See how two industry leaders combined their strengths to create a lucrative innovation catalyst for clients

CBRE invites you to discover the CBRE JCI Building Innovation Lab (BIL) – the next evolution in Johnson Controls and CBRE’s joint commitment to leverage innovation to solve clients’ unmet needs and anticipate future challenges in the buildings industry. The BIL will deliver service-level innovation through shovel-ready programmatic solutions that improve quality, speed, and risk. This interview with Johnson Controls’ Kyle Shamrock who co-manage the BIL with CBRE’s Scott Reppert, will help you understand the differentiated value that it delivers to clients around the world.

It all started in 2016 with CBRE's acquisition of the Facilities Management subsidiary of Johnson Controls (JCI). Following the acquisition, JCI and CBRE saw an opportunity to combine their complementary strengths to deliver unparalleled solutions to clients around the world. One of the many ways these two organizations accomplish this is through the BIL, which focuses on providing innovative solutions to improve client workplaces and reduce operation costs.

"The stronger the confidence, the deeper the innovation"

Every program or project begins with an idea submitted by a CBRE employee or client. Next, the CBRE and JCI teams help clients identify pain points through interviews and workshops. A committee evaluates and challenges submissions to refine projects the BIL will work on: they must generate cost savings, improve service quality, increase efficiency, or reduce risk – and they must have a sustainable business case. Multinational banks, technology firms, pharmaceutical companies and local authorities have already participated in the BIL in this submission process.

"Leverage innovation to create differentiation"

The BIL’s primary focus is to leverage existing technology to create new solutions rather than developing new technology. This approach will result in in faster delivery and heightened value to more JCI and CBRE clients
For every project selected, the process is led by an assigned working team, operating in a ‘fail fast’ agile method, critical in case of new world solutions. That means laying out benchmarks backed by assumptions that are validated throughout the process. If assumptions are proven correct, then the project advances to the next benchmark until the project is complete. Throughout the process CBRE, JCI, and the client are all engaged and their commitment is the key success factor.
The solution is then tested for 6 to 9 months in a live a pilot. Preferably, this testing is implemented at a client location or a CBRE or JCI building. Data collected during the test phase is critical to evaluate the viability of launching a product.

"Optimization of a pharmaceutical laboratory"

Over the last two years, the BIL has consistently delivered differentiated value and innovation to clients around the world. One of its innovative products was created with pharmaceutical companies in mind. Laboratories are a major investment with high value equipment and high maintenance costs. One major pharmaceutical company wanted to improve the operations of one of its laboratories: to understand the right level of equipment, position them in the most efficient way, and reduce maintenance costs. The BIL developed an IoT solution, and deployed it throughout the laboratory. All the data gathered was brought together into a single visualization tool developed for this purpose. Their analysis resulted in a series of recommendations both in terms of equipment level and of organization of the space. This will allow the client to increase productivity, improve space and asset utilization, reduce capital and operating expense, and finally resolve critical events like sample contamination. The solution developed is already being discussed with other pharmaceutical firms.



"Collection, organization, and analysis of data are major trends"

The BIL is agnostic technology-wise. However, the Internet of Things (IoT), big data, and artificial intelligence are major trends and central to developing solutions. One thing is for sure: it all starts in smart buildings with occupiers’ experience. Stay tuned for further developments.