ICT for saving energy: The issue of aligning IT to objectives

Using existing ICT smarter to save energy consumption intuitively seems a good strategy for automated buildings. The paper reports challenges faced in a user centric experiment; where despite 40 years since the invention of building automation and standardization of a communication protocol is still very limited adaptation of it; we report from the experiment that one reason is lack of interoperability between systems. The paper first describes the experimental setup and how five living lab pilot buildings integrate their building sensor information to achieve lower energy consumption using a joint information system architecture model. The paper then discusses the experimentation results in the light of IT alignment theory to conclude that user pressure will most likely drive radical new business models in an internet building automation industry.