Honeywell and SAP announced on Thursday that they have joined forces to create a cloud-based solution. The product is based on Honeywell Force, the organization’s Enterprise Performance Management service, and SAP Cloud Platform to streamline and combine operational and business data, according to a press release.

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The combination of data will help optimize business decision making and produce greater efficiencies, the companies said. Starting out, the Honeywell-SAP solution will first be geared toward the real estate industry. Owners and managers typically obtain data from differing sources that are not normalized, making it very hard to determine the actual efficiency and application of their portfolios. 

Using the Honeywell Forge autonomous buildings solution and SAP Cloud for Real Estate, the offering will allow facility managers and building owners to redefine their portfolios through cost savings and newly determined efficiencies, while also enhancing the tenant experience, according to the release. 

Honeywell Forge supports an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven autonomous control tool, which enables automatic adjustments to maintenance, sustainability, and comfort. 

With office spaces, factories, and other commercial buildings beginning to resurface post-coronavirus, owners will most likely hone in on key performance indicators (KPIs) associated with enhanced occupant safety, reduced carbon footprint, and energy savings, as stated in the release. 

By equipping professionals with real-time access to these KPI’s, the solution will help building owners alter operations to meet energy savings targets and significantly reduce maintenance time.  

“Building owners today often struggle to get the real-time data they need to determine the true efficiency and utilization of their portfolios,” said Darius Adamczyk, chairman and CEO of Honeywell, in the release. 

“Having this information readily accessible will allow our customers to generate tremendous business value while becoming more sustainable, and it will greatly enhance the appeal of their buildings to renters and tenants,” Adamczyk said. 

The release provided an HVAC system as an example. Operating alone, the HVAC mechanism accounts for 35% of total energy consumption in commercial buildings; but with an AI-automated system, business owners can save up to 23% in energy costs, according to several pilots of Energy Optimization at various Honeywell customer sites.

Main features of the Honeywell-SAP solution

The new solution will give customers easy access to relevant real estate data, including security, energy performance, maintenance, taxes, rent, location, regulations, lease terms, and  other costs.  

The tool uses AI to deliver predefined, extensible dashboards, combining information technology and operational technology, according to the release.

Through the system, users can monitor and reduce the amount of annual energy spent, which  reduces the overall carbon footprint, boosts energy efficiency, and even decreases downtime. 

The harmonized data architecture connects building data from Honeywell with real estate and financial data through SAP, as stated in the press release.

“Our partnership will significantly change the game in digital and intelligent real estate management,” said Christian Klein, CEO of SAP, said in the release.

“Customers will greatly benefit from the single holistic view provided by our offering dashboard. With the addition of Qualtrics, companies can also collect employee sentiment data to provide a complete 360-degree experience measurement while optimizing occupant productivity, building performance and their entire real estate portfolio,” Klein noted.  

“With embedded artificial intelligence and data analysis, our solution will enable managers to determine their optimal office use and adjust their portfolios to reflect varying economic, environmental, and regulatory conditions,” Klein added. 

For more, check out Year of modernization: 56% of professionals are working on cloud migrations for 2020 on TechRepublic. 

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