- [Narrator] It has been nearly impossible
to manage thousands or
even hundreds of buildings
controlled by one organization.
Now, a new industry is
rising to solve that problem.
We speak with Deb Noller
of Switch Automation
in this episode of Uptech Report.
She talks about the
struggles she has faced
in the value that her company's IOT and
Automation Solutions can
provide to building managers.
She discusses the sorry state of analytics
in the building industry now
and how improvements can be made.
(cheerful music)
- Well thank you so much,
Deb, for joining us.
I'm thrilled to learn more about Switch,
the journey that you've been
on, where you're heading
and also your take on IOT
and this new world of technology
and integrating all this data.
To start us off, tell me,
when did it start for you?
When did this first begin
and where was it?
- Well I guess it's probably
a couple of things there.
So one is, I was very fortunate to stumble
across computer science.
And then I was very fortunate to stumble
across my co-founder, and
we were very fortunate
to stumble into our first business,
which was phenomenally successful.
So those kind of things
happen in your life
where you can't really
plan them, but they occur.
And we were building,
we built an incredibly
successful business in the 90s
that was doing logistics and shipping.
The dot com bust forced us to go look
at other industries.
We were exploring around the world
of integrating devices and things
for high end homes and then apartments.
But the big thing for me was the collision
of all of that background,
my enterprise IT experience,
all of this building system experience
and then the a-ha moment for me
because I grew up in New Zealand
was, we can make buildings
have less impact on the planet.
And so that's when I became just hell-bent
on making this business successful
no matter how hard it was.
And just, the resilience of just,
you've gotta keep going because
even if you fail, it's still worth trying.
- That underlying passion for something
more than just, let's build
a business to make money.
Tell me more about that.
- Yes, I grew up in New Zealand.
So pristine, dramatic environment.
I was born in the 60s.
It was before plastic.
And so in 50 years I've watched stuff go
from that to this, and I think,
well, buildings use 40
percent of all the resources
on the planet, and humans spend 80 percent
of their time in them.
And still today, in
2019, the biggest issue
is "I'm hot" or "I'm cold."
It's ridiculous.
25 percent of all our calls
coming out of buildings
are because people have
inappropriate comfort levels.
And you'd think in 2019 we
would have sorted that by now.
- Wow.
So the industry that you are focusing on
is the building facility management.
Is that correct?
- It's anybody who has lots of buildings.
Because I come from this
enterprise IT background,
it's astonishing to me that
people that run large portfolios
of buildings have such poor access to data
and such poor reporting or
decision making analytics
because they really, they
just haven't been able
to tap into the data
coming out of buildings.
So yes, it is a facilities management
aspect to it, but really
what we're trying to do
is give people who run lots of buildings,
so it doesn't matter whether
at schools or universities
or hospitals or government buildings
or commercial buildings
or co-working or tenancies
or retail stores or banks.
We actually, it doesn't
really matter to us.
What we're trying to do is
give you the management tools
to be able to see in
real time what's going on
on a daily basis, so
that you and your team
can focus on the things
that will actually impact
the experience, impact the comfort,
impact the productivity,
and impact your bottom line.
- Wow, so the pain point that
you're really solving for,
as you said, a very wide variety
of types of organizations
is you were saying that
the bottom line for sure.
But it's the sustainability,
it's the environment.
It's the experience both
for their own employees,
for their customers that are coming in.
How do you accomplish solving
this pain point or problem?
Tell me more about, then, your solution.
- Well, it's really hard.
And that's why it hasn't been done before.
So that's why we are in 2019
and people don't have
these management tools.
It's a really difficult
problem to solve for
because if you're a bank
with 1,000 bank branches
or if you're a real
estate investment trust
and you've got 200 big class A buildings,
or if you're a grocery chain
and you've got 500 grocery stores,
or a schools district,
you have-
And this wasn't
intentional, but it's just,
you buy and sell buildings.
Buildings are deployed in different eras.
They're deployed by different crews.
And so you just end up with
every variety of system,
architecture, and you just,
it's very hard to bring
all of that together.
And that's what we do.
- Gotcha.
And this world of, Internet of things,
is definitely growing, and
it's become a buzzword.
And everything is being
connected to the Internet.
That is where now you start to shine,
if I've got that correct.
You're able to then bring
all that data together?
- That's true.
But what we're encouraging
people to do is start
with what you already have.
Everybody already has
systems in their buildings
that are digital ready.
And it doesn't matter
whether it's meeting room
booking systems or help desk ticketing
or visitor registration or
building management systems
or energy meters.
You've already got systems
that are producing data.
You're not harnessing that data.
So we would encourage everybody to start
with what you already have, and then
the future proof of
that solution, of course
is you should be able to add any sensor
in the future, that your heart desires.
So, you know, cameras or CO2 sensors,
or door sensors, or any of the plethora
of devices that are coming down the pipe.
- For this journey that you're on
to ideally cross the chasm.
What hurdles have you already faced
that you're, you'd say yes,
we've accomplished that.
We've figured that out.
And what hurdles are
coming up that you see?
- Yes, so we're really lucky.
We've got amazing logos
and we've already proven the technologies.
So that's the bit that we've faced.
The things that we still
have to figure out,
and that's not just Switch,
that's the entire market,
is which of the verticals are
going to adopt this in droves.
Where, who's going to
accelerate this first?
We haven't seen that yet.
We haven't seen one single
sector go gangbusters
and adopt technology,
even though a lot of them have extremely
good economic reasons to do so.
The other thing is, there's
no obvious person yet
who is the person in the organization
that's responsible for this.
So it could be the CIO
who's being asked by the CEO
to think about how they're going
to digitize their business.
It could be the head of operations.
It could be the head of facilities.
Generally speaking, they're
going to be quite forward
thinking people who
might've already done enough
that they have the confidence to know
what not to do.
They might have made a
few mistakes in their past
but they're much more experienced
around the selection of technologies now.
Those are the pieces that I think
we still have to figure out.
- For your current customers,
what's your current customer base like?
How many customers do you have?
And you're focused on enterprise,
so what does that look like?
- We don't have as many
customers as you'd think,
but we've got thousands of buildings.
Most of them are quite private
about sharing logos, so I
can't really share logos.
But we're doing banking,
we're doing grocery.
We're doing co-working, we're
doing commercial A offices.
We've just started to do
some food and beverage.
We're starting to do some liquor stores.
We're starting to do some hospitals.
I'm hoping that we'll
have some big universities
coming on soon.
I'm quite passionate about
the industry changing
because at the moment, the
universities are churning out
mechanical engineers and energy engineers,
sustainability people,
but we actually need
people that have all of that and more.
You've gotta know about cyber security.
You've gotta know about networking.
You've gotta be able to do data science
and you've gotta be able
to put together a solution.
There's no real obvious kind of
industry driver for the
skill sets that we need yet.
And so I think that if
universities were to adopt
technologies like Switch, expose the data
and the systems to their students,
then I think we'll see some acceleration
of the interest in this space.
'Cause there's honestly not
enough skills in the industry.
- That's a fascinating point that,
talking about new jobs
needed for this new world
of technology, you're
describing a new job.
- Exactly.
Yeah, we need thousands of these people
to be able to, you know.
You think about the
number of retail chains
that you can just think up
off the top of your head,
that have more than
1500 or 2,000 locations.
You know, Office Depot and Starbucks.
I mean, you just go on
and on and on, right?
For the industry to adopt
these types of technologies
in the kind of mass that
we need this to happen,
we're going to need thousands
of skilled people to do that.
And you only have to go on LinkedIn
and look at the people
that have got a background
in smart buildings, and
see how much they're being
headhunted right now.
But there's just not enough
people in the industry.
- Let's talk more about
the technology, then,
behind your platform.
So obviously there's
some IP there, whether,
tell me more about it.
What is there?
- Yeah, so it's a full stack.
We're partnered with Microsoft,
so it's all hosted on Microsoft Azure.
We use some of the tools
that Azure provides,
but a lot of it is our own
IP that's built into that.
We have an IOT gateway where
we've partnered with Dell.
So this is a device that has our,
our operating system for
want of a better word.
It's an embedded device, like an X-Box.
If you turn it off and
turn it back on again,
it will come back exactly the same.
Highly secure, which
is why we've partnered
with both of those organizations.
So the IOT gateway goes into a building
and connects
on premise with every single
system that's on site.
So it's the building management system
and the energy metering,
and maybe the security
or the access control, the
sensors, blah blah blah.
That collects data from those devices
and pushes it up to the cloud.
In the cloud, we have a bunch of analytics
that help people to
benchmark their buildings
so that they can see, basically
with their morning coffee
in the morning, that their
scores are going down or up
and what's going on.
Can I relax?
Oh, my scores are going down.
Which buildings are causing that?
Why is that happening?
And we go right down to
equipment level scoring.
So, we can actually help
people get to the root cause
of why their scores are going down,
but also the root cause of
why that score has gone down.
- Wow, so this box
that you've created, effectively
your own operating system
on this computer that you've
parked with partnership,
that then connects to
these local devices, or...
Give me some examples, HVAC--
- So it provides the
interoperability, right?
So as an example, we've
just started deploying
some bank branches.
Now if you think of bank branches,
they're really dumb buildings.
They're not smart buildings.
When people think about smart buildings,
they think of that bright,
shiny, one example, you know.
But we don't think like that.
We think that making buildings smarter
and if you think about bank
branches, they're like,
there's thousands of them.
They've got light switches with switches
that turn on and off.
They might have a smart
thermostat if they're lucky,
for the air conditioning.
But all of the systems in that
bank would be disconnected
except for the internal security system.
So what we do is, we connect both systems,
but it actually can invert controls.
So, when you're staff member comes in
in the morning and the
first staff member comes in
and disarms the alarm, you
know that you've got somebody
who's legitimately in the building.
Therefore, you can turn
the air conditioning
and the lighting on.
As an example.
And what we've found is, just
by automating the schedules,
we've been able to get more
than 20 percent energy savings.
Just automating the schedules.
That's not actually going
out there and trying
to make those bank branches
more energy efficient.
It's just putting the lights
on when they're meant to be on
and the lights off when
they're meant to be off
and the air conditioning on and off
when it's meant to be on and off.
So, there's,
and it gets obviously a lot
more powerful than that,
but that's just an example.
People that are running
large portfolios like that
have problems where
managing things as simple as
"is my signage on?".
Is my signage on, and is
it representing our brand?
Oh, actually no, it's half-lit
and we know that from the
draw on the energy meter.
Therefore, somebody
should go and fix that.
Then typically that kind of problem
would only be reported when
somebody drives down the street
at night time and sees
that, and puts in a ticket.
People that are running
class A office buildings,
apart from comfort, what
they really care about is
proving to their tenants
that they're providing space
that helps them with productivity.
So CO2 sensors and the
whole wellness and worker...
Sorry, indoor air quality and
how healthy are our buildings
is an enormous driver for
these types of technologies.
And if you think about
the costs to businesses,
the people power of any
business is the biggest cost.
So anything that we can do to improve
the productivity of the environment
is absolutely what people that
are running large enterprise
care about, so that's one.
And that's where all of these
sensors are so fantastic.
These sensors that are
coming into the market.
So we can measure humidity,
temperature, CO2 levels.
I'm in a phone booth which
is beautifully ventilated.
But a lot of phone booths are not,
as you would well be aware of.
And they become extremely stuffy
and you feel like you're
going to pass out.
The other one is door sensors
for measuring security and risk.
When people are using the wrong doors
or propping doors open, and
potentially providing a risk environment
for workers, staff, students, patients.
- Gotcha.
For this world, then, where
all these different devices
can then connect and for providing data,
they also have their own
many companies with their
own solutions and stuff.
Has it been difficult to
then create connections
and API, so that all that data is able
to come into your platform?
Tell me more about that.
- Yeah, that's one of the big challenges.
But that's actually what
we're really good at.
And we've been doing
that for years and years.
So that is part of our IP.
We have a very comprehensive driver stack
and that's expanding all the time.
That's actually,
it's a challenge for
the rest of the market,
but it's not a challenge for us.
We just continue to add things.
We just recently did a
massive refrigeration company
for a grocery chain.
- Wow.
For other businesses that are
realizing that partnerships
or APIs or connections
with other companies
could be a smart tactic, any
thoughts that you can share?
What is it like to build these
many types of relationships
with so many different companies?
- So my view on that is,
no one company is going
to solve the market.
We all have to be part of
a collaborative ecosystem.
This is going to be an
extremely large industry
and there's no one company
that's going to solve all this.
It doesn't, some of them think that,
but that's just crazy.
And if you think about 2009,
and how Amazon web services
opened up the cloud
for developers to be able to
develop software applications
that we all use now every single day,
and how those all have
integration and interoperability
with other apps, that's
what has accelerated
our adoption of technologies.
And that's exactly how the
building industry has to go.
- Gotcha.
With all this data coming into one place,
how are you helping
people look at the data?
You have any AI or machine learning
that's providing such
interesting statistics?
- We do have machine
learning that helps on-board
buildings really quickly,
because the way buildings
are deployed, a single person
does every single building
and they can name their data
points any way they like.
They can tag them any way they like.
And that has been problematic in the past.
So we did lot of machine
learning to make sure
that we could on-board
buildings really quickly.
AI, we haven't found a
customer yet that's really
got the, collected enough
data yet to apply AI.
It's absolutely part of the future.
But I actually think
that the smartest people
in the industry have been
locked out of this particular
market because the hardest thing to solve
is how to get the data in the first place.
Once you've got the data,
then all the clever people
can come in and work out
these amazing algorithms
and apply artificial intelligence
and will get, will get to
self-healing buildings.
But right now, you know,
if you were a super sharp Google engineer
working on an AI, you
would look at this market,
you'd look at the industry and go,
it's too hard to get that data.
You'll give up and do something else.
- You've painted a good picture
of the journey you've
been on, where you are
and also where you're looking to go.
So looking forward, where do
you wanna be in five years?
Where do you see yourself in five years?
- Yeah, so I've always wanted
to build a global business.
I've been, you know.
I graduated in 1989, so I
watched the big tech houses
in the 90s build big
scalable global businesses
using technology, not people.
And that's always been one of my goals,
is how do you do that?
And I just happened to
combine that with my passion
for, you know,
improving the environment
by attacking buildings.
So we, unashamedly, are very ambitious
on what we've set out to do.
And that is to create a technology
that will become the global standard
for the way people manage buildings.
So we are already speaking
to a number of companies
who can assist us with that.
So we're about to take an
investment out of Hong Kong,
where that company has huge
footprint in China and Asia,
so they'll help us with that.
Last night I was speaking to two companies
based in India.
You know, our company on its own
would find it challenging
to tackle India or China,
but with the right partners, absolutely.
- So, the aggressive growth plan.
A great vision, I see it.
And the smart tactic of
creating partnerships
to allow for that growth.
And seeing this vision,
we've already kind of talked about it,
but what do you see as the hurdles
that you still need to overcome
in order to realize this vision?
Partnerships, what is it like?
- It's really getting
that adoption faster.
You know, it's still business as usual
in the real estate community,
and I think some of that is just paralysis
because, you know, they
don't have the skills
to know what to do.
I think a lot of it is they
don't really understand
how big the opportunity
is for cost savings
in their businesses.
They don't understand the inefficiencies
and overlaps in the
services that they've got.
They haven't seen other people doing it
at that scale yet, so I think
that's some of the issue.
I think once it starts,
it's like all technologies, though.
If you think about Uber and AirBnB,
once they start to take hold,
they grow like wildfire.
- For you,
how are you innovating
and staying current?
Is there any places you
go to look for information
and new ideas, whether it's
technology or business?
- Well I travel a lot
and when you travel a lot,
you just observe the world.
And I'm always at events,
and whether I'm speaking or listening,
and we're lucky.
We've got enormous customers,
and we just get to speak
to people, and yes.
And I read, and, yeah.
- What books or audio books or podcasts
are you reading or listening to right now?
- So I keep a couple of books on my,
on my phone to listen to all the time.
My favorite book for all entrepreneurs
is "The Hard Thing About Hard Things"
which has some really good
business lessons in there,
but is also just a reminder
that it's hard for everybody,
even the people that started Netscape.
And at the moment, I'm reading
"The Waters Will Come",
which is a book about the
rising oceans by Jeff Goodell.
I met him last week at an event,
and he, we just had a
fantastic conversation, yeah.
- Awesome.
For those who are watching along,
what would you tell them?
To where should they look
for more information?
Anything you'd want to share.
- I think that the best
thing for founders is to talk
to other founders because
if you just read the hype
in the media, you'll find companies
that just raised 40 million.
And you know, those success stories
that are just touted in
the media all the time.
The grim, hard reality is,
creating a company is hard work
and it's a grind.
And if you go talk to other founders,
it reminds you of that.
And you get a lot of,
all founders will happily help you
with information and tips
and how they got through,
and what they did,
and how they did their funding rounds.
So I would suggest, get
yourself as networked
as you can with other founders.
- [Narrator] Have you
seen a company using AI,
machine learning, or other technology
to transform the way we
live, work, and do business?
Go to uptechreport.com and let us know.
(cheerful music)
