Let’s start digitalization from homes
The Turkish Industry and Business Association (TÜBİSAD) released a report about Turkey’s digital transition yesterday. Important names like Serdar Urçar and Devrim Sönmez presented the findings together with three academia representatives. I will delve into the details of the report next week. But I realized that when I do think about digitalization and digital transformation, I always make the same mistake of overthinking. I think about very big projects and initiatives when I think about going global. When someone tells me that they embarked on a digital transformation project I think about hundreds of servers, engineers, project managers and terabytes of data. However, real changes might happen on smaller scales too. If we can digitalize a room then we can digitalize a small building, then we can digitalize a hotel, then an office building, and then an airport, and so on. But everything starts with small areas and small data.
Last week I had the opportunity to speak to Paolo Cervini, president of Honeywell Building Solutions Middle East, Russia, Turkey and Africa, at a user group and internet of things (IoT) conference that Honeywell held. Honeywell is one of the leading firms in automation building. They are present in many hotels in Turkey and they are currently working on the construction of Istanbul’s third airport.
During our chat he emphasized mainly on connectivity.
He said that with connectivity solutions they can get data from thousands of sensors, analyze their information and come up with real-life solutions. For example, they can determine if an automatic door will malfunction within the next 24 hours. Once they do that, they report on the possibility, and the malfunction can be taken care of before it ever happens.
He also underlined that many builders are trying to go greener and they all want to lower maintenance costs. He suggested that it can be done using IoT. For example, they have a solution called Lyric. The Lyric family offers heating control, water leak detection and security, all of which can be controlled remotely using the Lyric app. The app uses geo-fencing technology to know when you’re at home or away, so you can control your Lyric devices from anywhere using your smartphone or tablet. Another application gives occupants more control over their experiences within a building with the swipe of a screen. The most significant new feature is indoor navigation, which uses GPS-like technology to help users find their way around complex buildings that are difficult to navigate without directions. The rating feature builds on the app’s original one-click hot/cold call capability, which lets users raise comfort issues with building personnel for a solution. Building owners and managers can view ratings and feedback on dashboards to pinpoint where building spaces need attention and improvements. They can also visualize long-term trends and space rankings to uncover patterns and improvement opportunities to promote occupant comfort, satisfaction and productivity.
At the end of the day, everything is about data and connectivity.
