Norm Gilsdorf, President, Honeywell, High Growth Regions, Middle East and Russia

Dubai, UAE, 5 November 2018: Honeywell inaugurated its Technology Experience Center at its regional headquarters in Dubai, on November 5. During the official opening, Norm Gilsdorf, President, Honeywell, High Growth Regions, Middle East and Russia, spoke on how the centre aims to promote knowledge exchange and highlight the company’s commitment to Internet of Things (IoT) technologies.  The experience centre, Gilsdorf said, is the first of its kind in the region and the third for Honeywell globally, the first two of which were launched in Washington DC, USA, and Shanghai, China. The decision to set up a hub in Dubai, he said, is owing to the dynamic nature of the Middle East region and strong government support towards digitalisation in the context of smart cities. “With the country’s high standard for innovation and move towards smart and connected cities, there is no better place to have a centre like this,” he said. “The city, as we all know, is a connection point for much of the world from east to west, and we wanted to create a centre where people can share knowledge by visualising, seeing and touching actual devices and seeing them operate.”

Dina Tamimi, Director of Smart Cities and Mega Projects, Honeywell; Nahla Nasri, Director of Business Development, High Growth Regions MENA, Honeywell; Norm Gilsdorf; Hussain Al Khuwaildi, Director of Healthcare and Education verticals, Honeywell; Leigh Ann Judd, Director of Corporate Communications, Middle East

Gilsdorf said the centre will receive a broad range of stakeholders in the field of aerospace, building controls, smart cities and logistics, both from the private and public sectors. Honeywell, he said, is leveraging its long history in control devices, from its early beginnings with boiler controls and thermostats, to control heating and cooling, to recent initiatives in refineries, airplanes and buildings, in a more digitalised world. “The theme you will see throughout the centre,” he said, “is the connected world.” Gilsdorf added that Honeywell is also placing great emphasis on the promotion of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) skills throughout the country and GCC region, through education.

Gilsdorf said connection offers great value-added opportunities in enhancing efficiencies, providing the example of how a typical 200,000 barrel-a-day refinery, considered small- to average-sized, can improve profitability by USD 300 million, through these technologies, to underscore opportunities in the oil and gas industry.

Official opening of the Honeywell Technology Experience Center, Dubai

Speaking on how the centre could contribute to the improvement of building performance, Gilsdorf discussed the evolving nature of FM in the region and Honeywell’s strategy to engage stakeholders in this sector. Many companies that are partners and distributors of Honeywell, he said, in the field of fire and life safety, BMS and/or security systems, are not aware of the company’s diverse portfolio of solutions, and the centre will showcase potential areas where they can expand solutions in this field. “Being connected and through data analytics, you can support FM companies to be efficient and smarter, instead of being labour intensive,” he said, emphasising that IoT has impacted planning of maintenance to help avoid downtime and ensure that building operations are more efficient and productive. As an example, Gilsdorf pointed to the company’s engagement with the iconic Burj Khalifa, which implemented such solutions for the maintenance of the building, and led to a 40% cost reduction, because the system was able to “predict what’s going to fail, before it fails at a high reliability rate”, which optimises allocation of manpower and resources.

Gilsdorf also highlighted that the centre is co-located with Honeywell’s industrial cybersecurity center of excellence (COE), launched in February 2018, the first of the company in the region, and the second globally, the first being in Atlanta, USA, and the third to be developed in Singapore. The COE, he said will address cyber security issues and provide a safe environment for testing equipment and enhance knowledge in protecting integrated systems, by discussing potential vulnerabilities. He said, “We teach you how to hack, to know how to protect from being hacked.”

Hannah Jo Uy is Assistant Editor at Climate Control Middle East magazine. She may be contacted at hannah@cpi-industry.com