By Brad Stevens
From the June 2025 Issue of Facility Executive
A central intelligence manager (CIM) delivers exactly what many facility managers have been asking for in recent years—the ability to access all facility data in one place and make sense of it. Historically, systems such as HVAC, lighting, surveillance, A/V, access control, and others ran disparate from each other, often coupled with proprietary functionalities that limited the possibilities of true IT and OT convergence. Traditional platform aggregators centralized data from these disparate systems so it could be collected, analyzed, and acted upon. However, few followed standardized data point tagging, making systems integration and commissioning more prone to project delays and added costs.
Fast-forward to today and the demand for real-time data intelligence, analytics, and insights is impossible to ignore. Facility and building managers have access to CIM platforms that provide one centralized command-and-control interface across the technology stack of the built environment.
The following steps will help facility executives navigate CIM options for the best results and optimal speed to value.
Establish Use Cases
Before selecting a platform, it is essential to identify desired short- and long-term outcomes. Each use case can require integration with connected IT/OT systems, subsystems, sensors, and even third-party applications. Then teams can determine if a CIM platform can integrate with existing technologies. If not, either existing infrastructure and hardware need to be updated or another, more capable, platform will need to be selected.
Facility teams may have an immediate need to improve command and control of HVAC and lighting systems across the portfolio, while recognizing the importance of simplifying the management of their telecommunications closets. Do existing systems connect through an open application programing interface (API) or other standard protocol, or are they closed, proprietary systems? Do teams need to add hardware to their telecommunications closets, and does the platform readily connect with those technologies? Suppose the complete technology stack in a built environment can readily integrate; in that case, the speed-to-value will be faster as its implementation expands into areas like energy efficiency, environmental health, and space optimization. A CIM platform should scale alongside an organization’s changing needs.
Evaluate Site Readiness
Collecting information from multiple systems is nothing new for facility managers. However, the proprietary nature of how technologies communicate has resulted in challenges with interoperability. For example, if multiple systems integrators on one job site tag different devices, such as room temperature controls, in several ways (e.g., TEMP and TP) it becomes more difficult to integrate those devices across building systems. Harmonizing data from multiple technologies is essential.
Facility managers can accomplish this by first conducting a site-readiness assessment. This involves identifying all systems connecting to a CIM platform and understanding what communication protocols are in place. It is also recommended to evaluate wired and wireless infrastructure. This is particularly important if there’s a plan to add new, bandwidth-intensive hardware and sensors, or implement use cases that require real-time data, support critical operations, or stream video.
Once the baseline is understood, teams can harmonize the data, so it is communicated uniformly. Data models such as Project Haystack can help standardize this process and make data from different building technologies interoperable. Teams will also be able to address network infrastructure proactively, ensuring optimal results at go-live.
Cybersecurity is also a key consideration as more connections are made, and more data and insights are shared in a facility. The serialized communication protocols used by many facilities’ OT networks do not offer the robust security required today. By IP enabling the OT network, organizations can adopt proven cybersecurity principles to help protect data and the business overall.
Optimize Speed To Value
As previously stated, defining use cases up front and considering the various IT/OT systems, subsystems, sensors, and third-party applications to integrate will help facility executives and managers select the best platform and identify infrastructure requirements; this will keep the surprises to a minimum. But there are other opportunities to ease implementation and improve speed to value.
For example, CIM platforms can be deployed remotely. This can save time and money compared to having a vendor come on-site for deployment, especially if deployments are planned at multiple sites.
Choosing a CIM platform that reduces custom engineering work can also save time. A good example is a platform with API integrations to deliver out-of-the-box connectivity with various technologies and systems, in addition to adding custom integrations as needed. Ready-to-use dashboards also provide instant access to visualizations. A platform may offer the option to import historical data to accelerate the speed to insights and help set a baseline for normal operations. Some even have quality-assurance applications to identify tagging errors and other issues during deployment.
Turning Chaos Into Clarity
Connected devices are only going to continue proliferating in facilities, on both the IT and OT side. Facility managers who lack the ability to view this data from one centralized platform will miss opportunities to glean valuable insights and leverage predictive analytics to reduce downtime, automate processes, and improve operational efficiencies.
Strategically uniting the data from these technologies in a single, command-and-control platform will streamline situational awareness and fault detection, and unlock opportunities to improve productivity, optimize energy consumption and space utilization, security, and environmental health and safety.
Stevens is the Vice President of IoT and Platform Sales, Wesco. He is responsible for driving the company’s growth and innovation in the IoT sector. With over three decades of experience in the industry, Stevens is recognized for his strategic vision and leadership in sales operations and global technology solutions. Prior to his current role, Stevens held various leadership positions, including Regional Vice President of Global Services Development and Area Vice President.
Do you have a comment? Share your thoughts in an e-mail to the Editor at jen@groupc.com.