An organization’s ability to make it through uncertain market conditions lies in its ability to skilfully manage overhead expenses while maintaining an arsenal of a future-safe IoT infrastructure – no matter its size. Smarter Building Technologies (SBT) Alliance was born out of this necessity to future-proof small, medium, and Fortune 500 businesses – helping corporations design, deploy, and support IoT-enabled solutions, systems, and technologies.
Enterprise Viewpoint interviewed Shane Acernese, Chief Strategy Officer of SBT, to uncover where SBT has established successful IoT use cases in the operational efficiency space and where the company sees the industry going.
Q: Please take us through SBT Alliance’s origin and journey.
SBT Alliance began with the culmination of three individual businesses that served the lighting and controls market in three distinct silos. These silos included a company focused on energy-efficient LEDs, one focused on integrating advanced IoT-enabled controls into LED fixtures and pre-commissioning them. And lastly, a company that specialized in wireless control device provisioning, commissioning, and system support. As the adage goes, two heads are better than one, and if you have three, well, you’re even smarter, and that’s the genesis of Smarter Building Technologies Alliance. Combining these three independent companies under one roof, SBT has pulled together a powerhouse of specialties that gives us the capability and capacity to help clients through a digital journey from start to finish and beyond.
Q: How does SBT Alliance standout from market competitors?
SBT Alliance is different from other market players because of our long history of working within the LED lighting, advanced controls, and construction service industry. SBT team members bring a depth of knowledge steeped in experience and unparalleled compared to other technology firms trying to enter this market. Because of our long history within the market, we understand the many pitfalls and challenges that plague facility operators, and the countless operational efficiency obstacles businesses contend with on an ongoing basis.
Our overall goal is to help facilities advance IoT technology solutions that lead them to a digital future. We are structured and well organized like a large enterprise but remain nimble. This agility helps us meet the ever-changing needs of customer requirements as technologies advance. Many legacy players focus on one or two technologies (or manufacturers) when providing solutions to clients. This antiquated approach may have worked in the past as technologies remained binary – especially within the energy efficiency space – but in today’s IoT-first world, an agnostic approach to solution engineering is essential. Technology is advancing so rapidly that staying stagnant on a single technology is the death knell of operational innovation, efficiency, and digitization. That’s what sets SBT apart from our competitors.
Q: Kindly take us through your product offerings and business model.
 As I mentioned in the previous question, SBT employs an agnostic approach to working with device and system manufacturers. We understand and appreciate the fact that no one building system rules all. We thrive on this seemingly endless mix of building systems. We see combining and streamlining multi-system management through a single platform as our key market differentiator. Our model focuses on delivering valuable insights and data-driven perspectives gleaned from smart digital infrastructures. We achieve this customized service offering at scale because of our vast industry experience in multiple verticals. When it comes down to it, the same operational challenges that A grocery chain experiences, grocery chain B also realizes 80-90% of the same challenges. Understanding a customer’s key pain points is central to designing an IoT-enabled solution that addresses their unique challenges. SBT Alliance has deployed smart spaces in tens of millions of square feet of commercial spaces across the country. This hands-on experience enables us to engineer baseline IoT solution sets for our clients that address nearly all of their needs, with solution customizations covering the rest.
Our powerful S|HUB Tablet acts as the portal to a singular management dashboard that brings the convenience of advanced technical support to our client’s fingertips while putting deep system insights front and center for easy access. At the same time, our SMARTER Space as a Service (SSaaS) program helps clients fund their projects without depleting traditional capital improvement budgets. This unique project funding program provides our clients with a vehicle that’s akin to many other subscription-based programs used throughout an organization, for example, Office 365. So, in essence, that’s one way to think of it: Office 365 for facility management.
Q: Can you share an instance of how your solutions helped a customer overcome business challenges?
As an IoT solutions partner, we engineer custom solution sets that help clients in different business areas outside of standard energy management improvements. Yes, energy management and efficiency are ancillary benefits of digital infrastructures, but they are not the end all be all. At least not to SBT. Our IoT-based solution sets aim to improve revenue and reduce clients’ costs in ways they likely have never thought possible.
One such area is reimaging the car dealerships through cutting-edge IoT devices. Traditionally, car dealership software systems have been more about Customer Relationship Management (CRM) rather than real-time customer experience analytics. Historically, car dealerships focused on reactive post-service follow-ups to determine a customer’s experience. Through today’s IoT devices, we can now track and enhance a customer’s experience in real-time. By assessing the sales and customer service teams’ performance, we can now enhance a dealerships’ client engagement strategy to unlock new revenue streams while improving customer experience. We’re still in the engineering stages, but this is an exciting program we look forward to launching.
One other example of how our IoT-enabled solution sets help customers overcome business challenges is to look no further than 2020 – a year of unbelievable business disruption. When it comes to the environmental health of spaces, this year is like no other. But as with any other challenge, SBT is committed to delivering a solution that meets client expectations while solving critical operational challenges. This past March, our solution engineering team launched our Safe Space Initiative, which aims to equip building owners and operators with the tools and technologies they need to ensure their environmental health. Focused on utilizing IoT-enabled devices and technologies, the Safe Space Initiative provides:
- Unintrusive and accurate temperature sensing & monitoring
- Real-time notifications when occupancy limits reached
- Space utilization & footfall analytics
- Digital contact tracing
- Data-driven sanitization & cleaning management
Folks can learn more on our website:Â https://sbt-alliance.com/safe-space-solution-facilities/
Talking about the company’s roadmap, where do you see SBT Alliance a few years from today? Please elaborate on any upcoming projects/plans
When you look at the facility management and building operations, countless manufacturers are vying for a piece of the building management pie. SBT sees our unique IoT solution sets, service, and system support tools as an empowering technology platform for building owners and end-user businesses. SBT aims to become the central point in managing our customer’s IoT systems – helping to streamline operations, foster multi-system communication, and achieve the goals our clients seek to better their businesses. We look at our S|HUB Tablet as our singular platform to achieve this goal while our engineering teams further power innovations and value streams for clients through new specialized software-based applications in the coming years.Â
For any queries, reach out us on info@sbt-alliance.com
SBT Alliance
Management:
Shane Acernese
Description:
SBT Alliance helps our customers deploy IoT-based solutions, systems, and technologies that make their buildings safer and smarter, while helping them fund the project through cost savings measures, and operational efficiency improvements.
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