This Research Note examines what’s behind the bolt-on acquisition of Nuvolo, the workplace management software company announced this week by Trane Technologies, the US HVAC equipment firm. Trane is considered to be a competitive second-tier supplier in the world building controls market, behind Siemens, Honeywell, Johnson Controls and Schneider Electric. In a move which emulates that of the company’s building controls peers, the firm has acquired Nuvolo, a US provider of integrated workplace management systems (IWMS). With software becoming a significant differentiator in the building and workplace management sector, Trane has followed the path of its major competitors who have been actively augmenting their hardware business with software acquisitions and investments. For example, Johnson Controls acquired FM:Systems in July this year, Siemens Smart Infrastructure acquired Brightly Software in June 2022 and Schneider Electric completed a strategic minority investment in Planon in December 2020. By combining Nuvolo’s integrated workplace management and enterprise asset workflow software with […]