Managing Multiple

Assets from One

Platform
Whitepaper
2 Resource Data Management — Managing Multiple Assets from One Platform

Contents
Executive Summary 2

Why Monitor HVACR Assets? 3

Simplifying Asset Management 4

Remote Monitoring 5

The Benefits of Remote Monitoring 6

RDM Solution : ActiveFMTM 7

Case-Study 8

Sources 9

Executive Summary
Most industry verticals, such as manufacturing, retail, commercial, hospitality
and the public sector, can have thousands of HVACR assets across multiple
locations. These assets typically have both a high value and level of
responsibility to operations. Ensuring these assets run, not just effectively,
but to optimal output, can, therefore, be a time-consuming and costly task.
HVACR infrastructure that is operating inefficiently can cause downtime
and disruption. Furthermore, unplanned maintenance can be a distraction,
increasing labour costs, adding complexity to operational logistics.

What if you could manage all of your assets in one central location, and
within one single platform?

What if this platform could transform your data into an easy-to-digest

format, optimising performance and predicting failures?

This whitepaper provides:

• An introduction to Remote Monitoring: what is it and why do we need it?

• An explanation of specific functions and features and how these benefit the
HVACR industry.

• A case-study to show the benefits as found within a real-life example.


Why monitor HVACR Assets?
In today’s modern world, it
is easier than ever before for
organisations to expand, reach
new audiences, boost sales and
heighten productivity.
Expansion brings the additional
complication of managing and maintaining
multiple offices and Heating, Ventilating,
Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration (HVACR)
plant locations. The biggest risk for any
facility manager or individual responsible
for these assets, is to fail to protect them
with a monitoring solution that facilitates
the effective analysis of operating data.
Vital in ensuring their health whilst
identifying any issues that may surface.
A comprehensive Remote Monitoring
strategy takes this a step further and is
helping the fastest growing businesses
reduce operating costs to thrive and grow,
providing insight that gives them the ability
to identify not just issues, but opportunities
for improvement.
In 2017, the manufacture of food products
experienced a substantial increase in sales
growing 7% to reach a value of £4.6 billion(1).
Comparatively the monthly growth rate
in the quantity of food products bought
in non-food stores also experienced a
surge, increasing by 2.8%. With further
growth of 1.5% between 2017 and 2018 (2).
Manufacturer sales also increased, with the
sale of motor vehicles growing by 5.2% to
£2.8 billion, machinery and equipment by
9.7% to £2.3 billion and chemicals by 10.7%
to £2.2 billion(1). Not forgetting the services
sector, which also expanded by 0.6% in
2018 according to the Office for National
Statistics. Overall, UK GDP growth is looking
likely to meet its 0.4% predicted rise (3).
This growth demands that businesses
ensure that HVACR infrastructure is
operating to optimal efficiency, and that
their environmental impact is kept to a
minimum.
Dependent upon the use of the building
the number of HVACR devices being
controlled can vary dramatically.
www.resourcedm.com | hello@resourcedm.com 3
For example, a typical large format
supermarket could have a front-end
control solution connecting to 80
controllers, with each connecting to a
further 20 points. These points could
monitor and control a range of vital
business areas, including gas, water,
electricity, temperature and lighting.
Regardless of building use or the number
of devices, monitoring assets, spread across
multiple locations, and ensuring they are
functioning, let alone optimally, can be
challenging.
For instance, some challenges include:
• Which work is each asset doing?
• Are they under or over-utilised?
• What is their lifetime value?
• When will they need replaced?
• How will a member of staff know if
there is a problem?
• How can problems be foreseen and
prevented?
Without the capability to manage assets
remotely, these challenges will continue to
be mishandled. This mismanagement can
be time-consuming and costly. Add to this
the findings from Marshall Institute, which
suggest that 60% of the costs associated
with maintenance tasks are unnecessary
and preventable (4) and there is an
imminent need for a streamlined approach
to managing assets.
But is simple monitoring and
management of assets an option? >
 4 Resource Data Management — Managing Multiple Assets from One Platform

How IoT Simplifies Asset Management

The Internet of Things offers a solution to
this common problem. Also known as IoT,
The Internet of
the Internet of Things is broadly defined by
the Global Standards Initiative and Harvard
Things brings
Business Review as “the internetworking
and intelligence-enabling of the physical
a wealth of
devices which provide function in our
everyday lives.” (5) In 2008, the number of
opportunity for
connected devices was double the global
population. In 2020, the number of IoT
the management
devices is set to reach 50 billion(6).
of physical assets
Mobile Experts predict IoT devices to soon in a much simpler
manner
become commonplace worldwide:

• Roughly 10 million IoT devices are

predicted to be deployed in China No longer will companies use handwritten
notes or manually coordinate Excel
• Most hospitals are predicted to use sheets, which are time-consuming and
Wi-Fi to track organs in the near future often inclusive of human error. Instead,
• LoRa devices will soon be found with interconnected, intelligent devices,
managers in a range of industries can
on pallets, trucks and forklifts(7)
monitor and coordinate their assets much
more effectively.
More specifically, in a survey of 600
Device connectivity ensures managers
decision-makers in the manufacturing
can monitor multiple devices remotely;
industry, 97% suggested IoT will have the
sensors can determine asset performance
most significant impact on the industry
and trigger alarms; cameras can ensure
in upcoming years (8). Forrester and SAP
assets are protected, and data analytics can
further reported that, within sectors such
perform the role of predictive maintenance.
as manufacturing, construction, energy
Managing your HVACR assets, and
(utilities, oil and gas) and aerospace, 66%
ensuring that they provide their anticipated
of respondents stated they have already
return on investment, has never been so
implemented or plan to soon deploy
simple.
IoT technologies for asset management
purposes (9). This justifies the report by
Mobile Experts, which predicts the IoT
device market for asset tracking to triple
by 2022 (7).

* Device market growth

2018 2019 2020 2021 2022

 www.resourcedm.com | hello@resourcedm.com 5

Why Do We Need Remote Monitoring?

As mentioned previously, in a survey of Implementing software for the
facility and plant managers, 74% said they management of assets can deliver:
wanted simpler tracking and management
of HVACR assets (10). No longer do they want
to be chasing costly maintenance faults reduction in
and breakdowns, or to be spending their operation &
time physically visiting each asset to assess maintenance
its current health. What’s more, they no costs
longer want to allocate numerous hours
manually consolidating data to analyse
asset performance to identify potential
opportunities for improvement.
There is an urgent need for software
which can perform all of these tasks in
one location, within one platform, and 15% reduction in
turn complex data into an easy-to-digest working capital
format.
This is the remit of remote monitoring
software. By consolidating maintenance,
energy and alarm management into a
single dashboard, remote monitoring
software can streamline processes and
remove the need for time-consuming
manual tracking and monitoring. Instead, 15% reduction in
data is collected and analysed remotely, insurance costs
with potential operational issues identified
and addressed automatically. *Forbes(11)

With Remote Monitoring, you will facilitate the automatic streamlining

can be proactive rather than
reactive.
Through pre-set workflows and intelligently
connected devices, your equipment can
look after itself – minimising costs and
labour requirement. Think streamlined
energy efficiency, simplified reporting and
automated management of equipment.
Complete transparency of your
operations.
With daily reports of facility-wide energy
consumption and asset performance,
managers can quickly and clearly see
any areas of concern. Whilst workflows
of building controls; these reports will
allow managers to identify where existing
equipment is struggling and should
perhaps be replaced. It will also flag
upcoming asset decline, allowing measures
to be put in place to prevent system
failures.
All in one place.
The IoT has facilitated greater connectivity
and flexibility. With remote monitoring,
the dashboard can be accessed through
portable devices, including mobiles, laptops
and tablets. Providing all of the information
you need, whenever and wherever you
need it.
 6 Resource Data Management — Managing Multiple Assets from One Platform
Remote Monitoring for HVACR
A robust control solution will capture
HVACR asset operating data, transferring
it to a control system front-end. Event
data can then be transferred via the cloud
to remote monitoring software. With a
remote monitoring system’s ability to
analyse and interpret this asset operating
data, businesses in the HVACR industry will
benefit from streamlined alarm filtering,
energy management and predictive
maintenance.
Forbes predicts that 60–70% of all software,
services and technology spending will be
cloud-based by 2020 (11)
Alarms Filtering
Manually filtering, handling and
investigating alarms would be costly,
time-consuming and need a vast team to
facilitate. With remote monitoring software,
data can be mined by management
dashboard tools using pre-defined reports
with filters for site, event type, date and
time. This allows the software to identify the
urgency of alarms – determining whether
they can be rectified automatically or
require human intervention. For events
that do require human intervention,
the software interface allows the service
department of the end-user or third-party
to quickly and easily view and implement
corrective action in real time.
Take the example of temperature variance.
Any changes under a certain threshold will
be rectified automatically. However, more
extreme changes in variation outwith pre-
set ranges, will notify the store manager
as it may indicate faulty equipment which
violates industry regulation.
Energy Management
46% of business energy is consumed
outside of 8am-6pm – highlighting a need
for stricter energy controls (12).
Through complete visibility of operational
data, energy trends can be analysed, and
measures implemented to streamline
performance. Spikes in consumption can
be brought to the attention of specified
individuals, and alarms set to dictate
whether or not to implement corrective
measures automatically. If alarms dictate
the use of human intervention, there
is the ability to control assets remotely.
Here, staff members can tweak controls
themselves upon the recommendations
of the monitoring tool. This contributes to
a significant reduction in operating costs,
energy consumption and carbon footprint.
Predicitive Maintenance
On average, plants waste up to 40% of
their capacity through stops, speed losses,
interruptions and defects (13).
Data handling allows for the easy
identification of opportunities for system
improvement. Energy baselines can be
generated, which, when benchmarked,
can predict potential failures that cause
costly disruptions to business operations.
This analysis also ensures that facilities are
running at optimum levels, that assets are
protected, and that systems are operating
efficiently. Again, this cuts costs associated
with downtime and energy inefficiency,
but it also reduces the burdens linked
to response time, labour, data analysis,
perishable stock, and even food loss.
 www.resourcedm.com | hello@resourcedm.com 7

RDM Solution: ActiveFMTM

ActiveFM™ is Resource Data Management’s
award-winning enterprise remote monitoring
and energy management software solution.
Offering complete visibility of HVACR assets,
ActiveFM™ incorporates IoT connectivity to report
on the health and performance of infrastructure
whenever and wherever you need it. The user-
friendly interface manipulates complex operating
data from HVACR infrastructure and presents it in
an easy-to-digest, interactive format.

Uniquely Developed from Similarly, in the unlikely event that the

Hands-On Experience
With over 30 years of remote monitoring
experience before the IoT, we believe that
we know a thing or two about system
reliability and weak points.
One lesson we have learned from our
many years operating in the industry is
that streaming all data off-site via the cloud
with no on-premises option is risky. There
is a high chance of data loss if the network
from a site to the cloud fails, which can
happen for many reasons.
Built-in Back-Up
The RDM solution is to distribute some of
the intelligent data processing and mirror
storing of data on-site to a DMTouch, our
market-leading control system front-end.
Providing elected staff, contractors and
engineers with the ability to manage and
resolve HVACR control system issues on
site.
While there is full connectivity via the
internet, the ActiveFM™ system in the
RDM cloud and the DMTouch work hand in
hand. However, should connection be lost,
the DMTouch will continue to capture and
store data, uploading it to the cloud when
the connection is restored – resulting in no
gaps in intel. No downtime, and no data
unaccounted for.
DMTouch should fail, the RDM cloud stores
a full system back up- making it quick
and easy to replace, reprogram and get
back online. This approach also allows
DMTouch to number crunch and process
data using algorithms locally, placing less
stress on the network, streaming data to
off-site processing servers. The combination
of distributed and central cloud-based
processing makes for a much more reliable
and faster solution.
Created by Us, Especially for You
Fully customisable, each ActiveFM™
solution is designed to give customers
the tools and flexibility they need for their
unique requirement. With no two solutions
the same, our remote monitoring software
is customisable, with additional plug-ins
available depending on your individual
situation, such as Temperature Data
Retention, Dial-in Access and Live Maps.
These other features are available to make
it even quicker, more accessible and more
straightforward to effectively manage
assets and energy consumption.
ActiveFMTM in action >
 8 Resource Data Management — Managing Multiple Assets from One Platform

Case-Study
RDM Partnership with Marks & Spencer
Research was conducted to establish
what M&S, alongside other major retailers,
wanted from a control system.
Polling showed they had the following
requirements:
• An open communications protocol
non-proprietary.
• Future-proof solutions.
• A browser-based communication
interface which is easy to adopt and
understand with no recurring
maintenance/license fees.
applied right down to the device level
and would work with existing network
infrastructure from specialist data
contractors. This open-protocol system was
applied in an M&S store to become the first
IP retail control installation in the world.
Now, Every M&S store has at least one Data
Manager
A typical store refrigeration system has
over 17,000 data points and at least 8000
of these change continuously.

• Support for existing and legacy control

equipment.

• Ownership of data that can be

transferred anywhere on request The Data Manager has the ability to store
these changes every 15 seconds – so that’s
In return, RDM created an IP (internet 1,920,000 recordings per hour for each
protocol) communications system that store.

ActiveFM™ was deployed to give estate-

2.16 million: refrigeration
wide data capture from these improved
site communications. Its Enterprise-wide alarm events processed.
performance comparisons aid design
initiatives and resolve previously unseen
377,500: hours of staff
failure conditions before they occur.
With continuous remote improvement labour saved.
of energy, service and operational
efficiencies, it frees up service staff,
saving labour time and costs. It enables
1.51 million: Incidents
the technician to attend to other calls, handled remotely.
which in turn results in stores resuming
trading quicker, while its performance-
£2.96 million: saved in
based maintenance replaces outdated £
calendar-based schedules. labour costs in one year.
* 12 month period

RDM have provided award-winning remote monitoring software to the world’s

leading companies for 18 years
 www.resourcedm.com | hello@resourcedm.com 9

Sources
1. UK manufacturers’ sales by product: 2017 provisional results, Office for National Statistics,
https://www.ons.gov.uk/businessindustryandtrade/manufacturingandproductionindustry/
bulletins/ukmanufacturerssalesbyproductprodcom/2017provisionalresults

2. Retail sales, Great Britain: August 2018, Office for National Statistics,
https://www.ons.gov.uk/businessindustryandtrade/retailindustry/bulletins/retailsales/august2018

3. GDP monthly estimate, UK: July 2018, Office for National Statistics,
https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/grossdomesticproductgdp/bulletins/gdpmonthlyestimateuk/
july2018

4. The importance of physical asset management, Energy Services Marshall Institute,

https://www.bicmagazine.com/departments/testing-training-hr-subsection/february-2018-the-
importance-of-physical-asset-management/

5. INTERNET OF THINGS: SCIENCE FICTION OR BUSINESS FACT?, Harvard Business Review,

https://hbr.org/resources/pdfs/comm/verizon/18980_HBR_Verizon_IoT_Nov_14.pdf

6. MARKET PULSE REPORT, INTERNET OF THINGS (IoT),

https://growthenabler. com/flipbook/pdf/IOT%20Report.pdf

7. Asset Tracking IoT Device Market to Triple by 2022, Mobile Experts,

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/asset-tracking-iot-device-market-to-triple-
by-2022-300498147.html

8. Asset Management to Be a Key in ‘Internet of Things’ Manufacturing Deployments,

https://www.genesissolutions.com/Knowledge-Center/Insights/Asset-Management-to-Be-a-
Key-in-Internet-of-Things-Manufacturing-Deployments/

9. Governments Spot The Potential For Industrial IoT, Forrester and SAS
https://www.forrester.com/report/Governments+Spot+The+Potential+For+Industrial+IoT/-/E-
RES137265

10. 20 CMMS STATISTICS FROM 2015, Hippo CMMS,

http://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/1616151/20_CMMS_Statistics_2015_Infographic.pdf

11. Roundup Of Cloud Computing Forecasts, 2017, Forbes,

https://www.forbes.com/sites/louiscolumbus/2017/04/29/roundup-of-cloud-computing-
forecasts-2017/#a6e50d631e87

12. Business Energy Statistics, Finder UK,

https://www.finder.com/uk/business-energy-statistics

13. The real cost of unreliable equipment — it’s significant, Matthews Intelligent Identification,
https://blog.matthews.com.au/real-cost-unreliable-equipment/

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While every effort is made to ensure the information given within this whitepaper
is accurate, Resource Data Management Ltd does not accept any liability for any
errors or mistakes which may arise as a result of using the information within.

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