Schneider Electric And Planon’s Extended Partnership Will Help Firms Get Better Value From IoT Data In Facilities Workflows

Schneider Electric And Planon’s Extended Partnership Will Help Firms Get Better Value From IoT Data In Facilities Workflows

On November 17, 2020, global building technology vendor Schneider Electric and IWMS vendor Planon announced they will extend their partnership to jointly deliver software and services that support the digitization of buildings. As part of the announcement, Schneider Electric will acquire a 25% stake in Planon, which has 750 staff and generated revenues of €74 million euros ($88 million) in 2019. The acquisition is subject to normal regulatory and legal approval procedures. Planon will use this investment to accelerate innovations around its IWMS platform and build out its sales teams globally.

Schneider Electric and Planon have been strategic partners since March 2019, targeting the opportunity to bring granular building IoT data into real estate and facilities workflows. The initial collaboration between the two firms saw the integration of Schneider Electric’s EcoStruxure Building Advisor with strengths in collecting and analysing building IoT data and Planon’s broad IWMS platform for managing real estate workflows. The combined offering enables firms to bring in granular building data, such as alerts on HVAC faults, into Planon’s platform to trigger pre-defined business rules that automate directed interventions. The two firms will build on this integration to target use cases across occupant wellbeing, sustainability and space efficiency.

Multiple software vendors across the smart building market have also been tapping into the opportunity to bring IoT data into workflow management systems to drive more automated actions. One notable example is ServiceNow, which launched the Connected Operations IoT platform in October 2020 enabling users to bring IoT data into Now Platform which providers apps for field services and facilities management (provided by Nuvolo). ServiceNow launched this new functionality aiming to help firms get better value from their IoT data and automate repetitive tasks. Another example is IWMS vendor Spacewell that has developed an IoT platform ‘COBUNDU’ that is already being used by its customers to collect data that informs smart cleaning programmes.

With lots of activity taking place across the market, Verdantix finds that Schneider Electric and Planon are well placed to capitalize on the opportunities of combining IoT data and digital workflows. Rather than building new capabilities from the ground up, they are bringing together existing best-of-breed solutions in a way that feels seamless to the end-users. To learn more about innovation in the smart building market, register for our Virtual Event taking place in December: Learning From Top 10 Smart Building Innovators In 2020.