MACH Energy Survey Reveals "Market Confusion is Rampant in Commercial Real Estate" as Building and Energy Management Technologies Intersect

OAKLAND, Calif., Oct. 15, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Today MACH Energy, a leading provider of commercial real estate (CRE) energy management solutions, revealed the results of one of the largest industry surveys of commercial building professionals to date. The four-month long poll garnered 800 participants including some of the top names in commercial real estate from BOMA, IFMA, IREM, NAIOP and NPMA.

Chief among MACH Energy's survey goals was to assess how property owners, managers and engineers are prioritizing their energy management spends and addressing their energy-related priorities for buildings in the nation's CRE sector. The results revealed widespread confusion amongst property managers, facility managers and directors on the difference between energy management software (EMS), which provides low-cost analytics and reporting software platforms, and building management systems (BMS), which are costly projects that physically control equipment.

"This survey was designed with the goal of getting a more nuanced understanding of challenges faced by building professionals at all levels," said Wei-En Tan, Ph.D., Vice President at MACH Energy. "We've found that although REITs and property owners understand the ROI potential of EMS across their portfolios very early on, the day-to-day decisions and implementation fall upon the people in the trenches - the property managers and chief engineers - who are clearly overwhelmed in what is still an early-adopter period."

While a market survey in July by Ecova, a bill-based software company, found 82% of 200 multi-site companies have installed some form of energy management software (EMS), MACH's survey of over 800 professionals found that 44% had installed EMS, but almost 70% of the 44% erroneously listed BMS as their software. Despite benchmarking mandates and other market forces, reducing costs, not increasing Energy Star scores, was still widely identified as the number one reason for implementing EMS. Additional take-ways from the survey included:

Top three most important EMS benefits

• 26% identified real-time monitoring as the most important benefit of EMS
• A close second was energy cost, cited by 22% of participants
• 13% indicated they valued easier fulfillment of reporting requirements

EMS Must-haves & Improvements

• 21% of respondents cited automated tenant billing/sub-metering as a must-have
• 16% complained their EMS was only designed for electricity, not water/gas/steam
• 14% reported expense and dollar impact reporting as key and needed EMS functions

"This is a time of rapid change in the commercial real estate sector and we're seeing those growing pains reflected in these results," said Jon Moeller, President of MACH Energy. "Over the last decade our team has worked closely with some of the nation's most iconic buildings and the personnel that manage them, integrating CRETech solutions like EMS. We are applying this marketplace feedback by addressing primary concerns such as easy set-up and usage, while also anticipating future needs."

To download the complete report, please visit: http://contact.machenergy.com/whitepaper/

About MACH Energy
MACH Energy Inc. is a leading provider of CRETech energy management solutions for commercial real estate property managers, operators, engineers, and owners. With some of the nation's most iconic buildings under management, MACH counts hundreds of commercial, REIT, hotel and corporate building owners as customers encompassing hundreds of millions of square feet of properties across the country.

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SOURCE MACH Energy

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