Page 25 - RC19 RealcommEDGE 2019 Fall Issue

Digital Twins are quickly being recognized as the most

valuable part of a building tech stack—it is a comprehensive
picture of your built environment in real-time.

software has been to create a collaborative design and will see use cases moving beyond just assets to include
build process that visualizes the physical and functional entire organizations or the Digital Twin of an Organization
aspects of a building. With CAD capabilities, visualization in (DTO). This means people, process, and behaviors will also
the design and prototyping phase of a new build has been be important data sources that give Digital Twins even
essential for AECs to understand spatial relationships. more context about the built environment. If trends in CRE
Unlike a Digital Twin, this physical information model is continue to gravitate towards understanding occupants
tuned for buildings in flight, not ones occupied and utilized and competing on workplace experience, the Digital Twin
daily—generating data from new devices like IoT. will certainly supersede BIM software even at the design
and build phase of an asset’s lifecycle.
2) Not designed for real-time operational response
Digital Twins are quickly being recognized as the most As we begin to build things with people and flexibility in
valuable part of a building tech stack—it is a comprehen- mind, our building information models will also need to
sive picture of your built environment in real-time. A Digital evolve to include behavior patterns of people and space
Twin can give you information about the current state design that accommodates their wellness. Again, BIM
of build subsystems, how they are being impacted by alone cannot achieve these outcomes.
occupant behavior when assets like HVAC or lighting might
fail and much more. It is a model that evolves over time Sandy Mangat is Director of Marketing at
to deliver more value with each new stage of the asset’s ThoughtWire, where she brings her passions for
lifecycle. BIM is a key data input for any Digital Twin, but data, IoT and complex digital transformation to
BIM alone cannot answer the operational questions facility her role leading its go-to-market strategy for the
managers may have about optimizing operations. Toronto-based scale-up. She applies her expertise
in IoT, B2B, and SaaS product marketing to the organization as it
3) It’s only focused on buildings—not people scales its digital twin platform and OPM applications for real
According to Gartner, the next evolution of the Digital Twin estate and healthcare globally.

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