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Development of the Facility Explorer was influenced by the marketplace Ear to the Ground Sometimes, developing a great product just involves a lot of listening. Take, for example, Johnson Controls’ Facility Explorer, a building automation system that allows operations and facility personnel to control heating, ventilation, air conditioning (HVAC) equipment, security systems, timers and the like. The system is sold to independent contractors and distributors, who package together, resell, install and maintain automated building control systems for their customers.

When Johnson Controls personnel targeted the niche, they first asked these contractors what they were looking for in a system.
Johnson Controls’ clients drove the direction of the system in many ways. “For example, our field controllers—modules that directly control HVAC equipment—are all fully programmable,” says Christian Lane, Facility Explorer program manager. “That was a specific request from the contracting channel … because they wanted to put their own intelligence inside the controllers to operate the mechanical equipment as they wanted.”

Input for Output
To get to an ideal contractor wish list, Lane and Johnson Controls staff formalized input from the field.
“We created an advisory team consisting of a cross-section of our targeted channel—located in different regions—and we got their input on what they wanted for a full building automation system,” he says. “The feedback we received was used to create the first release of Facility Explorer.
“Since then, I’ve been very involved in getting feedback directly from our channel partners when they have specific requests for enhancements or for new features to be added.”
Another example is that the supervisory class of controllers allows users to access the system via a Web browser. That was a direct result of contractor input. Contractors wanted to be able to monitor or change the information at any time, using just a personal computer.
Lane also meets periodically with contractors in regional forums to gather insights toward the future of building automation. For example, while environmental concerns are driving requests to develop wholly wireless versions of Facility Explorer, marketplace discussions with contractors have found that customers don’t want batteries as a power source because proper environmental disposal can be cumbersome.
He also sees energy conservation as a driver for new product development, with next-generation controllers helping to increase energy savings.
As for the additional improvements? It will just take a bit of listening to make an outstanding product even better.