Managing a building for minimum energy use isn't just a matter of checking room temperatures every hour or so. It requires constant monitoring of literally dozens of parameters, including both room temperatures and energy use by each air conditioning unit, heating unit, fan and equipment aisle in the computer room.
Identifying and reacting to problems quickly has become business critical—and a reflection of good management practices.
Consider the challenge facing owners of a large commercial building complex. The building management staff was manually monitoring heating and air conditioning units, computer room temperatures, and equipment current consumption. Consequently, it typically took days to detect and resolve problems while employees continued to complain about offices that were too cold or too hot. The result: dissatisfied employees, wasted energy, and inefficient use of staff time.
Sidebar: Cross-Industry Functionality for Improved Efficiency
Visualization tools are suitable across a variety of industries and functional areas such as:
Project Management. ILOG Visualization software streamlines project management and integrates with corporate data, a capability that existing project-scheduling software does not generally support. It provides components to display and manipulate Gantt charts. A project scheduler using those components may be integrated with a corporate ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) solution to improve coordination between projects and required resources.
Shipping and Distribution. ILOG Visualization software can provide an easy to understand interface to an application that enhances shipping/distribution efficiency and minimizes delivery delays. For example, a trucking company can develop a map display supported by business logic that interfaces with software that reports GPS location data reported from delivery trucks. The application can combine location data with a source of real-time traffic delay information. Symbols representing trucks move across the display and change color depending on whether the truck is moving or stuck in traffic. Managers monitor status in real time and, viewing traffic on other routes, provide drivers with alternate routes.
Telecommunications. IBM ILOG Elixir Enterprise incorporates interactive display controls and symbols specific to telecom requirements. For instance, a network management application can use these controls and symbols to develop a customized display that integrates with customer data and help desk support. Business logic then accesses customer data to determine which customers are impacted by an outage, informing the support desk. This capability can help improve customer service because support staff has access to up-to-date, accurate information when customers report service disruption.
Defense. To meet specific defense requirements, there is also a specialized Java package that includes military map data formats for aeronautical and marine data, as well as standard military symbol sets including NATO APP6a/MIL STD-2525B for representing tactical assets. Terrain analysis features are included for line-of-sight calculations. Developers can create custom command-and-control applications with high-performance 2-D and 3-D maps. |
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The Solution
DGLogik, an IBM Business Partner based in San Francisco, helped its customer more efficiently monitor the entire range of parameters that effective building management requires. Using IBM ILOG Elixir Enterprise visualization software, DGLogik created an interactive visual display that graphically displays temperatures, air flow rates and electricity usage using charts, graphs, dashboards, and floor plans in an integrated management console. The display greatly simplifies the task of spotting problems and quickly discovering their source.
The interactive visual display allows users to:
- get an overall view of environmental status;
- identify out-of-range conditions and updates the display in real time, using business logic and analytics
- flexibly allows management staff members to select and view a subset of parameters
- enables drill down on any single element to view additional data.
The DGLogik solution enables individual staff members to configure the software for their needs without requiring software modification. While the solution was delivered as a set or preconfigured templates, building staff can flexibly reconfigure gauges and indicators, changing colors, changing scales and completely customizing the way that gauges are represented. Additionally, charts, graphs and dashboards simplify many tasks that require identifying critical information buried within a large volume of data.
Cloud-Based Solution Adds Additional Flexibility
The business logic and data supporting the IBM ILOG Elixir Enterprise application can reside on a local or cloud-based server. DGLogik chose a cloud-based solution. The ability of the cloud to add CPU and storage resources as needed meant that DGLogik's customer could easily support additional building complexes. A cloud configuration also enabled DGLogik to offer the solution on a software as a service (SaaS) basis.
The result: Streamlined building management, with immediate savings, greater flexibility—and better, and more timely access to critical business data.
"We chose IBM ILOG Elixir Enterprise, not only to speed development, but also because it provided us with functionality that we needed to build highly flexible and customizable products such as DGLux and Prophet", says Eugene Mazo CEO, DGLogik, Inc. "Support for cloud computing is built into our products and IBM ILOG Elixir fits very nicely into that model. We have been very pleased with our decision."
IBM ILOG Elixir Enterprise Software: Key Benefits
IBM ILOG Elixir Enterprise visualization software offers these key benefits:
- Reduces application software development time by at least 50 percent. By adding a set of user interface controls to Adobe® Flex® and Adobe AIR™, IBM ILOG Elixir Enterprise speeds development of a wide variety of interactive graphical displays.
- Addresses the specific needs of ISVs, OEMs, and system integrators who require multiple types of advanced graphical displays. IBM ILOG Elixir Enterprise software packages include components to build a variety of display types. ILOG Visualization software products span other technologies such as Java and .NET.
- IBM ILOG Elixir Enterprise integrates seamlessly with Adobe Flash Builder 4 integrated development environment (IDE). Both fully support the Adobe Flex 4 SDK and the Flex user interaction effects. By integrating with the Adobe Flash platform they maintain compatibility with virtually all browsers and computing environments as mobile devices.
- Scales to handle large data sets, which meets the needs of enterprise-level applications.
- Incorporates tools to create a wide variety of chart types including many styles of 3D charts, radar charts, tree maps, pivot tables, timelines, calendars, dials and gauges. It extends Adobe's built in capabilities and includes an analysis display for detecting trends and outliers in large data sets.
- Layout algorithms can automatically rearrange diagram elements on organization or process flow diagrams, schematics, or network diagrams. User interface controls enable users to move elements and modify or add links among elements for greater flexibility.
- Developers can customize and extend components to provide specific business appearance and functionality.
Increasingly, enterprises and third-party providers are looking for versatile software solutions to achieve greater efficiency today, while planning for future business requirements. Visualization tools such as the IBM ILOG Elixir software suite address these needs, enabling businesses to better serve their customers and reduce unnecessary overhead costs.
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