Lichtwart is bringing a principle familiar from smart homes to commercial properties. Through its IoT platform, the Herford-based PropTech company enables businesses to centrally monitor, control and automate technical systems across networks of branches and locations. butterfly & elephant, the accelerator and investment arm of GS1 Germany, is now investing in the startup. Their shared goal is to apply established GS1 standards to digital building technology so that technical assets and locations can be uniquely identified and their data used beyond the Lichtwart platform.
“Lichtwart demonstrates how building technology can be digitally controlled, from a single location to a large retail network. With GS1 standards, we are giving the platform a common language that can be understood across system and company boundaries,” says Benjamin Birker, Managing Director at butterfly & elephant.
Building automation for service stations, supermarkets and retail networks
The majority of small and medium-sized commercial properties are still operated without automated building management. Conventional systems are generally not economically viable for companies with numerous locations. As a result, faults often go unnoticed, while service technicians only receive essential information once they arrive on site.
Lichtwart closes this gap with an IoT controller that can be installed within minutes and requires no complex on-site programming. The solution can be rolled out across numerous locations, providing a consistent overview of operations and energy consumption. This enables operators to significantly reduce their operating workload and improve efficiency through automated fault notifications sent to the appropriate service teams.
“With Lichtwart, our customers can see for the first time what is actually happening at their locations, in real time,” says Gregor Giataganas, CEO and co-founder of Lichtwart. “This allows operators to respond sooner and organise their locations more efficiently across their entire branch network. It is also significantly more cost-effective than many established building automation systems.”
Technical assets receive an identity that works across systems
Lichtwart already connects technical systems to a cloud-based service platform that makes consumption data and system statuses centrally available. Within the platform, systems, locations and related processes are already clearly linked. Together with butterfly & elephant, this logic will now be extended beyond the Lichtwart system by applying established GS1 standards to the technical infrastructure of buildings.
Using the GIAI (Global Individual Asset Identifier) each technical asset receives a globally unique identifier, while the GLN (Global Location Number) identifies its location. On this basis, EPCIS (Electronic Product Code Information Services) provides a shared data structure through which operational, maintenance and sensor data can be exchanged between different systems.
This ensures that the connection between a system, its location and the associated information is maintained even when data flows into other applications or is shared between companies. Operators and service partners can therefore refer to the same asset across different systems, making it easier to integrate the data into operational processes.
This is the shared vision behind the investment. Lichtwart makes technical systems and their operational data digitally accessible, while GS1 Germany uses established standards to ensure that this information can be clearly assigned and reused across system boundaries.
“In the future, buildings will be operated in a similar way to modern data centres. They will report their own status and provide the right information to the right service partners at the right time. Together with butterfly & elephant, we are establishing standards for the digital identity of technical infrastructure, making the operation of millions of existing buildings simpler, more sustainable and more economical,” Giataganas adds.
Image material:
2. Benjamin Birker, Managing Director butterfly & elephant - Credits: butterfly & elephant
Press contact:
GS1 Germany GmbH
Marie Euler
Manager Corporate Communications
Stolberger Straße 108 a, 50933 Köln
Phone: +49 170 7009027
Email: marie.euler@gs1.de
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