I had a conversation recently with a school district in Texas about facility usage. It seems that they are struggling to keep up with all the BAS schedule over-rides they need to make in order to provide lights and HVAC for their after-hours events. I shared a secret that many BAS System Integrators don’t want you to know.
“Psst! It’s a database.”
This lead to a discussion about integrating their TeamWORKS CMMS into their BAS system. Just like integrating with HR, accounting, time clock or most other software, integrating BAS usually happens at the database level. Depending on the system, there are some complexities and hoops to jump through, but it’s very doable. With the time saved by making schedule over-rides and the customer satisfaction you get from your facilities users, the return on your investment is usually fast and substantial.
There are other points of integration as well. You may decide to retrieve run time and other data from mechanical equipment to put a predictive maintenance program in place. Studies have shown that predictive maintenance can save an additional 12% of operating costs above savings found in a traditional preventive maintenance program.
You can also create work orders for equipment when an alarm point is set off. Just imagine arriving to work and finding an approved work order to check a split unit due to the water bug alarming or to change filters as the result of a differential pressure sensor that alerted you that the filter is getting dirty. This is pretty cool stuff that saves you manpower, saves you money and makes you a hero to your customers!
Remember, at the end of the day, they’re all just databases.
Craig
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