How One Owner-Side Leader Thinks About Open BAS, Vendor Power, and Real Leverage

Chris Tjattas, Program Manager of Smart Building Services at Walmart, shares a candid, owner-side perspective on how he personally evaluates the smart building controls market. This NexusCon 2025 presentation isn’t a vendor pitch or a corporate roadmap—it’s Chris walking through the mental model he uses to assess lock-in, competition, and disruption in BAS.

Using Porter’s Five Forces, he breaks down why incumbent vendors remain so entrenched, where open hardware falls apart economically, and which parts of the stack are actually vulnerable to change. The talk reframes “open vs. proprietary” as a strategic question, not a moral one.

Inside the full recording, Chris gets specific about what he believes owners should stop trying to disrupt—and where they still have leverage today. He explains why building or backing a new open hardware platform rarely pencils out, but why overlays, analytics layers, and spec-driven programs can materially lower total cost of ownership.

You’ll hear where owner ambitions collide with procurement, legal, and contracting realities, and how those internal dynamics quietly shape what’s possible in the field. This presentation is especially relevant for FM and OT leaders who want to modernize their controls strategy without taking on startup-level risk or fantasy budgets.

Watch the full recording inside Nexus Pro →