Buyers Tower

Market transformation partners are working on permanently changing the business cycle by aligning incentives. These partners focus on policy development, R&D, education, outreach, financial incentives, technical assistance, and network-building.

Institutional venture capital firms raise funds from investors and deploy them into startups that create innovative new technologies. Our VC partners are dedicated to the smart buildings space and are invested (literally) in getting across the chasm.

Talent and labor shortages will prevent the industry’s transition to decarbonized and digitized buildings–unless the workforce builders have something to say about it.

Buyers use standardized certifications and rating systems to assess and score buildings on their intelligence, sustainability, and occupant experience. Then, buyers can track progress over time, compare buildings to each other, and prioritize investments when funds are limited.

Buildings will interact with the electric grid and third-party markets to capture the value of their demand flexibility and carbon emissions reductions. The sellers in this category are the aggregators, virtual power plants, and marketplaces that facilitate these transactions.

We talk a lot about the flashy new technology required for smart buildings. But we must always remember that when we're changing how things are done, people make it happen. Buyers recognize the importance of specialist roles—either on their staff or outsourced as members of their team of service providers. The Vital Roles are the service providers that buyers can’t do without.

Applications sit on top of the data layer and provide outcomes to users through mobile apps, web apps, or process-based applications. Buyers need persona-specific, contextually integrated applications that are designed around digitizing and automating human workflows.

The data layer sits on top of the device and network layers as the data infrastructure for any smart building software application. The applications need an ontology to understand all the data they're consuming, including all the underlying devices and how they fit together into a system of systems.

To enable smart building technology, we need to allow remote access for administration, get data to the cloud, allow communication from the cloud to the device layer, and allow communication from device to device. The network layer should be converged, monitored, maintained, and have redundancy.

The Device Layer is where the digital meets the physical world. It’s where the digital device controllers live—each with their own unique inputs, outputs, and life safety functions. Our devices have immense teamwork potential, but they often sit in silos.