Even though the majority of facility managers (80%) believe that the demand for data will be greater over the next five years, many of them are not fully or regularly using data to improve their situation. A startling 58% either review their data when there is a system failure, or they only analyze it once a year or not at all. This leads to inefficiencies, a lack of condition-based maintenance or predictive maintenance and a wait-for-failure model.

Facility automation and control combined with a lack of security can lead to risks and vulnerability that may leave many facilities exposed to cyber-attacks. One common industry trend is the use of outsourcing for automation and control systems support. This trend is evident in the survey results, which showed that 65% of respondents outsource and allow vendors remote access.

The survey also showed that additional security measures are not included in 65% of remote managed scenarios. The majority of respondents (57%) have not conducted a full assessment to understand their vulnerability to a cybersecurity attack, while another 33% have no plans to mitigate the risk to their building management system.

Our findings indicate that the facilities market is in a transition period where buildings have yet to fully achieve their smart potential and building managers are struggling to pivot from a reactive to a proactive management strategy. Yet we are confident that facilities managers recognize the growing need for better facility data and are interested in embracing new solutions.