Siemens Building Technologies benefits from megatrends - growth in solutions for security and energy efficiency

On the world market for building services the Siemens Building Technologies Group is benefiting from global trends in society and business by differentiating its offering and staying in close touch with customers. Its competitive advantage lies in its high standard of technical expertise and rapid innovation in technology and the product portfolio.

The global market for building services supplied by Siemens Building Technologies (SBT) will total almost 90 billion euros in 2007. It comprises building automation, fire protection and electronic security solutions. This combination controls climate and comfort in buildings and improves energy efficiency. Fire protection ranges from deception-immune detection through extinguishing to evacuation, and security is ensured by solutions featuring CCTV surveillance, access control and intrusion protection with appropriate security control centers.
With a broad product portfolio and an organization in close touch with customers worldwide through more than 400 branch offices in 50 countries, the company is ideally equipped to maintain its position of leadership and continue to benefit from market growth, as CEO Dr Heinrich Hiesinger explained to some 70 journalists from 12 European countries at an international trade press forum held at the headquarters of Siemens Building Technologies in Zug, Switzerland.

Growth driven by global trends
Market trends reflect significant developments in globalized society and business. Demographic changes and increasing urbanization with the emergence of new mega-cities and conurbations call for prudent management of dwindling resources - including energy - and improved environmental protection. SBT's wide range of services and solutions for lowering energy consumption and at the same time reducing greenhouse gases help customers not only to achieve lower energy costs, but also to behave in an environmentally friendly manner. SBT has enabled customers to achieve energy cost savings of about one billion euros to date, with the Siemens solution for 60 federal government buildings in Austria alone resulting in a 75 000 tonne reduction in CO2 emissions.

Growing need for security
The growing need for security is also obvious. In 2007 some 55 billion euros will be invested in electronic security solutions alone. In the 2005 fiscal year SBT recorded a 23% increase in new orders. For example, by entering the Container Security sector SBT is establishing a strong position in the protection of entire logistics chains in this business segment. Another focus area is security in stadiums during major events. In cooperation with other Siemens operating groups, SBT can implement the Fully Integrated Stadium concept; this is a fully integrated solution featuring systems for centralized building management, fire protection, integrated security, sound and image reproduction, radio broadcasting, large-format visual display, timing, recording and analyzing results, and mobile radio telephone communications.
The latest project of this kind is the Olympic swimming stadium in Peking.

Companies aspiring to maintain their position in the face of increasingly keen competition have to improve continuously, by rapidly adjusting to new customer requirements and through innovative structuring of the product offering, Dr Hiesinger emphasized. The focus here is on a thorough understanding of the customer's business processes. SBT derives sector-specific solutions from this, for example for the pharmaceutical industry, where the validation process in compliance with official regulations has high priority, since new drugs involve huge investments.

Rapid innovation is crucial
Dr Johannes Milde, the member of the SBT Group Executive Board responsible for research and development, explained the importance of combining expertise and innovation. Innovation cycles are also becoming ever shorter in the building services sector. It has already become very difficult for suppliers to differentiate their offering in the field of conventional systems engineering. Mass-produced plug-and-play products and open systems enable specialized, local installation contractors to assemble even relatively sophisticated systems at low cost. According to Dr Milde, this presents opportunities for SBT. The company is well equipped to serve this market with a wider range of innovative products of high quality and the appropriate distribution channels. The market for home automation, which provides greater comfort and security in private homes, is also growing in importance in this segment. Its special feature is the convenience offered to users by remote operation of system controls via PC and mobile telephone.

In the solutions business, integrated systems in a multidisciplinary systems environment and Total Building Solutions are increasingly in demand. SBT has full command of the joint tool environments, joint operating run-time platforms and joint communications that are necessary for this, combined with the web-based operation of the systems and accessing of services at all levels. This results in lower capital and life-cycle costs for customers. A further decisive factor for maintaining high competitiveness is the global networking of research and development with manufacturing, in close touch with the market, such as that established by SBT in the past two years.

Eight research and development experts provided a more in-depth picture of state-of-the-art building services with lectures, discussions, guided tours of laboratories and demonstrations of extinguishing processes.

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