you are listening to the iot for all media network hello everyone and welcome to another episode of the iot for all podcast i'm your host ryan chacon and on today's episode we have robert kowalik the vp of enterprise sales at contact.io contact.io is an industry leader in indoor environmental location and occupancy services using bluetooth low energy so ble we talk a lot about a lot of different topics here today so we talk about why the smart building market needs disruption three layers of space intelligence so spatial awareness environmental awareness object awareness and also how companies can get started using and leveraging real-time people equipment and space interactions to really help deliver them more business-related outcomes helps with property operations and really helps build a better relationship with occupants within those buildings so we cover a lot of that and a bunch more but before we get into this episode if any of you out there are looking to enter the fast growing and profitable iot market but don't know where to start check out our sponsor leverage leverages iot solutions development platform provides everything you need to create turnkey iot products that you can white label and resell under your own brand to learn more go to iot changes everything dot com that's iot changeseverything.com and without further ado please enjoy this episode of the iot for all podcasts welcome robert to the iot for all show thanks for being here this week it's my pleasure thanks for having me yeah i'm looking forward to this conversation um let's start off by having you give a quick introduction about yourself to our audience anything relevant for your background experience that would give them a little bit of context on who to listen to yeah of course uh so um my name is robert kowalik i'm the vice president of enterprise sales here with contact io um contact io we are a disruptive leader in the iot space primarily focusing uh on two strategic markets um which would be carpeted uh spaces smart buildings as well as in the world of healthcare the solution sets that we offer uh focus on everything from uh hardware and software as well as uh comprehensive uh cloud-based solutions and apis to integrate to be able to do practical solutions so i've been in this space now for about 20 years back in the days where it was primarily focused around location services and technologies to tell you where stuff is and have worked with industry leaders in every type of solution sets that are out in the location services market places uh primarily in proprietary location technologies within ultra wide band uh wi-fi zigbee and laura but for the past i would say six seven years as the market in the in the space of location services started to really pivot towards ble um uh i was able to adopt uh and change into this new open standard and to try to create ubiquitous uh uh solutions that focused around how things are not necessarily where they are so okay that's my background fantastic so you mentioned two areas that the company's kind of focused in the smart building space and the healthcare space talk a little bit more about how you all play in those areas and maybe connected to some use cases that kind of bring it full circle so people can kind of see what impact you're having in those industries from a solution standpoint so from solution standpoints um listen where the world is going and especially uh today uh we're trying to be able to create uh more awareness uh and better workflows that are associated with uh visibility and to be able to digitally touch um and specifically like in smart buildings today uh we're trying to move from traditional iot use cases that uh i have marketed and sold and implemented with many major corporations that have traditionally focused around efficiencies uh of putting sensors in uh that will tell you how a pump is working or how an elevator system is working right to trying to create more of a human element behind uh solution sets and therefore um i i see technology now supporting more than just point solutions uh that a lot of vendors are selling that you have tons of them behind you um into focusing more on the human experience and how we actually interact with each other how we work in a workspace or in a healthcare organization uh they're fundamentally similar uh how we can create better workflows associated with real data that we can digitally touch uh people's location uh uh occupancy uh environmental sensing all of these type of uh sensing capabilities to create a better experience and data that we can capture and capitalize on to be able to improve workflow yeah it sounds like it's kind of from my understanding of and and experience in this space it's kind of a natural evolution to kind of that that coincides with kind of where the industry has been trying to get to with the focus that you all have so if we kind of focus on the smart building space just for a second moving from just focusing on efficiency to also to actually the experience side which i'd be interested to hear kind of why you think and and i guess why you think the market right now especially in the smart building space is kind of in need or ripe for disruption is you know the tech not has a technology kind of come a long way to allow certain things to be done are we thinking about this in a different way now what is it about the current state of the market that's kind of really primed for disruption to kind of move us from being just focused on efficiency and using iot to help improve that to actually now the the human experience side of things yeah and these are great questions so what we've been seeing and professionally speaking um is a state of a lot of confusion right now what is the smart office going to be like in the future and i'm sure that you've probably had guests talking about post-pandemic responses but the more that we peel this onion uh we realized that a lot of efficiency issues that were uh engaged in smart buildings is not new um when i started to do some analysis when we're putting our portfolio solutions specifically about making buildings smarter and more people-centric yeah we we we started to look at some uh studies and analytics that uh the big five consulting firms uh and players in the industries um there was a study done by cbre back in 2015 before anybody could even spell covet uh this was uh studies of uh how are their facilities being utilized and this was done not from a facility owner's point of view but actually tenants point of views okay and they started to break down by different uh industries and um uh of who their tenants would be and we found as high as 70 of the space that's in a smart building is empty uh telecommunications companies uh 70 uh building service consulting firms uh 65 empty but even in 2015 you would have people that would be screaming oh we need more space we're busting at the seams and the data doesn't support that the data supports that the space isn't being utilized well right and by just being able to improve utilization um we will be able to find that uh uh we can maximize the square footage and the operators uh expense to be able to keep these uh spaces running right by by utilizing some sensing technologies and to be able to utilize workflows and analytical tools uh to be able to create better work environments now since the pandemic we've become more much more aware on health and wellness and making sure people are happy uh since the pandemic uh since uh uh everybody's been working remotely uh what the new office is gonna be like um microsoft just did a study where uh almost 70 percent of their workforce uh would prefer to work uh remotely uh come in only when necessary so it's really changing the the space of the of not only what the office is going to look like but how it's going to be used and so traditionally most of my competitors and companies that i've worked with in the past will be very point and analytical and saying oh i can put a pr sensor and tell you where something is and then uh the the honeywells or somebody in the hvac industry will say we have sensors to be able to tell you environmental controls but nobody really puts it all together into being able to create smarter and healthier workspaces and this this is a an area that i think we work very strongly um go ahead i was going to say you've mentioned a couple things that i'd be curious to have you just kind of expand on a little bit you've talked about kind of the environmental side um uh when it comes to evaluating and understanding the space you talked about uh understanding where objects are so more of an object awareness type feel and then also just generally what's going on in the space so there are a number of different things that can be monitored can you kind of break those three kind of layers down a little bit and i feel like they kind of sum up a lot of what we're seeing when it comes to connecting iot with these buildings and helping improve everything we've been talking about so far yeah for sure so our value propositions uh within contact io traditionally focus on working with our customers to talk about space intelligence okay um there's a lot of buzzwords but uh space intelligence is really not just taking a point solution off of uh hey we're going to make your elevators more efficient we're going to make your lighting cheaper uh we have to take a look at the overall picture and so when we take a holistic view uh of creating um solutions that focus around space intelligence usually it layers into about three different uh layers so uh spatial awareness how is the space by human beings actually being used uh do we have the space are the occupancy and the conference rooms being utilized uh are the uh are there enough breakout rooms that will accommodate the way people generally interact and work um or do we have way too many conference rooms that set four more people we should have uh twice as many breakout rooms with two and take the board rooms and keep one for board meetings and then break them into more collaborative space so we work with clients to be able to provide technologies and solutions and and a level of data that will not only take the spatial awareness um and also pull in environmental awareness for health and um uh operational controls which also help building managers right and um and object awareness that's our third level uh to be able to capitalize on asset utilization and maintenance and things and when you take a look at this entire space uh uh intelligence puzzle uh then you can start really making some dramatic changes uh as far as how how not only tenants but facility owners and managers can start looking at the space that they have and try to capitalize it on the benefit of both sides and so um uh we work through uh not only sensors not only uh cloud-based services and apis that integrate into uh analytical platforms but that holistic view of space intelligence is what i think really is disruptive today yeah and what makes us different today um and i'm a gray hair guy i've been in this game for 20 years um and back in the day when i started a lot of this technology is not necessarily new wireless sensing temperature telemetry it's been around for 25 years 30 years yep right but to be able to do it on open-based standard networks um you'll be surprised how many of your viewers may already have iot networks in place uh within their facilities if they're working with cisco or meraki a new generation of access points they have an iot network they may not be utilizing it to its capability but they have one if uh they're utilizing uh smart lighting uh with ble based um uh controllers and gateways built into them they have ways to be able to automate way finding so this whole new standard where the networks are now becoming iot centric uh creates uh solutions like contact io to be able to fit in very well and to make them very affordable that's what i think is probably one of the more compelling um uh changes that i've seen over the past 20 years sure trying to find stuff or people right uh necessarily isn't new uh but today uh you can do this with a variety of customers which gives the customers an opportunity to choose and not get stuck with a single vendor that's proprietary uh it gives them an opportunity to democratize the way that they're doing their spend which forces us as vendors to compete and the price point and a lot of these technologies over the past 20 years have become to the point now you cannot not do it because right you can't afford it so so then take me through how companies can really get started leveraging these technologies um to deliver business outcomes whether they're property operators or focus more on maybe the the occupant side of things what what is it that companies and people listening to this can do to get started in um implementing or leveraging this technology to achieve those types of goals in this building setting um i think the first thing that everyone should do is uh to take a uh a big cup of coffee and sit down and collaborate with some of their co-workers okay and um and discuss do you think that our facilities will run the way shut do you think our space is optimized um you have to be able to take a look honestly and introspectively uh to be able to see um what can i do within the four walls of this box to be able to create a better work environment and what are we doing to be able to keep our employees and staff from a human perspective happy and not on linkedin looking for new jobs uh and for them to be able to be effective uh as we move through this uh century to become uh more successful um the the technologies that uh companies that have in place uh if they don't have everything that they're that would optimize space intelligence uh there's companies like us that would be very happy to consult right and talk to them uh okay what are your goals how are you managing your occupancy what are you doing uh with emergency response how are we doing conference room uh optimization scheduling um is your environmental awareness up to par do you have anything we can walk through very simple questions to try to steer uh the the thinking of our clients into being able to understand what's what's out there and what's available and um and then we try to build out solutions and most of our solutions aren't necessarily just contact io this isn't an advertising pitch uh the solutions are trying to be able to take something that's scalable and replicable and to be able to go across an entire environment and to be able to hit the the pain points and needs uh where our clients today uh may not even be aware that they could optimize um but if they were able to take a look at some of the numbers of where uh other companies that are a little more forward-thinking have been able to optimize uh the roi is staggering okay yeah i think it's interesting because a lot of times i've had conversations even taking out just the the um the focus on the smart building space it just seems like there needs to be more emphasis put on the early planning stages before they anything gets implemented or discussed because the more prepared they are and the more they understand kind of what they're looking to solve the more companies like yours can come in and help explain what can actually be done and what's possible because there is some kind and oftentimes a separation or a difference in understanding as to what is actually possible and what they want and i think that causes lots of frustration in the development process for number of guests i've had on the podcast just talk about how it's just you know the earlier we can kind of set the expectation and manage that the better things are going to be but if companies don't come to the table with clearly understanding what they're doing it's really or what they plan to do or like to do it's very difficult to get off on the right foot and really set this up for success exactly um i my phone is very busy uh and with specifically now that um most of the the key um uh big network players that have got into the iot game and we work very closely with cisco and uh getting calls all the time hey i just bought all these aps what can i do with it um what can you do with it there's a lot of things we can do with it uh what are your pain points right well you know we want to just be able to tell you uh where people are oh very good that's very simple to do we put a badge uh we can create some um api streams that can feed back into a security system i'll tell you who kind of people who are all right but is that really what the pain point is in your organization well i don't know i'm in it right right and i don't and and i don't really work with the line of business right i think what's really important and i think it's obviously getting there because uh as these iot networks are becoming more ubiquitous and they're becoming part of uh network strategy uh the it organizations are now uh engaged with line of business to be able to support needs and traditionally that was a very hard puzzle to fit if i was selling a gadget that i only spoke to i t i don't care what a facility manager needs right he's not my customer right um but now that it's making decisions that have implications that can work with these facility managers or tenants of how to be able to capitalize on a better experience for their employees or tenants uh you will end up finding that their goals are the same uh it's just that they've never spoken to each other sure and driving everything just through an i.t decision
in my professional career i've never met an i.t uh cio or director uh that's ever been looking for a new project these guys are very busy the fact that whatever they're doing right now with their existing networks provides line of business so you don't have to put a proprietary network out it creates just a different value proposition that everyone can win and put a feather in the i.t guys cap that he did something other than just upgrade it to the latest version of an operating system right exactly you know what i mean yeah i i totally follow absolutely so um at the end of the day we want to take a look at how buildings are really being used are they being used efficiently and to be able to create a stream through those three layers of those three layers where we're looking at spatial awareness environmental awareness object awareness and to pull all these strings into this big pipe of metadata and it's going to be this metadata layer of all this information coming out of a building that traditionally nobody's ever had okay and once we have this big metadata layer of once you have data oh well then you can actually start making decisions on facts not just making guesses right absolutely no that's that's fantastic i really appreciate these insights it said it's very clear kind of when you articulate kind of exactly what's happening in the space and why it's so important it's just getting companies to really follow and understand the value is is kind of the big key for sure um as we kind of wrap up here i wanted to kind of bring it back to the company itself and ask what's what's happening on um i guess what should we as an audience be on the lookout for over the next number of months is there anything exciting kind of happening in the space that you're looking forward to seeing that um we should be we should be paying attention to um what you're going to be seeing uh specifically from what contact is delivering uh as well as kind of the industry uh i think you're gonna see adoption of being able to create uh more of that metadata layer of lots of sensors but to be able to do it amazingly simply right [Music] going in with a technology from one of the big five uh hvac and controls or security system companies and ripping up ceilings and putting cables through those are that was yesterday um based on the world of bluetooth low energy and wireless sensing and battery-powered sensors um we are uh very very busy with um creating very rapidly deployable iot solution sets that capture all these workflows and data to um very large uh environments what you're going to start seeing i would say over the next year okay uh is that uh the little guy can do it too yeah and so uh i'm not just talking to uh the big financial institutions in new york that uh have lots of money uh or the biggest health care providers in the world this technologies and solutions have become very simple as a matter of fact this is kind of revolutionary it's a bit of a dark thing from an old guy like me the last five implementations that we've done of scale um we had zero field engineering support on site wow why because it just got deployed by themselves everything was pre-provisioned it was working through the network they had a couple guys that were within a corporation that could go uh mount these devices pull them out of a box scan a barcode it would be all cloud-based and poof it's just working and with within two days you're capturing data and you're starting to get analytics you can tell me hey uh it looks like uh our four-person conference rooms are used uh sixty percent of the time by one person uh maybe we change uh hey the boardroom uh last week had an occupancy of two percent and fifty percent of time is with two people and it could sit 16. right this kind of data is very simple and easy to do now yeah and by making it simple and and accessible you get the adoption curve way way way up uh makes sense so for me to pilot with somebody it's very simple i can send them a test kit with a few sensors and we can start access to the cloud and they're grinding out so that's where you're going to see because traditionally everything that i've done in the past i would have uh 30 days with the professional services and labor and cabling and then spectrum analyzers and uh futzing around yeah and for audience out there who wants to learn more about the company stay up to date um follow up with any questions what's the best way to do that uh contact io is uh our website uh please peruse uh our solution and our value proposition message and um uh contact us through uh the the forums depending on what you're looking at and i will make sure uh that one of our trained pros uh we'll reach out to you right away and uh we will engage like i said before uh this is a journey um and you don't have to take the full journey right away it's baby steps uh but there's ways for us to be able to support you right away fantastic well robert thank you so much for your time i really appreciate it the insights you shared today were fantastic i think our audience is going to get a ton of value out of this um and thanks again for being here yeah thank you very much you guys have a good day all right everyone thanks again for watching that episode of the iit fall podcast if you enjoyed the episode please click the thumbs up button subscribe to our channel and be sure to hit the bell notifications so you get the latest episodes as soon as they become available other than that thanks again for watching and we'll see you next time
2022-04-22