Bueno / RYCOM Corporation

Project Overview

RYCOM’s vision was to partner with a company developing tools for CRE owners and operators to better leverage their building data and connect operational technologies to drive outcomes. For years, RYCOM had been designing, installing and servicing OT networks that connect building systems together, and wanted an independent data layer that would enable them to assist their clients in making data driven business decisions with all the data available on client networks. RYCOM’s Data Intelligence team is an elite team of Engineers, Master Systems Integrators and Software Developers who utilize Bueno’s platform alongside other tools to deliver FDD, energy optimization, existing building commissioning, master systems integration and remote operations services.

RYCOM’s history has been in the delivery of OT projects and managed services to the property and financial services sectors. An area that they had evolved into in the early 2010’s was the delivery of converged network projects for large property owners in Canada, and the ongoing management of that infrastructure via a managed services business model. RYCOM saw an opportunity to expand their service offering beyond managing the infrastructure to delivering value from the OT data itself.

RYCOM identified Bueno as their partner for this journey and seven years later RYCOM has built up a business unit delivering analytics-managed services/monitoring based commissioning, master systems integration and remote operations services to portfolio clients such as Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC), the Department of National Defence (DND), Triovest, and GWLRA. Bueno’s analytics software now forms part of a broader technologically enabled service offering, the RYCOM HIVE.

RYCOM has provided benefits to our clients including:

Improve Energy Performance

• Reduce total building energy consumption, costs and GHG emissions by up to 35%, with the average client achieving 13% total building energy savings.

• Achieve over $260k in energy incentives for our clients to date.

• Assist with peak load shifting and shedding strategies.

• Evaluate effectiveness of energy measures implemented on site.

Increase Operational Efficiency

• Reduce building operator and service vendor troubleshooting labour.

• Avoid unnecessary service calls.

Improve Tenant Experience

• Improve IAQ by addressing inadequate ventilation.

• Improve thermal comfort.

Improve Facility Reliability and Reputation

• Assist clients with obtaining points towards building certifications or awards.

• Provide historical data essential for decarbonization studies and capital planning.

• Avoid leaks due to freezing.

• Extend equipment lifecycle and avoid downtime.

• Coach operators on operating buildings with an energy efficiency and root cause problem solving mindset.

Project Scope

Prior to the partnership with Bueno, RYCOM had a large existing client base and real estate IT and OT expertise. RYCOM had a strategic commitment to expand their existing operational services business model. Bueno brought an analytics software platform and the experience of having delivered analytics managed services across a significant client base in Australia.

Bueno took a “white glove” approach partnering with RYCOM to build this capability within their business. Bueno was hands on with:

• Identifying the expertise required for RYCOM to build a Canadian team with the right skills.

• Advising on market scope, pricing, and how to scale as the business unit grew.

• Providing technical training and support on systems integration, data modeling, and monitoring based commissioning.

• Training on sales and delivery of sales materials. Support at sales meetings for key accounts.

• Delivery of specific platform features and analytics required for the Canadian market and for key clients with more demanding security expectations.

RYCOM’s standard service offering includes:

• Integration to BAS and EMS.

• Deployment of Bueno FDD application as part of the RYCOM HIVE.

• Ongoing monitoring of BAS, metering, occupancy and lighting control.

• Deep dives into performance insights by an energy efficiency specialist.

• Regular facilitation meetings with site teams and technical stakeholders (contractors, technicians etc.) to develop comprehensive solutions to recurring issues and challenging energy and operational issues.

The Future

RYCOM has provided remote technical operational services for over 2 decades, and in the past two years have heavily invested into their remote monitoring infrastructure, building a robust, remote technical facility management centre in Montreal as the hub for their strategy. They have expanded their service into master systems integration and remote facilities management and offer a command and control service where they support the day-to-day remote management of building systems alongside their clients. 

This solves a couple of industry challenges:

- It allows RYCOM to identify and implement outcome driven integration opportunities to enable automated peak load shedding, demand control ventilation strategies, and tenant room booking or parking experiences, after months or years of being embedded with their client’s operations teams.

- It puts RYCOM in the driver’s seat of implementing the results of the analytics findings (solving some of the human in the loop challenges typically seen from FDD solutions). It allows RYCOM to scale their highly technical resources to support facilities teams who have overburdened or no on site operations resources. This service will have a meaningful impact on the growing shortage of technical resources in the industry.

RYCOM has also expanded their offering by adding in supplementary data sources into their FDD. Some examples of this are:

• Vibration sensors for predictive maintenance of HVAC Equipment.

• Fire panel data for fire system FDD and Smoke Matrix Validation.

• People Counting and Occupancy Data from Sensors, CCTV and gym equipment sensors.

• Leak Detection.

• Access Control and CCTV Systems for FDD.

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Learn more about Bueno.