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Ideally, a planning office is not merely a service provider that creates designs and develops technical solutions, but also acts as a coordinator, driver of innovation, and a reliable and trustworthy partner for clients, general contractors, and public authorities. In this article from the Building Perspectives series, our author Michael Wanka shares his perspective on how integrated building management and a wise choice of planning partners can prevent silo thinking and enable swift project execution within budget. Drawing on his extensive professional experience in project business for an international company specialising in building automation and security technology, he illustrates how planning in cooperation with planning offices ensures that projects are realised efficiently, sustainably, and with a future-oriented approach.
Tasks of a Planning Office
- Project development: The planning office accompanies the entire process from the initial idea to the finished concept.
- Design planning: It produces sketches, drafts, construction plans, and digital models.
- Approval planning: All necessary documents for building permits and official approvals are prepared.
- Implementation planning: The plans are worked out in detail and form the basis for construction execution.
- Cost estimation and control: Project costs are calculated and the budget is monitored.
- Construction supervision and project management: Construction execution is monitored, participating companies are coordinated, and adherence to quality standards and schedules is ensured.
System suppliers support the planner in bringing the latest and most innovative technologies into projects to ensure efficient and sustainable building operation. It makes sense to establish a truly trustworthy partnership between planner, system provider, and end customer. The so-called triangle effect describes the collaborative working relationship under the leadership of the planning office, representing and implementing the requirements of the end customer as well as integrating technical innovations.
The Challenge
Awarding the planning services for construction projects, which covers all service phases presents a significant challenge. The different service phases structure the entire planning and construction process of a project, from the initial idea to completion, quality assurance, and handover.
By awarding all service phases to a single planning office, it is possible to ensure that all planning and monitoring services come from a single source and interface problems are minimised. However, in practice, it is also very common for individual planning phases to be awarded to different planning offices. This can lead to a situation where, due to changes in the process, one planning office has to familiarise itself with the predecessor’s plans or even create new plans, which ultimately costs a lot of time and delays completion. This is not cost-efficient for the client, and the planner may pursue a different strategy, such as opting for minimal solutions to save costs and avoid budget overruns. Increased time pressure can also mean that innovative technologies for later sustainable and smart building operation are omitted, and trade silos continue to exist.
Comprehensive integral planning of all service phases can be efficiently ensured by commissioning a single planning office. However, it is essential to carefully check the professional qualifications and competence of the selected office beforehand. Does the office have the necessary expertise for integrated building management in the field of building automation and telecommunications and information technology systems, or is its qualification limited to just one of the two technology fields? If the latter is the case, another competent planning office should be brought in to start the construction project in partnership, coordinate cross-trade functions, and ensure the success of the project through regular consultation.
Organisational Challenges and the Advantages of Integral Planning
The advantages of integral planning lie particularly in efficiency, transparency, cost savings, innovation, and quality assurance throughout the construction process. If all service phases are awarded to just one competent planning office, interface problems can be largely avoided because all planning services come from a single source. This leads to better coordination of the individual trades in the respective cost groups, such as building automation and security technology, and allows for the early consideration of innovative technologies and smart solutions for later efficient and sustainable building operation.
Another advantage is clear responsibility: the end customer has a fixed contact person, which simplifies communication and facilitates the coordination of change requests and technical requirements. In addition, integral planning allows for optimised cost and schedule management, as there is a continuous overview of all project phases and errors or duplicate work can be avoided. The holistic approach also promotes interdisciplinary collaboration and increases the quality and sustainability of the finished building. Interface problems, which arise especially between the field of building automation and the field of telecommunications and information technology, can be constructively coordinated with all project participants at an early stage of the construction project. In practice, however, this is often only partially or not at all implemented. Subsequent changes to the planning involve costs that are not to be underestimated and are usually not included in the budget.
An integral planning approach does not necessarily lead to complete agreement; organisational challenges can also arise, such as statements like “we don’t need that” or “there isn’t enough staff available for that”. Discussions about responsibilities and budgets within the organisation are common. However, cross-trade collaboration is necessary to fully exploit the advantages of integral planning.
Technical Challenges and Obstacles of Integral Planning
As described, an integral planning approach offers many advantages. On the other hand, in the field of technology for integrated building management, there are currently too few standards and open, cost-effective interfaces between the trades of a digital building.
Building automation is a central component of modern building technology and enables intelligent control and monitoring of various systems such as heating, ventilation, air conditioning, individual room control, lighting, and security systems. Especially at field level, where sensors and actuators are directly connected to the building control system, the choice of suitable communication protocols is crucial. The variety of technologies such as OPC, BACnet MSTP, M-Bus, or proprietary bus systems often makes interoperability between different manufacturers difficult. Without uniform open standards, costly interfaces or maintenance-intensive gateways (software and hardware) are repeatedly required to ensure seamless communication and fully realise the benefits of comprehensive building automation.
To maximise the efficiency and benefits of building automation, it is important to pay attention to open and standardised interfaces during the planning phase. This makes future expansions or adjustments easier to implement and integration between different trades smoother. Foresighted planning not only promotes technical functionality but also significantly contributes to the sustainability and economic efficiency of building operation.
A trend in building automation that contributes to digitalisation is the integration of wireless technologies such as Bluetooth, Zigbee, WLAN, Z-Wave, and LoRaWAN. Bluetooth offers flexible options at field level, particularly for individual room control, wirelessly connecting sensors (room thermostats), actuators (e.g. valves), window contacts, and lighting to the building control system. This makes retrofitting and expanding existing systems easier, as no elaborate wiring is required. Bluetooth enables efficient and secure communication over short distances and can be combined with other wireless standards via gateways as needed to achieve optimal coverage and interoperability. Using Bluetooth technologies can simplify maintenance and improve the scalability of building automation. In addition, wireless technologies significantly reduce the fire load from conventional low-voltage wiring, which leads to considerable cost savings and has a major impact on fire risk.
However, wireless technologies such as Bluetooth also bring risks. Radio technologies create a potential attack surface for cyberattacks. Criminal energy is almost boundless nowadays, so buildings and their infrastructure are at risk and sensitive data can be accessed. This must be taken into account during planning. Although all manufacturers strive to equip their systems with the latest and most secure hardware and software security standards, these topics should nevertheless be included and considered in integral planning.
Integral Planning in Security Technology
Integral planning is particularly important in the field of security technology, since different systems such as access control (ACS), video management systems (VMS), intrusion detection systems (IDS), fire alarm technology (FAT), escape and rescue route technology (ERT), and voice alarm systems (VAS) often need to be networked. The interplay should be ensured to efficiently utilise the advantages of integration and protect people and buildings. Reality, however, shows that there are hardly any standards in security technology to achieve interoperability between fire alarm technology and access control from different manufacturers.
The goal should be to connect the fire alarm technology from manufacturer A with the access control from manufacturer B via the management system so that, in the event of a fire, the doors of the access control open and people in the critical area of the building can be warned via the voice alarm system from manufacturer C. The fire brigade could view the endangered area via the video camera in the security control centre before deployment to specifically combat the fire. Current fire brigade maps could also be made available digitally or printed. Ultimately, it should be in the customer’s interest to consolidate all processes for the protection of people and infrastructure into a workflow and map them via the management system if necessary.
Of course, this also applies to other trades. It begs the question why there is not also agreement on an open standard such as BACnet or ONVIF (used mainly in the video sector) in the field of security technology. Here, the planning office should coordinate with the client in advance which functions are required or desired in order to resolve inconsistencies and save time and money.
Early coordination and the selection of open interfaces not only enable smooth integration into building automation, but also increase protection against unauthorised access and improve responsiveness in emergencies. By considering security technology holistically within integral planning, synergies can be utilised, redundancies avoided, and the security level sustainably increased. It is also crucial to include aspects such as data protection and IT security in planning to protect infrastructure from cyberattacks and meet legal requirements.
Organisational Benefits of an Integrated Management System
A superior cross-trade management system or control centre with a uniform look and feel can largely prevent the risk of operating errors in stressful situations through a standardised user interface. Situational awareness is improved, space requirements are reduced, data continuity is increased, situation recognition is accelerated, and measures can be initiated more quickly. Information flow is optimised and response times are shortened for critical infrastructures such as data centres, laboratories, or industrial plants. If this does not succeed, it should be noted that personnel costs continue to rise and customers have to cope with fewer specialists for sophisticated building technology.
Networked. Integrated. Smart.
Conventional building management is based on separate applications for the operation, monitoring, and optimisation of HVAC systems, energy management, fire alarm technology, and control and lighting systems. The disadvantages are poor information flow, longer response times in emergencies, and higher operating costs. Integration, on the other hand, combines the various trades of a property into an intelligent solution, “in one window”. The advantages are obvious: the user receives a company-wide overview of the data, and response processes can be automated. This increases productivity while improving safety.
It is important to know that 75% to 80% of the total costs of a property are incurred during operation. It is therefore worthwhile to set the course early for low operating costs. A cross-trade approach requires coordinated planning but pays off through low maintenance and energy costs.
Globally, for example, Honeywell Building Solutions has already carried out more than 4,000 energy-saving projects, achieving savings of over 3 billion euros for customers.
