Digital Transformation at Workplace: ICT as a Key Enabler of Smarter Buildings

Abstract

The topic of smart buildings is often discussed interchangeably with sustainable buildings which have been in focus for quite some time. The key selling point for such buildings is addressing the green environment agenda as well as reducing operational costs via efficient energy usage. A significant aspect however often left out while discussing smart buildings is related to the potential benefits that businesses can accrue by leveraging the power of ICT. These benefits mainly encompass enhanced employee productivity, employee engagement and improved space utilization of building premises. The objective of this paper is to highlight the advances in ICT which can be utilized to create smarter buildings. Although there are several benefits of smarter buildings, the paper focuses on employing ICT to create better working environment for the occupants while enhancing the space utilization. This paper explores how smart workspaces can benefit organizations and identifies the ICT architecture for smart buildings. This paper also discusses stakeholders in the context of smart building and their perspective on benefits and opportunities in this space. The paper concludes with highlighting a few case studies of smart buildings across the world. The methodology includes analyzing and proposing advanced use cases possible by integrating the enterprise IT systems with IoT/M2M sensors and building management systems.

Keywords: Smart Building, Smart Workspace, Employee Productivity, Space Utilization, Digital Transformation

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