Viral Load Management: How IoT Helps Building Managers Plan for Life Post-COVID
26 November 2020
Post-COVID, building managers need increasing dexterity to keep staff safe while minimising overheads. Which is why many firms are accelerating technology deployments. CODA’s CEO, Dan Shields, outlines how business internet of things (BIoT) technology is literally taking care of business.
Post-COVID, business planning is quite literally out of the window. It’s extremely challenging to predict building occupancy rates, or whether offices will be occupied at all over the coming months.
Many organisations are operating with a fraction of pre-COVID staffing levels on site, per government guidance correct as of last week. (w/c 21September2020).
For those firms with staff on-site, managing occupancy rates to comply with social distancing rules, alongside air quality management, has become mission-critical.
The Chartered Institute of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) has published a series of documents designed to help building managers navigate the post-COVID landscape.
Within that excellent series, air quality is front and centre to ensure buildings, processes and operations are COVID-secure – for today, and for whatever tomorrow brings.
Digital Transformation
If there is any upside from the pandemic, it is the acceleration of digitisation. Companies have been forced to execute digital transformation programmes – from remote working to e-commerce and digital fulfilment. Companies can no longer afford to be inefficient.
The internet of things for business, or BIoT, is a core component of that transformation. Companies now have much greater impetus to ensure building management and monitoring systems comply with a post-COVID age – particularly when it comes to air quality.
Sensors that measure carbon dioxide, humidity, temperature are already commonplace. In response to COVID, technology providers are now bringing to market sensors that, they claim, can accurately measure infectious diseases in the air.
Connecting all of these data collectors together via BIoT systems means businesses can prove they are compliant with best practices and have done their utmost to keep staff safe - while making life easier for building managers and maintenance teams.
But BIoT solutions don’t just stop there.
COVID-Secure via Social Media
Digital interfaces and apps are ushering in a world where those about to enter a building can quickly gain access to its performance data. That will soon lead to anybody with a mobile phone being able to immediately validate whether a building is COVID-secure.
That could be an employee making sure it is safe to return to work, a visiting or prospective client, or anybody passing by.
Predicting the immediate future is anyone’s guess. But those that can validate internal air quality (IAQ) against CIBSE COVID-secure guidelines can hedge their bets and their corporate reputation while giving staff the confidence to return to safe secure workplaces.
Your physical business is our digital business.
Our CODA business IoT system, interfaces and apps give building managers all the tools they need to keep employees safe - as and when they return to work. It also cuts energy costs on average by 30%, while streamlining maintenance, site management and carbon reporting.
For more information or to find out how the team at CODA can help you, please call us on +44 (0)345 241 2889 or email info@codacloud.io.