Imagine if you were faced with a project worth tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars that could have been solved with just a couple of hours of work.
I once sat in a panel discussion among 25 or so representatives from different contractors who installed building automation systems (BASs). Each person took a few minutes to describe his or her current focus area, and there were a wide variety of initiatives. Topics spanned from taking a hard look at his or her estimating practices to marketing tactics to specialized energy management programming techniques. One of the younger persons in the room spoke up and waxed poetic about user interface/user experience (UI/UX). He enthusiastically described how his company had made a name for itself and was doubling down on its UI/UX focus. He used jargon that very few in the room knew of, and there were several people who poked fun at him for it. I didn’t speak up in defense of him then, but I think his focus area was a good one.
From an end user's perspective, a BAS’s “graphics” are among the most heavily differentiating aspects from one vendor’s solutions to the next. As many of you know, I’m referring to the series of graphical user interfaces that are often served up on a dedicated computer with specialized software or via a customized web interface on mobile devices or workstations. A system can work well to maintain environmental conditions for months or years on end, but if a maintenance staff member is unable to use the graphics to troubleshoot and remedy an issue, he or she will certainly feel as if they’ve been underserved. I have been party to a sales call where a prospect was lamenting the need to replace the entire BAS that was only three years old, and, after all of the questions and answers, the truth behind it was that the original contractor had not included override capabilities of zone dampers in the graphics provided. We did the right thing for that customer and showed him what he really needed to do, but imagine if you were faced with a project worth tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars when a couple of hours of work would solve the issue.