |
John,
Thanks for paying attention. The other issue is that without the brand and the marketing budget you have to deliver 50 times on what JCI and IBM can do before you get the coverage. I think the key for you guys is to show integration to big brand apps such as Infor EAM, Tririgia or ESRI and get those brands to lead the marketing for you
March 5, 2010 at 2:54 am |
Bernie, as always, you are way ahead of the curve. John, while I am not familiar with CePort platform, from my experience working with him, Bernie is completely dialed in on the requirements of this market space.