I been struggling with who we are as an industry since we started Automated Buildings or AB, Yet Another Annoying Acronym (YAAA). In the beginning we even abandoned intelligent buildings because we decided it was not the buildings that were intelligent, just a few of the people who made it happen and there were not nearly enough of them. I want to share this fun Linkedin discussion with all my readers and hope you will join us in our plight to tell the world who we are.

Marc Petock started this discussion on our linked in group and it has created a lot of chatter

BAS, BMS, EMS, FMS, EMCS

I recently attended a conference where I heard BAS, BMS, EMS, FMS and EMCS used interchangeably. Should they be? Are there differences? What are the differences? Are the end users confused? So here is an SOS to the community….what do you think?

So far the discussion has create a nest of YAAA--- Yet Another Annoying Acronym...smile

But the discussion does go many directions and raises the question has 25 comments about Who R We?

BAS, BMS, EMS, FMS, EMCS, DDC, ATC, BIM, BACS, "THE AUTOMATION SYSTEM", IA, CCS, RCMS, iBOS, CTM, BOBs, A Clouded Cluster of Annoying Acronyms, BEMS,BMCS and Smart Buildings.

The link to the Linkedin discussion is here

But here are some of the highlights:

K. Mike Bradley • Well for those who may not know,
BAS - Building Automation System
BMS - Building Management System
EMS - Energy Management System
FMS - Facility Management System
EMCS - Energy Management & Control System 

In the industry we all use these interchangeably but ...
 ... if you wanted to be pedantic here is how I would define:

BAS- refers to the Automation system for the building. Specifically those components used to automate HVAC, lighting, etc.

BMS refers to any part of the system used to manage the building so this would include most if not all of BAS ?? Maybe BMS = BAS when you add the security and fire systems ??

EMS is the part that manages energy usage.

FMS is synonymous with BMS I think.

and I would assume EMCS is also synonymous with EMS.

There is a lot of overlap here and the differences are small so this is why most people use them to mean the same thing.

Ken Sinclair • Good topic Marc fun discussion

I been struggling with who we are as an industry since we started Automated Buildings aaahhh another one…..smile and even abandoned intelligent buildings because we decided it was not the buildings that were intelligent just a few of the people who made it happen and there were not nearly enough of them.

Maybe cloud control systems….smile Cloudy for short…smile

The definition of our place in the industry is expanding and becomes hard to define.  Also city control and of course grid control are becoming part of what we do education, training.

[an error occurred while processing this directive]Maybe we have just evolved and converged to be the IT industry just that we generally are pushing real time data to cloud.

Look at our original mission statement 1999 bottom of page
http://www.automatedbuildings.com/about/mission.htm

The names given to building automation systems are varied:
• Building Automation Systems or BAS
• Building Management Systems or BMS
• Facility Management Systems or FMS
• Energy Management Systems or EMS
• Energy Management Control Systems or EMCS
• Client Comfort System or CCS
plus many more. We will group and provide connection to all of these plus lighting control companies, fire / life safety, security, the sensor, actuation, and end device industry and anything else that is now becoming part of an automated building system.
Have fun

Ken

John Greenwell • I believe the term Building Automation System is misleading because most BAS's focus on system automation not building automation. I like iBOS (Integrated Building Operating System) as the term for newest platform based control of buildings and portfolios. These iBOS's typically don't replace any of the incumbent building system technologies but rather provide a single seat technology agnostic platform that allows owners to collect, normalize, contextualize, supervise and in some cases control these disparate systems. The most important aspect is the fact that they are not focused on individual systems but instead focus on the business purpose of the facilities. They provide key values such as risk reduction, operational efficiency, and most importantly productivity gains.

Read the complete thread of this interesting discussion

The link to the Linkedin discussion is here

While there be sure to check out the rest of the very interesting discussions

Also more on this discussion on BAM Building Automation Monthly Linkedin group

Possibly the diversity in our naming of our corner of the industry is part of our combined success, but as we move forwards in a converging collision becoming an integral part of information technology we need to start thinking about how we will provide difference to our unique collection of real time building related data in the cloud. "BAS - Building Automation System" seem to be evolving as the cornerstone for sub sets to grow from. We are pleased with this direction as it keeps our magazine title relevant. 

This being said our two contributing editors independently provided great articles speaking to "Smart Buildings"?? We are doomed to have agreement on a name for us all to huddle under so we need to hang lose and go with the name and definition provided by the user....smile.. both articles explain the functional creep that is our industry. 

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