ISS is set to make its buildings ‘more personalised, intuitive and user-friendly’ after signing a commercial agreement with IBM to use its Watson IoT platform to change the management of over 25,00 buildings worldwide.
‘Through the new agreement, ISS will tap IBM’s Watson IoT platform, consulting and advanced facilities management technologies to transform the services it provides to building owners and users around the world’.
“With this agreement we are taking the power of technology and the power of service and putting those together to enable ISS to make buildings better for their users,” said IBM Watson IoT general manager Harriet Green.
“The key thing is to find out how people will work in the future. By analysing data from sensors we are helping ISS to uncover new insight that will help to ensure buildings are the kinds of places where people want to be, not just need to be.”
‘Working with IBM, ISS will integrate and analyse data from millions of devices and sensors embedded into buildings including doors, windows, chairs, meeting rooms, dispensers and air conditioning systems’.
The data collected will then be uploaded to IBM’s Watson IoT cloud platform. Cognitive computing technologies will then ‘learn’ from this data to help ISS ‘optimise its services as well as furthering its understanding of how people use buildings’.
For example, sensors in doors can identify how many people are in a building at any one time and sensors in meeting rooms can help building managers better manage room occupancy and ‘inform service staff when a room needs more refreshments or requires cleaning’.
“In today’s highly competitive market, managing and servicing buildings should no longer just be about cost,” said ISS CEO Jeff Gravenhorst.
“With a dashboard overview of key building metrics displayed on mobile devices, facility managers will benefit from an integrated, real-time view of the services and supplies within their buildings enabling them to adopt a more pro-active, flexible and responsive approach to building management and customised service delivery.
Putting real time data into the hands of service staff will help to foster more attentive and service-minded employees, supporting our customers in achieving their priorities. Putting a ‘human touch’ in buildings helps to increase employee productivity, decrease absenteeism and makes a better impression on visitors.”