How much forethought is given to all the data and information needed to manage a building? The answer many times would be little forethought and a lot of afterthought. The industry as a whole has realized the use of building data and data analytics are major tools for improving building operations. Data applications such as energy management and fault detection and diagnostics are probably the best examples of the effectiveness of managing and analyzing data. However the effort for many building owners to acquire and manage facility data appears either ad hoc or is narrowly focused on specific aspects of the building such as energy and the HVAC systems.  

There are a number of data "repositories" currently used in buildings that provide a substantial amount of data. They include building management systems, independent control systems, facility management systems and business systems. In addition there is the "umbrella" of Building Information Modeling which addresses design and construction drawings, equipment and product data, as well as data in the hands of third-party contractors that install, service, and maintain building equipment.  Some of this data is stored away in Excel spreadsheets, Access databases and a host of varied electronic and paper formats. The typical building has several "silos" of data scattered throughout the organization with no cohesive strategy for data management and little coordination. Also note that it's not only the data that is in silos but also the underlying technology systems for data management, different data management processes, and even the people involved.  

There would seem to be a very good case for bringing all the facility data into a unified database architecture and putting into practice standard methodologies and processes to manage the data. There are several benefits to this approach:

• Building data would be more widely available and sharable.Setting aside confidential data, more data would allow for additional analytics, possibly new correlations and metrics and new insights into the building's performance.

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