IDC MarketScape assessment of smart building energy analytics vendors

FRAMINGHAM, USA: IDC Energy Insights announced the availability of a new IDC MarketScape report providing a comprehensive evaluation of leading Smart Building Energy Analytics vendors.

The report, IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Smart Building Energy Analytics 2011 Vendor Assessment (Document # EI230178), is unique in the market and is intended to help stakeholders in developing a short list of vendors in the Smart Building Energy Analytics market. It includes the following vendors: BuildingIQ, EnerNOC, GridPoint, Hara, IBM, Optimum Energy, SCIenergy (formerly Scientific Conservation), and Serious Energy.

The Smart Building Energy Analytics segment has shot to the top of the smart building technology market in terms of interest based on a combination of factors including an influx of venture capital funding for startups as well as the entrance of big names like IBM. Recently, Smart Building Energy Analytics software has evolved to provide sophisticated customizable dashboards that meet the demand for data visualization to display the relevant, and often disparate, data for each stakeholder in the smart building management effort.

Currently, differentiation is tied to a solution's analytics and optimization capabilities and strategies; the more sophisticated the underlying analytics, the greater the automation and control for energy management. The strength of a particular vendor lies in the proprietary algorithms that drive HVAC controls to maximize energy efficiency efforts. Optimization functionality ranges from data aggregation for work order tracking to adaptive, real-time automation and control of energy-consuming assets within a facility.

Real-time adaptation through control of facility assets will enable the most sophisticated optimization of a building and produce a facility that is truly intelligent and reactive to external and internal changes in occupancy, weather, energy prices, and/or demand signals.

"The Smart Building Energy Analytics market is changing rapidly and will continue to mature and evolve in the near term. These applications are increasingly becoming valuable investments as facility managers and owners look for cost-effective, innovative solutions to drive down costs and achieve corporate goals tied to energy management," says Casey Talon, research analyst, IDC Energy Insights. "Facility managers and owners must evaluate their goals and determine the appropriate scope of data analysis and level of control they want to transfer to third-party software and services providers, based on the configuration of their building management systems."

Energy's transformation from a fixed to a variable cost of commercial building management has prompted an evolution in facilities management in which stakeholders across organizations are taking on new roles in energy management. Building managers, information technology personnel, and the C-suite are collaborating to achieve a wide array of corporate social responsibility, sustainability, and budgetary goals by investing in Smart Building initiatives, bringing a new level of transparency and control over energy consumption.

Smart Buildings are the next generation of commercial and industrial facilities that utilize advanced automation and integration to measure, monitor, control, and optimize building operations and maintenance. Smart Building Energy Analytics are a type of software solution that brings heightened visibility into facility operations and maintenance to enable a new level of sophistication in building management, providing an interface that enables adaptive, real-time control for optimizing building and asset performance for improved energy efficiency.