Intelligent Buildings

AI updates weekly. Cyber threats evolve daily. Yet most commercial buildings still run on spreadsheets, siloed teams, and 30-year capital plans. The smart building operating model, as it exists today, is not keeping up, and the consequences are becoming harder to ignore. In Episode 47 of our podcast Sh*t You Wish Your Building Did, Rick […]

In this Research Note, we examine Beckhoff, a German family-owned industrial automation business, their 2025 financial highlights, 2026 outlook and a recent building automation deployment. This article updates our previous coverage of the company in May 2025. Beckhoff Automation Profile Founded in 1980, Beckhoff Automation GmbH & Co. KG has 5,450 employees worldwide (March 2025), […]

Every year, the commercial real estate industry pours more money into connected building technology, and every year a stubborn gap persists between the ROI promised in the vendor deck and the ROI that actually shows up in net operating income (NOI). The reflex is to blame the tech: the wrong platform, the wrong integrator, the […]

This Research Note examines the Estonian firm, Bisly, the 2026 winner of the ABB Smart Buildings Startup Challenge. This article updates our coverage of the startup in June 2024, with new data on deployments, revenue growth, latest funding and market presence. ABB 2026 Smart Buildings Startup Challenge In its seventh year, the ABB 2026 Startup […]

Why do so many asset managers keep building technology at arm’s length? That was the central question in this episode, and the answer turns out to be less about the technology itself and more about language, incentives, and mindset. We sat down with Lachlan Macquarrie, a former asset manager, educator of asset managers, and someone […]

What happens to your smart building ROI when there is no risk management? CRE portfolios are getting more connected, but governance isn’t keeping up. Cybersecurity gaps, unclear ownership, and missing operating models are quietly killing the returns that justified the investment in the first place. In this podcast episode, we were joined by Cecilia A. […]

In this episode of Sh*t You Wish Your Building Did, we sat down with Jay Scholten, Principal Consultant at JRS Innovative Real Estate LLC (Former VP – Asset Management Product Owner at PGIM Real Estate), and Rob Murchison, CEO of Intelligent Buildings LLC, to explore an angle on smart building ROI that most operators are […]

In our latest podcast episode, we explored 5 smart buildings trends with co-host Rob Murchison that have reshaped how we operate and think about commercial buildings in 2025. From the changing role of property managers to new ways of measuring building performance, to the growing role of IT managed service providers. Whether you’re a property […]