The move towards smart buildings across the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar is gathering pace. As organisations across all sectors increasingly compete on client and employee experience, smart buildings are seen as critical in providing workers with an attractive and modern working environment which promotes wellness, engagement and, critically, workforce productivity.
At the same time, smart buildings also enable organisations to drive cost efficiencies through reduced energy consumption and data-driven decision-making, allowing them to run more environmentally-friendly and sustainable operations.
The shift is being driven by huge advances in the sophistication and use of Internet of Things (IoT) technology across the enterprise space in the Middle East. Gartner forecasts that globally the enterprise and automotive Internet of Things (IoT) market will grow to 5.8 billion endpoints this year, a 21% increase from 2019. And it is building automation which will see the highest rate of growth this year, with a 42% uplift in the number of connected devices being deployed.
Anybody within the FM industry will know that the focus on smart buildings represents a huge opportunity for the FM function (whether in-house or outsourced) to assume a critical, strategic role within businesses over the coming years.
Facilities management professionals will be responsible for driving through change within most organisations, tasked with identifying, integrating and managing connected devices and services which can enhance end-user experience.
Widescale implementation of IoT devices (whether in newly-built smart buildings or through retro-fitting) will mean that facilities management leaders a wealth of data and insight at their disposal, empowering them and business leaders to make more informed, strategic decisions, and to deliver quantifiable value.
Stefano Bensi, General Manager, Softbank Robotics EMEA, manufacturers of the Softbank Whiz co-bot, wrote this special piece for Clean Middle East. We are sharing an extract here.
To read the full article on Clean Middle East, please click here.
If you want to talk to someone about a demo or to consult around the Softbank Whiz co-bot, please drop us an email on vms.sales@jackys.com.
