The IBMS 'smart' backbone

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A groundbreaking integrated building management system (IBMS) is being rolled out at One Business Bay by Omniyat Properties. MEP Middle East speaks to FM director Terry John-Baptiste about this ‘smart’ backbone.

Scheduled for completion in the second quarter of 2009, the 30-storey One Business Bay commercial tower will feature a state-of-the-art command-and-control centre that will not only manage the building itself, but will offer the potential of being integrated with other buildings. “We will leverage this technology platform to allow us to cost-effectively maintain high-quality management standards for our entire portfolio of buildings,” says John-Baptiste.

With an MEP background, John-Baptiste’s experience includes being chief engineer for London Hotels, while more recently he was engineering director with the Jumeirah International Group on the Burj Al Arab and Jumeirah Beach hotel projects. Ironically, much of the technological integration he helped pioneer on these iconic projects is now being introduced to a much larger market by Omniyat Properties itself, in very different market conditions.
Shift to service

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“The present market has allowed for a shift to cost-effective service delivery while maintaining high quality standards. FM vendors have also become very customer-focused due to the imperative need to deliver value for money. In addition, developers should be looking seriously at leveraging technology to manage ‘green’ standards like LEED requirements,” says John-Baptiste, who was also FM with Emrill Services at Dubai Marina.

“Part of my role at Omniyat Properties is to engage with the development team at the design stage to ensure that the building design is efficient from an operational point of view. We also work closely with the site contractors and consultants throughout the transitional period in preparing the buildings for full operation.”

The value of this approach is apparent when one considers that energy consumption can account for a significant proportion of a building’s total operating costs. “The challenge in Dubai is the high ambient temperature and humidity levels. This means that maintaining a comfortable climate within a building requires a huge amount of energy in terms of chilled water systems, air-handling units and electro-mechanical systems, among others.

Carbon footprint

“However, controlling and reducing energy consumption will help Dubai reduce its carbon footprint, which is a pertinent international trend,” comments John-Baptiste. “We see our buildings as an extension of our customers’ lives. At the end of the day, we want to offer our customers not just a comfortable place to work in, but an enhanced lifestyle as well. Key to this approach is integrating all the relevant technologies.” This brings us back to the IBMS being deployed at One Business Bay, Bayswater and the various other buildings coming on-line.

“Most command-and-control centres fall down in that they treat buildings as standalone structures. Either these centres lack the capacity for total integration, or the individual buildings lack the necessary technology for such comprehensive control. It does not make sense to have a command-and-control centre where all you can do is monitor various systems without being able to enforce any level of control,” explains John-Baptiste.

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