Commercial and retail buildings will account for more than 80% of the $400 million remote monitoring market in 2016. This finding comes from a new study by IMS Research, part of IHS Inc.  

Remote monitoring in intelligent buildings is a service offered by third-party companies that audit and report on the operational performance of a building. The services have two key selling points. First, auditors can make recommendations to save energy costs by determining, for instance, a more efficient schedule for the building automation system. Second, the building owner can reduce internal staffing costs for the facility by using a third-party service provider.

“Remote monitoring services are gaining increased traction as building owners find significant savings to be made, in terms of both decreasing energy bills and reducing staffing costs,” said Sam Grinter, market analyst for building technologies at IHS. “The drive to reduce overheads has been reinforced over the last five years by tough economic conditions.”

Grinter also said that commercial and retail end users have been the fastest to take advantage of remote monitoring services in intelligent buildings in an effort to cut operational expenses. These same cuts have not been as high a priority for government or institutional end users.

The study also found that as the market develops further, other end-user industries such as education, government, data centers, and hospitality will increasingly take advantage of the services. The systems are expected to not only improve building efficiency, but also reduce internal staffing costs for monitoring and maintaining buildings.