The culture in the real estate industry is creating obstacles that are driving up initial construction costs and negatively impacting sustainable operations. Architect's and Engineer's are hyper-focused on the construction effort, and technology is less than 5% of that effort. These professionals have bigger concerns as even a 15-20% swing in such a small of a portion of the overall budget has little impact. They do not understand the critical importance of this technology and they have fallen into the habit of allowing manufactures (controls, meters, sensors etc...) to provide the specification language that is being utilized to procure technology solutions and any CIO would tell you this is a poor practice.
The current culture is not driven by the owners, property managers, and tenants that will utilize the facility long term as they are primarily kept out of the construction process. Owners are beginning to feel the impacts of this culture as they continue to pay excessive amounts for next-generation functionality.
Even the current professionals in the industry refuse to battle the established culture and are ignoring the opportunities available thru the consolidation and integration of base building systems. It's just too difficult to get past the current formats & processes, so they keep deploying segmented smart systems, which are limiting functionality, expandability and driving up costs.
Reality is the current design & construction teams are unwilling and unmotivated to embrace change, and owners as the only member of the design team with the long term view, need to make sure that a technology plan is implemented early which not only acquires the right technology but address the "real world" cultural challenge of getting it done efficiently.
Craig Getchell, co-founder A.R.E.A. Solutions located in Exeter, NH.