Centralize the Alarms (Montreal, Quebec) Managing efficiently Critical Situations From energy performance, service maintenance, flexibility on changes to finding comforting solutions for occupants, these are just a few of the growing requirements of management activities for industrial and commercial buildings. As a result, needs in building automation have increased, leading to a significant transformation of these activities by creating a centralized control for all buildings, aptly called the Building Management System platform (BMS). Even so, the various groups of equipment are controlled by different software applications specific to each manufacturer and to each technology. These software applications are generally not compatible with each other, even though the mechanical and electrical infrastructures are increasingly interdependent. Dealing with Complex Support Interventions The BMS platform covers mainly the building’s mechanical infrastructure, which consists of HVAC equipment including cooling, air conditioning, ventilation and humidification units, as well as various pumping systems, water leak detection systems and security equipment (fire, gas, intrusion, etc.). For energy efficiency and services reliability reasons, the BMS platform must also cover the building’s electrical infrastructure, which consists of main power supply, primary and secondary distribution in buildings as well as emergency supplies such as generator sets and UPS units. When dealing with building management activities, the quantity and variety of software applications result in very complex support interventions. A large amount of heterogeneous data from various systems are displayed simultaneously on several different screens. This makes it difficult to provide a quick diagnosis of the situation and assess its criticality whether it affects occupants or building services. In order to proceed to a quick analysis and identify the nature of the problem detected on the equipment, we need to isolate the important data from all the information that was collected. Consolidating Supervision and Control Application with Immotique+ The solution is to consolidate every building’s supervision and control applications in a single software solution– with Immotique+. The combination of the information related to alarms in Immotique+ helps establish communication between existing applications and this new platform to exchange just the information that is related to alarms. The interveners may then solely focus on the alarms that will be displayed on a single screen. Centralizing Alarms Benefits Fast and Easy Data Recovery: With the use of a single application, compatibility issues are no longer a problem, making the recovery of graphical representations of the circuitry and other interfaces a quick and simplified task. Standardization of Names & Messages: Once the alarms have been centralized, it is possible to develop a new naming standard. These alarms can also be classified based on new criteria (nature, type, priority, etc.). This leads to a standardization of the names and messages related to the alarms, which was not possible when the systems were initially deployed. Quick Alarm Identification: This also makes the identification of alarms easier by using a common designation, easily transferable to new interveners who no longer require a long training process or advanced knowledge on the history of the supervised building equipment organization. The establishment of a uniform identification system can be a starting point for better organized and well documented maintenance interventions. Alarms Criticality Assessment: The software considers the importance of alarms related to critical services but also the remaining autonomy of vital equipment. Variable prioritization of the interventions is then made possible according to current activities. Immotique+ offers also the possibility of combining these essential alarms by using logic equations, which reduces the number of alarms displayed and produces a new type of alarm for a more accurate display that does not require a complex analysis from the intervener. The principle of combinations suggested by Immotique+ allows to assign a default status to equipment such as “Out of Order”, “Stable Downgraded Operation” or “Decreasing Downgraded Operation”. Interveners may then easily assess the urgency of the intervention. Assessing Urgency of the Situation with Immotique+ and Monitoring Interventions in Real-Time with Andon StudioTM Real-time Monitoring of Interventions Using the established classification and according to the configured settings, an explicit warning message will be transmitted to the right person using the most appropriate communication media upon the occurrence of an abnormal situation. The intervention process can now begin since a clear and quick identification of the defect and its consequences has already been made and reported to the relevant intervener. Furthermore, to ensure compliance with the established process and be informed in real-time of the proper conduct of each of the planned activities, the management module offered by Andon StudioTM is the ideal complementary tool. Just set the process, assign resource people and specify the means of communication to use (email, SMS, call, etc.). Andon StudioTM will automatically make the requested inquiries and ensure call escalations, while recording information of the action being taken, its duration and the interveners at task. Conclusion The advantage of a centralized software goes beyond alarms categorization that allows establishing a quick diagnosis of the situation. Indeed, Immotique+ advanced features will also ensure an automated management of critical situations as a second step.