Dubai, UAE, 4 October 2018: Technology has always played a pivotal role in the HVAC and Facilities Management industry and, if done right, it can be an asset to building operators for the next 20 years. This was the perspective shared by Harold Dickenson Jr, Manager, Visualisation & Immersive Technology Group, in the backdrop of the Fourth Annual Construction Summit, held in Dubai, recently. Often, he said, the cost of running a facility outweighs the capital cost for construction, and technology has the ability to help with cost-cutting.

Harold Dickenson Jr

Highlighting some of the work by AECOM in the field of technology, Dickenson Jr said, “AECOM is in the process of developing multiple applications, where Building Information Modelling (BIM) data will be re-purposed for facility management.” Elaborating on one of the applications, he said that the application will make operations more intuitive, so a facility manager won’t have to open up a ceiling to know if a pipe runs overhead. “The application will not only tell you the location of each HVAC equipment or MEP component but will also help you to trace the problem down to its root cause.”