Real Estate Investor Magazine South Africa Real Estate Investor Magazine - June 2017 | Page 39

well-being. So how will IoT affect the FM industry
and its ability to create these experiences?
In his presentation at this year’s SAFMA
Conference, Dr David Leslie, the CEO of Bidvest
Facilities Management, highlighted how IoT affects
the personal experience, and how it can be used
to personalise offerings to customers, clients and
employees. Digitisation of the workplace will result in
proactive management, with real-world applications
such as faults being detected and logged, and repairs
completed, before the customer or client even realises
there was a problem.
The beauty of IoT is that you can do as much
or as little with it as you need. From simple data
like feet through doors and ambient temperature
measurements, right through to smart buildings that
almost run themselves, the scope of IoT in the FM
industry is vast and the benefits myriad.
www.reimag.co.za
Using smart lighting, where each light is fitted with
a sensor to create a sensory network, or beacons
(sensors) placed around a building, IoT can be used
to manage entire buildings from a dashboard that is
enabled for use on anything from a PC or laptop to a
tablet or smart phone.
Many companies already use smart technology to
manage the reception point and access to a building
and this can be taken a step further. Hot-desking
doubles the number of people who can use a space and
by using IoT, a smart building can allocate available
work space based on an employee’s needs and schedule,
automating the hot-desking process. Comfort settings
such as lighting, temperature and air circulation can
be personalised, or set automatically by anticipating
needs based on space utilisation.
Things like electricity and water usage can be
monitored and controlled, and faults or problems
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