Insider Articles: FEATURE ARTICLE

Schneider Electric lends welcome ‘Struxure’ to the 2019 IoT Innovator Awards with its digital services suite for smart workplaces

The energy management and automation giant is named a Silver Winner in the Awards’ IoT Software – Autonomous Buildings category

by Kim Kay

Today’s office landscapes are filled with employees, facility managers and building owners who all have outgrown traditional commercial office spaces with their cramped cubicles, crabby coworkers and double-booked conference rooms. Indeed, only the smartest players in the building operations technology space have readily embraced an ever-broadening demand not just for innovative and flexible workspaces but also the technology-driven work trends they inspire.

Schneider Electric is one notable player that has infused new meaning into the old adage “work smarter, not harder” with its EcoStruxure Workplace Advisor, a cloud-based solution that seamlessly transforms the office spaces of yesterday into the smart, responsive workplaces of the future. The software as a service (SaaS) suite of digital services helps building managers; property owners and developers; workplace strategists; and facility managers optimize space, improve well-being for occupants and manage facility services by drawing real-time data and insights from wireless sensors and various devices. This high-fidelity data is then analyzed on Schneider’s secure Microsoft Azure cloud while curated analytics are tracked in dashboards, shared with other systems in the building, and used to make data-driven decisions. 

Schneider Electric’s EcoStruxure Workplace Advisor software

In essence, EcoStruxure Workplace Advisor is capable of anticipating the needs of a new generation of office workers seeking ways to enrich and make more comfortable their day-to-day work experience. 

“Today’s new ways of work are changing how offices should be designed and operated to make them more responsive,” said Justin Lavoie, vice president, Systems & Services at Schneider Electric. “Building managers are challenged to make fact-based decisions to rationalize underutilized office space, reduce facility services costs, and ensure comfortable environments. And employees, especially millennials and Gen Z, insist on seamless, enjoyable experiences that will enhance their productivity and personal satisfaction.”

The judging panel for the 2019 IoT Innovator Awards recognized Schneider Electric’s progressive and distinctive approach to harnessing recent IoT advances, analytics and big data to allow offices to become as smart and responsive as possible, naming the company a Silver award winner in its IoT Software – Autonomous Buildings category.

The IoT Innovator Awards honor the best of Internet of Things businesses and products across the globe by recognizing those pioneers who are channeling for consumers the vast potential of the IoT in ever-innovative and valuable ways.

Leveraging the latest in IoT and AI technology

The open innovation platform upon which EcoStruxure Workplace Advisor resides – called EcoStruxure Building – is an interoperable IoT-enabled solution that relies on a scalable, secure (all the way from the sensor level to the cloud), global architecture to make buildings smart. By securely connecting hardware, software, and services over an Ethernet IP backbone, EcoStruxure Building can maximize building efficiency and sustainability; optimize comfort and productivity; and increase building value. What’s more, it’s an ever-evolving platform that is not only flexible and scalable, but also future-ready for integration.

Schneider Electric’s EcoStruxure Building offerings

“Schneider Electric’s innovation at every level is helping our customers to save time, energy and money every day,” said Dhaval Shah, senior product manager, Digital Buildings for Schneider Electric. “Our technical expertise and experience powers some of the world’s most innovative office buildings. With EcoStruxure Workplace Advisor, we enable organizations to transform their offices into responsive, smart workplaces of the future.”

Essential analytics at your service

Under the hood, EcoStruxure Workplace Advisor’s occupancy; well-being; geo-location and way finding analytics and services can meet needs in new or retrofit commercial office buildings. Specifically, occupancy analytics allow users such as building managers to allocate and reallocate office space, equipment and amenities based on real-time data such as employee usage and evolving headcount. 

Meanwhile, well-being analytics effectively increase building occupants’ productivity by boosting their well-being with active monitoring of temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide, noise, light, and volatile organic compound (VOC) levels. The analytics are so precise that they can generate a proprietary Comfort Score to measure and maintain environmental conditions by pinpointing spaces that impact the comfort of occupants’ work environments. 

Finally, geo-location and way finding analytics maintain up-to-date digital floor plans for anyone searching for a space, but also provide employees with a mobile navigation app that can quickly provide the location of colleagues, meeting spaces, desks and other office amenities.

In today’s ultra-competitive commercial office landscape, Schneider Electric’s EcoStruxure Workplace Advisor software suite has found a way to simultaneously help building managers and owners maximize real estate value and lower operational costs while driving occupant and employee satisfaction and productivity; and leveraging secure, state-of-the-art IP technology. Put simply, Schneider is delivering the workplace of the future, ’office’ially making them a winner in our book.

Kim Kay is the editor-in-chief and associate publisher of IoT Innovator. Email her at kim_kay@iotinnovator.com.

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