SAP and Honeywell Launch FREO, A New Connected Building Solution

The News: Honeywell (Nasdaq: HON) and SAP announced today the launch of a cloud-based solution based on Honeywell Forge enterprise performance management software and SAP Cloud Platform that streamlines and combines operational and business data for building owners and managers to support better decision-making, drive greater efficiencies and reach sustainability goals. Read the full news release from Honeywell.

Analyst Take: Honeywell continues to shift its identity towards tech, and this new partnership with SAP furthers these ambitions.

About a year ago, the two companies came together to announce its plans to work together. Today, the two companies are announcing a new service, FREO (Forge Real Estate Operations), a cloud-based SaaS offering that will provide customers increased visibility into building performance by streamlining the integration of IT and OT data from SAP and Honeywell respectively.

Real-World Example of IT and OT Meeting a Vertical Use Case

What immediately caught my attention about the new offering was the work that went into streamlining the complexity of leveraging the vast data required for real estate management. This effort allows the joint offering to deliver a fast to integrate service that can be implemented in a matter of weeks through APIs developed for SAP’s Cloud Platform and Honeywell’s Forge enterprise performance management software.

The two companies also strategically partnered with two hand-picked global integrators to enable implementations with older SAP implementations that haven’t yet migrated to the cloud. This capability was particularly important based upon the current migration status of many SAP users.

In short, the solution can aggregate real estate data and building data to improve real estate performance. More specifically, incorporating financial, employee, and real estate data that lives within SAP and combining with the data provided through Honeywell’s building solutions that takes IoT sensor data and building management insights.

Furthermore, FREO meets the growing vertical cloud approach being implemented across tech. It addresses the needs of real estate portfolio owners, operators, and managers–delivering data visualization in an easy-to-digest scorecard.

FREO is Designed to Solve Six Major Challenges for Real Estate Management and Portfolio Holders

According to the Honeywell release, Forge Real Estate Operations is designed to help with the following challenges in Real Estate Portfolio Operations and Management.

• Operational readiness. Rapid visibility of information about the availability of critical assets, the number of open services cases and corresponding capital and operational costs.
• Occupant safety. Users can gain visibility into the compliance of safety practices, including indoor air quality and capacity limits.
• Sustainability. The solution provides real-time visibility into energy consumption metrics to help companies track their sustainability goals.
• Financial intelligence. Combined OT and IT data provides users with a comprehensive picture of the overall financial health of their entire building portfolio. Providing on-demand insights into underperforming locations and detect financial trends. The solution also closely monitors the financial impact of operational investments.
• Occupant experience. FREO enables building managers to maintain a comfortable environment for occupants.
• Occupant utilization. Honeywell Forge Real Estate Operations helps visualize building utilization, including its impact on the operational and financial performance of buildings.

Overall Impressions of SAP + Honeywell FREO Launch

I believe this launch is important for three reasons. 

First, the continued partnerships being announced by Honeywell with companies like SAP and Microsoft reflect the company’s understanding of ecosystem and the importance of aligning with IT to cement its role as a technology company. 

Second, vertical-focused solutions, especially for cloud, are in vogue right now. SaaS-based offerings that are fast to integrate and address specific market needs are gaining momentum. This solution has a clear market and should make the go-to-market and sales process clear, and measuring success should be achievable on a short timetable. The sales expansion rate and uptake will be an area that we will be closely monitoring. 

Finally, the solution has the makings of a well-designed partner-driven offering. The manufacturing-focused IT/OT integrations have been well documented, but seeing other verticals addressed through a partnership like this is attractive for end-users looking to converge data to improve business performance. 

Futurum Research provides industry research and analysis. These columns are for educational purposes only and should not be considered in any way investment advice.

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Image: SAP

The original version of this article was first published on Futurum Research.