The U.S. Air Force has signed up to use IBM’s TRIRIGA Smarter Buildings software to maximize energy efficiency and cut costs of maintaining USAF facilities around the world.
LAS
VEGAS IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced
that the U.S. Air Force has selected IBM smarter buildings software to help its
civil engineers maximize energy efficiency and automate the management of its
physical infrastructure portfolio
At
the IBM Pulse 2012
conference here, Big Blue announced that the USAF will be using IBM TRIRIGA
software to automate management of the armed services buildings,
vehicles, runways and other infrastructure across 170 locations worldwide. This
portfolio includes more than 626 million square feet of real estate, more than
100 million square yards of airfield pavement and 10 million acres of land used
by Active Duty, Reserve and Air National Guard personnel, said Dave Bartlett,
vice president of industry solutions at IBM who also is known as Big Blues
building whisperer.
The USAF is a key component of the
U.S. Department of Defense. Bartlett identified the DOD as the biggest energy
user in the world. The DOD uses the equivalent of more than $20 billion a year
in energy, he said.
Presidential Executive Orders
require executive branch departments and agencies to establish asset management
plans, install performance measures and ensure the effective management of federal
real property assets through their entire lifecycle. Additional orders require
agencies to improve energy efficiency, reduce natural resource consumption and
decrease waste production to reduce carbon emissions.
Therefore, to meet this order, the
Air Force Office of the Civil Engineer, whose mission is to provide, operate,
maintain and protect sustainable installations as weapon-system platforms
through engineering and emergency response services across the full mission
spectrum, will use IBM TRIRIGA software to gain greater visibility and control
of its physical assets, Bartlett said at a press conference at IBM Pulse 2012.
IBMs integrated workplace
management software, called IBM TRIRIGA, provides the Air Force with a
standardized, powerful technology platform to analyze data about real property
assets, streamline work orders and suppliers and reduce energy use across
thousands of buildings. These tools will help USAF measure and manage its
operational, financial and environmental performance to determine and prove
effectiveness against government-wide and agency real property management
objectives.
IBM TRIRIGA software will help
implement our NexGen IT vision and give USAF a data-driven approach to manage
its real property and physical assets, as well as help us predict issues before
they impact service and safety, Alexander Earle, chief information officer in
the Air Force Office of the Civil Engineer, said in a
statement. Implementing IBM TRIRIGA will help strengthen our IT
infrastructure by removing redundant systems, providing real-time analytics and
optimizing core processes that enable us to make better decisions about how we
manage our resources.
IBM TRIRIGAs integrated workplace
management system provides the USAF with a single system to optimize
performance of all real estate locations, assets and personnel operations. By
optimizing building use, occupancy costs are reduced, lease administration is
made easier and managers can evaluate future space requirements to make
long-term planning decisions.
Meanwhile, TRIRIGAs energy
assessment tools enable users to obtain environmental insights and predefined,
automated operational procedures and processes to monitor and reduce energy
consumption as well as waste production from real property assets operations.
Also, the companys condition-based maintenance enables user organizations to
better manage the maintenance of property and equipment based on the age,
condition and history of facilities. Having this insight can prevent costly
repairs by allowing staff to pinpoint equipment that should be replaced before
incidents occur, IBM said.
Having the right data at the right
time is essential for U.S. Air Force personnel, said George Ahn, vice
president of Enterprise Asset Management at IBM, in a statement. IBM TRIRIGA
infuses a new level of intelligence to physical infrastructures that will
enable the U.S. Air Force to make the timely and critical decisions about their
assets that is essential to the success of their operations.
Overall, IBM TRIRIGA improves the
operational, financial and environmental performance of real estate assets and
operations, IBM officials said. The software provides a comprehensive suite of
applications to manage the real estate lifecycle of an organization with predefined
management processes and extensive Web-based configuration management tools.
In March 2011, IBM announced
a definitive agreement to acquire privately held TRIRIGA, a Las Vegas-based
provider of facility and real estate management software solutions. The move is
aimed at accelerating IBM's smarter buildings initiatives by adding advanced
intelligence that improves real estate performance, capital project management
and the outcomes of sustainability initiatives. TRIRIGA software helps clients
make strategic decisions regarding space usage, evaluate alternative real
estate initiatives, generate higher returns from capital projects and assess
environmental impact investments.
IBM completed the acquisition of
TRIRIGA in April 2011.
More than 200 clients and thousands
of usersincluding more than one-third of Fortune 100 corporations across every
major industry, as well as seven of the 15 federal executive departments of the
U.S. governmentuse TRIRIGA software to reduce operational costs, increase
return on real estate assets and mitigate environmental regulatory risks.
Darryl K. Taft covers the development tools and developer-related issues beat from his office in Baltimore. He has more than 10 years of experience in the business and is always looking for the next scoop. Taft is a member of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and was named 'one of the most active middleware reporters in the world' by The Middleware Co. He also has his own card in the 'Who's Who in Enterprise Java' deck.
Email
Print
