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This edition of the Nexus Newsletter is brought to you by Altura Associates and Smart Buildings Center.
Hey friends,
As we celebrate the holidays and start to wind down the year, I'm reflecting on the progress in our industry in 2022.
One definite area of progress is defining the specialist roles needed to make smart buildings successful. In this series, we're summarizing five vital roles that every smart building program needs on the team.
We talk a lot about the flashy new technology required for smart buildings. But we must always remember that when we're changing how things are done, it's people that make it happen. Here are the five roles we're going to cover:
At the end of the series, we'll turn this into our latest whitepaper. Before then, we'd love to hear from you: are you playing one of these roles? What are your keys for success?
Let's jump in...
As we discussed in our Nexus Lore whitepaper earlier this year, the Network Layer is a vital part of a smart building's infrastructure. It is:
...a dedicated layer with its own hardware, software, standard operating procedures, and key stakeholders who take responsibility for doing it right. It should be converged, monitored, maintained, and have redundancy.
Most buildings don't have today, do they? Most have a big hole we might call the IT/OT gap.
There's the IT network or networks, some of which has smart building function and importance. IT teams generally have no understanding of/experience with networked building system protocols and communication methods. And we have this OT network or networks, that’s in varying degrees of convergence onto a common internet protocol infrastructure. OT teams, meaning Engineering or FM or their vendors, have experience with BAS and related systems, but little understanding of/experience with enterprise networks and IoT.
Since all smart building use cases and outcomes rely on the resiliency of the building network, someone must take the responsibility for filling the IT/OT gap because a mutual understanding of both IT and OT systems is needed to manage the smart building network effectively. That someone is the Network Manager.
The Network Manager is responsible for the network infrastructure that connects:
Also critical, the Network Manager is responsible for maintaining, for all building systems, current documentation depicting:
While the Design Consultant is responsible for selling the teams of teams on the horizontal architecture and designing it, the Network Manager and the MSI are responsible for its execution. The Network Manager oversees the network infrastructure integration and the MSI works on top of that infrastructure to integrate the connected systems and/or aggregate data.
While the MSI is responsible for achieving the outcomes and use cases via integration, the Network Manager is responsible for ensuring that all physical connections are made, and data flows, according to the owner's standards, building codes, and cybersecurity industry standards.
However, even in a perfect world where the Smart Building Champion recognizes the importance of the Network Layer, the Design Consultant designs it, and the Network Manager and MSI ensure proper installation, we still need someone to manage that network during the Operational Phase.
A building has an average of four technology-related moves, adds, and changes (MACs) per year (anything from a single security camera addition to a BAS upgrade). The Network Manager ensures that these MACs are properly configured, connected to the network, and documented.And, a building has an average of four service tickets (questions, troubleshoots, outages) per year. As the single point of contact, the Network Manager fields these requests, triages with building system vendors as needed, and solves them.
—Joe Gaspardone, COO of Montgomery Technologies
And since most existing networks weren't built in a perfect world, they probably have a lot more issues than that, right? Most existing network layers are in shambles. So we also need someone to help craft the owner's network standards and go out to each existing building to do the ugly, unappreciated work of upgrading existing network layers to meet those standards.
As is the theme in this series, that's easier said than done!
👉 Go deeper on the Network Manager role:
See you next week for part 5!
Want to get into the whitepaper? What are your keys for success in this role?
—James Dice, Founder of Nexus LabsP.S. The Nexus Pro community is your chance to rub elbows with the world's best network managers. Join Nexus Pro to interact with them and pick their brains.
🏫 A message from our sponsor, Smart Buildings Center 🏫
The Smart Buildings Center Education Program (SBCEP) is a 501c3 non-profit organization that believes the smarter use of technology and practices in the built environment will enable a cleaner, healthier and more productive future.
The SBCEP seeks to establish thought leadership for smart technologies and practices within the built environment, and pursues its objective through the following pillars of activity: delivering training programs to educate the building workforce of the future; enabling industry leading demonstration projects; and connecting the industry through hosting and participating in smart buildings events.
Check out their body of work on The Essential Role of Smarter Buildings in the Clean Energy Transition.
Here’s everything worth sharing from Nexus HQ this week:
---
★ PODCAST: 🎧 #130: Allianz's smart buildings program and the importance of the BOS–Episode 130 is a conversation with Grigor Hadjiev, Head of Development, ESG & Innovation at Allianz Real Estate in Paris, France.
We talked about why technology increases the value of Allianz’s portfolio of hundreds of assets, we talked about the where, what, how, and when of Allianz’s smart building program, including the vital independent data layer or Building Operating System as Grigor’s team calls it.
---
★ EXCLUSIVE GUEST ESSAY: It's Time to Rethink Physical Access Control—This piece is the first in our quarterly series on the intersection of access control and smart buildings, in partnership with Lee Odess. In this first piece, Lee breaks down the transformation underway in the access control industry.
---
★ MEMBERS-ONLY EVENTS THIS MONTH:
---
---
★ FROM THE ARCHIVES: The Nexus Vendor Landscape, our continuously evolving notebook of smart building vendors
---
★ JOBS: Are you hiring? Searching for a job in smart buildings?—We've relaunched the Nexus Labs Jobs Board.
It's got great jobs from Facilio, PassiveLogic, Bernhard, Vigilent, Lockheed Martin...
👉 Enterprise Account Executive – Australia & NZ
Facilio is an IoT based Connected Operations platform solution provider for smart building portfolios. As they are rapidly expanding in business, they're looking to add enterprise SaaS & smart buildings obsessed, ever curious, and fun talent to join their existing teams!
This role involves direct sales and selling with different GTM partners in the ANZ region. Prior experience of selling or consulting around smart building technology products or services will be a big advantage. The desired candidate brings a business background that enables them to find, build, and close new enterprise opportunities, foster strategic industry partnerships, and engage at the CXO level, with the ability to articulate and build business cases for the compelling value that Facilio offers its customers around emerging smart building technology use cases.
📊 A message from our sponsor, Altura Associates 📊
Altura is a mid-sized, mission-driven firm delivering impact and performance across the built environment. From designing and implementing corporate sustainability programs, to manipulating systems in the field to achieve performance, to building the tools that support project teams, Altura is committed to solving our world's macro-level problems through tangible projects today.
If you are interested in working alongside passionate colleagues to make a lasting impact, reach out at careers@alturaassociates.com.
👋 That's all for this week. See you next Tuesday!
Whenever you're ready, there are 4 ways Nexus Labs can help you:
1. Take our shortcut to learning the Smart Buildings industry here (300 students and counting)
2. Join our community of smart buildings nerds and gamechangers here (400 members and counting)
3. (NEW) Join the Nexus Labs Syndicate for opportunities to invest in the best smart buildings startups that cross my desk each month.
4. (NEW) Our Partner Hub is launching soon. This is an opportunity to be featured on our website, get original content, and tap into the Nexus community. Email us at partners@nexuslabs.online
This edition of the Nexus Newsletter is brought to you by Altura Associates and Smart Buildings Center.
Hey friends,
As we celebrate the holidays and start to wind down the year, I'm reflecting on the progress in our industry in 2022.
One definite area of progress is defining the specialist roles needed to make smart buildings successful. In this series, we're summarizing five vital roles that every smart building program needs on the team.
We talk a lot about the flashy new technology required for smart buildings. But we must always remember that when we're changing how things are done, it's people that make it happen. Here are the five roles we're going to cover:
At the end of the series, we'll turn this into our latest whitepaper. Before then, we'd love to hear from you: are you playing one of these roles? What are your keys for success?
Let's jump in...
As we discussed in our Nexus Lore whitepaper earlier this year, the Network Layer is a vital part of a smart building's infrastructure. It is:
...a dedicated layer with its own hardware, software, standard operating procedures, and key stakeholders who take responsibility for doing it right. It should be converged, monitored, maintained, and have redundancy.
Most buildings don't have today, do they? Most have a big hole we might call the IT/OT gap.
There's the IT network or networks, some of which has smart building function and importance. IT teams generally have no understanding of/experience with networked building system protocols and communication methods. And we have this OT network or networks, that’s in varying degrees of convergence onto a common internet protocol infrastructure. OT teams, meaning Engineering or FM or their vendors, have experience with BAS and related systems, but little understanding of/experience with enterprise networks and IoT.
Since all smart building use cases and outcomes rely on the resiliency of the building network, someone must take the responsibility for filling the IT/OT gap because a mutual understanding of both IT and OT systems is needed to manage the smart building network effectively. That someone is the Network Manager.
The Network Manager is responsible for the network infrastructure that connects:
Also critical, the Network Manager is responsible for maintaining, for all building systems, current documentation depicting:
While the Design Consultant is responsible for selling the teams of teams on the horizontal architecture and designing it, the Network Manager and the MSI are responsible for its execution. The Network Manager oversees the network infrastructure integration and the MSI works on top of that infrastructure to integrate the connected systems and/or aggregate data.
While the MSI is responsible for achieving the outcomes and use cases via integration, the Network Manager is responsible for ensuring that all physical connections are made, and data flows, according to the owner's standards, building codes, and cybersecurity industry standards.
However, even in a perfect world where the Smart Building Champion recognizes the importance of the Network Layer, the Design Consultant designs it, and the Network Manager and MSI ensure proper installation, we still need someone to manage that network during the Operational Phase.
A building has an average of four technology-related moves, adds, and changes (MACs) per year (anything from a single security camera addition to a BAS upgrade). The Network Manager ensures that these MACs are properly configured, connected to the network, and documented.And, a building has an average of four service tickets (questions, troubleshoots, outages) per year. As the single point of contact, the Network Manager fields these requests, triages with building system vendors as needed, and solves them.
—Joe Gaspardone, COO of Montgomery Technologies
And since most existing networks weren't built in a perfect world, they probably have a lot more issues than that, right? Most existing network layers are in shambles. So we also need someone to help craft the owner's network standards and go out to each existing building to do the ugly, unappreciated work of upgrading existing network layers to meet those standards.
As is the theme in this series, that's easier said than done!
👉 Go deeper on the Network Manager role:
See you next week for part 5!
Want to get into the whitepaper? What are your keys for success in this role?
—James Dice, Founder of Nexus LabsP.S. The Nexus Pro community is your chance to rub elbows with the world's best network managers. Join Nexus Pro to interact with them and pick their brains.
🏫 A message from our sponsor, Smart Buildings Center 🏫
The Smart Buildings Center Education Program (SBCEP) is a 501c3 non-profit organization that believes the smarter use of technology and practices in the built environment will enable a cleaner, healthier and more productive future.
The SBCEP seeks to establish thought leadership for smart technologies and practices within the built environment, and pursues its objective through the following pillars of activity: delivering training programs to educate the building workforce of the future; enabling industry leading demonstration projects; and connecting the industry through hosting and participating in smart buildings events.
Check out their body of work on The Essential Role of Smarter Buildings in the Clean Energy Transition.
Here’s everything worth sharing from Nexus HQ this week:
---
★ PODCAST: 🎧 #130: Allianz's smart buildings program and the importance of the BOS–Episode 130 is a conversation with Grigor Hadjiev, Head of Development, ESG & Innovation at Allianz Real Estate in Paris, France.
We talked about why technology increases the value of Allianz’s portfolio of hundreds of assets, we talked about the where, what, how, and when of Allianz’s smart building program, including the vital independent data layer or Building Operating System as Grigor’s team calls it.
---
★ EXCLUSIVE GUEST ESSAY: It's Time to Rethink Physical Access Control—This piece is the first in our quarterly series on the intersection of access control and smart buildings, in partnership with Lee Odess. In this first piece, Lee breaks down the transformation underway in the access control industry.
---
★ MEMBERS-ONLY EVENTS THIS MONTH:
---
---
★ FROM THE ARCHIVES: The Nexus Vendor Landscape, our continuously evolving notebook of smart building vendors
---
★ JOBS: Are you hiring? Searching for a job in smart buildings?—We've relaunched the Nexus Labs Jobs Board.
It's got great jobs from Facilio, PassiveLogic, Bernhard, Vigilent, Lockheed Martin...
👉 Enterprise Account Executive – Australia & NZ
Facilio is an IoT based Connected Operations platform solution provider for smart building portfolios. As they are rapidly expanding in business, they're looking to add enterprise SaaS & smart buildings obsessed, ever curious, and fun talent to join their existing teams!
This role involves direct sales and selling with different GTM partners in the ANZ region. Prior experience of selling or consulting around smart building technology products or services will be a big advantage. The desired candidate brings a business background that enables them to find, build, and close new enterprise opportunities, foster strategic industry partnerships, and engage at the CXO level, with the ability to articulate and build business cases for the compelling value that Facilio offers its customers around emerging smart building technology use cases.
📊 A message from our sponsor, Altura Associates 📊
Altura is a mid-sized, mission-driven firm delivering impact and performance across the built environment. From designing and implementing corporate sustainability programs, to manipulating systems in the field to achieve performance, to building the tools that support project teams, Altura is committed to solving our world's macro-level problems through tangible projects today.
If you are interested in working alongside passionate colleagues to make a lasting impact, reach out at careers@alturaassociates.com.
👋 That's all for this week. See you next Tuesday!
Whenever you're ready, there are 4 ways Nexus Labs can help you:
1. Take our shortcut to learning the Smart Buildings industry here (300 students and counting)
2. Join our community of smart buildings nerds and gamechangers here (400 members and counting)
3. (NEW) Join the Nexus Labs Syndicate for opportunities to invest in the best smart buildings startups that cross my desk each month.
4. (NEW) Our Partner Hub is launching soon. This is an opportunity to be featured on our website, get original content, and tap into the Nexus community. Email us at partners@nexuslabs.online
Head over to Nexus Connect and see what’s new in the community. Don’t forget to check out the latest member-only events.
Go to Nexus ConnectJoin Nexus Pro and get full access including invite-only member gatherings, access to the community chatroom Nexus Connect, networking opportunities, and deep dive essays.
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