Integrated information: technology is the new IT: how is the hospitality industry pushing the boundaries of what intelligent buildings can do? Check in to learn about IIT, the shared vocabulary of IT and building technology, and the forces driving integrated systems toward a wide range of facilities—hotel or otherwise—faster than expected

Engineered Systems, May, 2005 by Jack McGowan

IT professionals may be surprised at how quickly buildings are changing and, more importantly, at how much computing power is deployed in buildings. The state of IT in buildings today is outlined here, emphasizing the hospitality market. Intelligent building concepts have seen a revitalization recently because of the proliferation of IT and Internet services. Many of these developments have begun to elevate average structures to intelligent buildings.

High-level system technology isn't in every facility yet, but there's a growing number of intelligent buildings in the mainstream.

One indication of this trend is the widespread use of the same terms when referring to IT and building technology. Convergence is used to describe how building systems are blending with IT and the Internet. IT people use convergence to refer to blending of data and functionality from several software applications. Terms like standard, E-business, and real-time are used the same way for buildings and IT. Grid is a common term, but IT people are talking about grid computing while buildings people mean the national electric system. Other terms like integration, collaboration, optimize, Internet-ready (or enabled), and intelligent have varied meanings and cause confusion in both worlds. Nonetheless, both industries are using the same language.

THE EMERGENCE OF IIT

Intelligent buildings are real, but more important, so is the integration of IT (including business processes like finance) with independent special systems for building automation and other functions. Integrated IT is the new IT or (IIT); it is just another way of saying "intelligent building."

IIT, also called convergence, is like a highway interchange allowing seamless flow of information between disparate systems. IIT is the logical extension of building automation, which has grown from HVAC control to DDC. IIT will integrate DDC and other systems, like fire and security, to enhance facility management. The next step for DDC is beyond Internet access to IIT. IIT means facilities, HVAC, and process automation using integrated systems migrating to the enterprise level via networks, (e.g., Ethernet) and offering a larger set of integrated services. These developments bode well for a transformation of building and business management.

Intelligent buildings leverage IIT, which requires that building and IT infrastructure support it. This infrastructure represents a tremendous investment and operating cost. The focus is not just computing inside buildings but extending services to the Internet. This is no small issue, given Harbor Research's projection for billions of new Internet-based devices over the next five years. Leveraging the power of these devices and keeping building data systems robust requires addressing many issues that are of mutual interest to IT and buildings. All of those devices will request network access, so we must deal with public and private Internet protocol address requirements, data security, interface requirements, etc. The definition of collaborative processing must soon include integrated sequences for all facility devices that have a processor and network / Internet access.

HOTELS AS INTELLIGENT BUILDINGS

Intelligent buildings truly embody IIT, and there is an award designed to highlight such buildings. "Buildy Awards" are given annually at the Builconn Forum (www.builconn.com), recognizing building owners and system integrators who create integrated and interoperable systems. A hotel has not won a Buildy yet, but those discussed here would be good candidates.

Beyond building comfort, security, and fundamental requirements, consider how IT can be integrated into customer service. The emphasis is on hotels, but this technology can apply to all building types.

Hotels are interesting because they are starting to explore hospitality of the future. Nick Price, director of technology and CTO for Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, one of the few hotels to use IP networks for all in-room systems, said, "Hotels have become famous for implementing yesterday's technology today, just as the consumer traded today's technology for tomorrow's. No place is this more evident than in the guest room where, for example, even many middle-income consumers now have, at home, high-definition televisions with 400 channels, quality on-demand programming, digital video recorders, searchable program guides, and high-end sound systems. But you can't find many of these things even in high-end hotel rooms."

Mandarin Oriental and many other hotel companies are working to move the hospitality industry forward by joining Hotel Technology--Next Generation (HTNG), a "nonprofit organization with global scope, formed in 2002 to facilitate the development of next-generation, customer-centric technologies to better meet the needs of the global hotel community." Price's views and much more relevant information on future hotel technology can be found on the group's website at www.htng.org.

HTNG is visionary in its view of future hotels that will create a new level of customer service. The vision is guests who are recognized and called by name on arrival with a room ready that meets their expectations. Hotels should create a guest profile so that mini-bars would be stocked with preferred brands of drinks and snacks, and the room conditioned to the guest's desired temperature. Readers may have had the experience of calling a hotel front desk from the room and having staff call them by name. Such personal service is very powerful, but HTNG has more in mind.