Whether you’re planning a new digital building project or struggling with your current one, it’s worth taking a step back to assess the key factors that drive success. In this post, I break down the most common reasons why digital building projects underperform, and what you can do to keep yours on track.
Having more than 15 years of experience on both sides of the industry – first as a consumer of digital building technologies and now offering solutions for the market – I’ve seen my fair share of not so great project roll-outs. Whether you’re selling, implementing, using, maintaining, or venture investing in digital building tech, the root causes of failure tend to follow similar patterns.
While this list isn’t exhaustive, these are some of the most common causes of failure I’ve encountered over the past decade.
1. Lack of a Strategy
There’s no such thing as a perfect strategy, but that doesn’t mean you don’t need one. Many projects fail because building owners don’t plan properly, or on the other end of the spectrum, vendors don’t fully assess their market, product positioning, and go-to-market approach. Without a strategy, projects get lost in scope creep, misalignment and lack of support.
A comprehensive strategy should at the least define a strong vision, business case, clear value proposition, capabilities you need to build, and should have executive buy-in.
2. Underestimating Project Complexity
Digital building projects are far more involved than most people expect. Projects can involve many stakeholders, for example, operations, IT, legal & privacy, and other vendors all working across multiple systems. Poorly scoped projects can quickly become unmanageable, whether due to technical challenges, lack of coordination, or unforeseen dependencies. Often the complexity doesn’t stem from the technology or its integration, but rather the expectation setting and coordination of the various stakeholders.
3. Procurement Pitfalls
Selecting the right technologies and vendors requires more than a surface-level understanding. Many projects fail because decision-makers don’t fully grasp the technology they’re pursuing or what they truly need from it. Not knowing how to evaluate vendors and not defining success only adds to the issue.
These factors often lead to poor vendor selection, and ultimately either buying a solution that’s too complex, or one that lacks the necessary functionality. And the vendor, you’ll surely be left selling and supporting a product or service that your customer doesn’t really understand.
4. Inadequate Infrastructure
A common mistake is purchasing (or selling) technology and expecting it to be “plug and play” with an existing building. The reality is many buildings contain legacy systems that weren’t designed for integration – and this makes data exchange with other systems and applications difficult, or impossible, without major upgrades.
When considering new tech, it is important to fully understand what you already have in place, and whether it can support integration, otherwise you may find yourself having to do unplanned costly retrofits.
5. Ignoring IT’s Role
The role of IT is evolving beyond corporate systems to include Operational Technology (OT). Even if IT doesn’t manage OT directly, they will still likely weigh in on critical areas like network access, cybersecurity, and data governance.
I’ve seen many projects grind to a halt merely because IT was not engaged early on. Getting IT involved from the start will help alleviate unnecessary delays, security concerns or worst, outright rejection of your project.
6. Overlooking Adoption
One of the biggest misconceptions in digital buildings is that technology alone will solve the problem. The reality is, people and processes matter just as much as the tech, if not more. Too often, organizations fail to plan for user adoption, training, and long-term engagement.
Who will use the technology? How will it be maintained? Without a clear plan for considerations like these, even the best technology solutions will eventually gather dust.
7. Failing to Communicate Value
An overlooked reason why digital building projects fail is because they don’t have a clear method for tracking and communicating their success. Digital building initiatives require investment, often backed by executive sponsorship. If you can’t demonstrate value, whether through energy savings, operational efficiencies, or tenant experience, it is likely that future funding and support will diminish.
Navigating these realities
So, what can you do? The key is to plan ahead; instead of diving into a project blindly, take the time to consider these failure mechanisms from the start.
If you don’t have in-house expertise, consider engaging with an external expert or firm (like Evolv Engineering) experienced in digital building projects. A good way to guage the experience of external expertise is to ask them what failures they’ve encountered. And, in the case that engaging with internal or external expertise isn’t an immediate option, that’s exactly why I’m launching the The Essential Series for Digital Buildings—a step-by-step guide to bringing digital building programs to life.
Through this series, I’ll share lessons from my experience and provide a practical framework that building owners, facility managers, proptech vendors, and industry professionals can use to be more successful in their digital building initiatives.
Upcoming Topics in the Series include:
- Playing to Win – Defining your strategy
- Assessments – Do you know what’s in your buildings?
- The Path to Digitization – Crafting your approach
- Procuring Technology and Services – Setting the right criteria
- Systems Integration – What it really means
- The Human Element – Building your dream team
- Operating & Maintaining – Ensuring long-term success
- Putting It All Together – Creating your playbook
Stay tuned for my next post, where I’ll be starting with the first topic – Playing to Win, and describing exactly how you win by planning your strategy.
