SOUTHEAST ASIA
SMART BUILDING SOLUTIONS INDUSTRYBest Practices Criteria for World-Class Performance
Frost & Sullivan applies a rigorous analytical process to evaluate multiple nominees for each award
category before determining the final award recipient. The process involves a detailed evaluation of bestpractices criteria across two dimensions for each nominated company. Azbil Corporation excels in manyof the criteria in the smart building solutions space.

Uniquely Addressing Societal Challenges with Human-centered Buildings
The COVID-19 pandemic brought some of the direst challenges society faces today. There is a growing
need for operational cost enhancement and building performance optimization through efficient security,tenant, and performance management solutions. 1
Cities generate two-thirds of the planet’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and 30% of global energy
consumption comes from buildings. Smart-building companies are integrating advanced technologies tosave energy and reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions 2. These groups strive to enable human-centeredbuildings to ensure green cities and digital transformation while improving air quality, density,
comfortability, potential exposure tracking, and cleaning.
The pandemic caused disruptions in indoor space usage, and experts anticipate it will continue to spread
despite successes in fighting the disease. Hence, building indoor areas are being planned, used, andmanaged differently to improve safety and health outcomes.
For instance, preventing the COVID-19 spread requires adequate indoor ventilation and heating,ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) controllers to increase ventilation in areas with observed high CO2
levels. In the pandemic era, smart buildings are platforms of safety, resilience, and transformation.
1
2

Smart Society Building a Better Future for Citizens with Smart Technologies (Frost & Sullivan, September 2020)
Ibid© Frost & Sullivan 2022

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Smart building automation solutions are gaining widespread adoption across Southeast Asia, propellingthe building automation systems (BAS) market and fostering smart city projects. Azbil Corporation (Azbil)
is well-positioned to capitalize on this trend through its high-quality, state-of-the-art solutions catering to
the smart building market’s fast-growing needs. Azbil distinguishes itself by driving synergy between
people and technology while including energy and environmental conservation efforts. It has more than
100 years of know-how and cutting-edge automation technologies.
The company delivers solution-oriented services to its customers by leveraging its Group-wide synergies(both in Japan and overseas), 2,784 patents, and over 10,000 employees. 3 It fosters “human-centeredautomation” while outstandingly contributing to energy conservation through its three businesses:
Building Automation (BA), Advanced Automation (AA), and Life Automation (LA).
“Azbil distinguishes itself by driving
synergy between people andtechnology while including energy
and environmental conservation
efforts. It has more than 100 yearsof know-how and cutting-edge
automation technologies.”- Manuel Albornoz,
Best Practices Research Analyst

In 2018, Azbil established the Strategic Planning &Development Office for Southeast Asia. It stimulates
business activities in the region while strengthening its
affiliates in Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam,
Philippines, Malaysia and India, supporting business growth.
Azbil enables delivering a range of goods and services with aregional focus and involving regional business marketing,strategic planning, and business management. Through thisestablishment, the company has catered to growing
opportunities in the smart building sector in Southeast Asia.

Unmatchable Offerings: A Leader’s Path
As a leading smart building automation solution provider, Azbil’s BA business offers a robust portfolio thatcreates comfortable and efficient office and productive spaces while developing a business that
contributes to environmental load reduction:•

Sensor and measurement devices sense and measure room temperature/humidity.

•

User-operated devices enable users to set temperature, humidity, and other variables.

•

BA systems monitor and manage the indoor environment, security, equipment, and energy usage
throughout the building.

•Regulators and controllers keep facilities and instruments in an optimal state.

•

Valves and actuators adjust buildings’ hot/cold water or steam flow rates.

The company is a pioneer in the air-conditioning control field, particularly for large buildings. Its
environmental and management technology uses networks, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence(AI) to increase performance. To this extent, Azbil´s novel air-conditioning control technologies support
various working styles, adapt to infectious diseases, and operate a virtual power plant (VPP). 4

3
4

azbil Report 2021 (Azbil Corporation, March 2021)
Azbil Corporation Interview with Frost & Sullivan (Frost & Sullivan, September 2022)© Frost & Sullivan 2022

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Azbil responds to the expanding demand for decarbonization, modern safety and security, andcomfortable offices for the “new normal” age alongside the increased demand for building refurbishment
in Southeast Asia. It integrates Internet of Things (IoT) devices and field equipment to improve energy
usage, air quality, and temperature using the acquired data and knowledge to offer practical solutions.
With its savic-net™ G5 building management system, the company provides interactivity with products
made by various manufacturers. The system is compatible with BACnet (a data transmission protocol forbuilding automation and control networks).
Azbil offers solutions from consulting and sales proposals to engineering, installation, and services. It has
sales, systems, field, and service engineers that provide solutions tailored to each site to meet different
requirements at various life-cycle stages: planning, operation, maintenance, improvement, andrefurbishing.
Another core business for the company is AA, which develops measurement and control technologies forfactories and plants from industries in oil, chemical steel, pulp and paper, automobiles, electronics,
semiconductors, food & beverage and more. Finally, Life Automation (LA) contributes to enhancing safety,
security, comfort and energy saving in various fields ranging from lifelines and living spaces, to research,
pharmaceutical, and medical facilities that benefit people's health.

Continuous Innovation and Environmental Commitment
Azbil plans to invest 56 billion yen in research and development (R&D) between 2021 and 2024. 5 In the
United States (US), it is focusing on developing next-generation measurement technology and researching
IoT and international standardization. In Europe, the company is strengthening its pharmaceuticalmanufacturing product line. In Japan, Azbil’s investments will enhance Fujisawa Technology Center’scapabilities. By boosting productivity, improving product quality, and enhancing product reliability, thecompany strengthens its corporate structure and competitiveness, enabling the following innovations:5•

New air-conditioning system for “new-normal” ways of working: It was developed based on the
know-how gained from testing performed with Azbil volunteers. It has highly adaptable layouts
for infection prevention and is compatible with crowded workspaces. The technology offers cellbased temperature control in precisely segmented zones (outlet units), with available zone-byzone and smartphone-based temperature controls.

•

Early warning system for time series data: The software tracks changes in monitored parameters
and issues alarms. It quickly notices problems by scanning changes in time-series data patterns,
looking for crucial measurement values.

•

Network Instrumentation Module Smart Device Gateway: The multi-vendor IoT gateway
reduces the development time of programmable logic controllers for device data collection,leveraging IoT and the company’s expertise.

•

Humidity element miniaturization and sensor units: A compact humidity element and a
modularized sensor allow users to swap out the temperature and humidity sensing components,
reducing maintenance tasks. It also has digitalized measurement signal processing.

azbil Report 2022 (Azbil Corporation, March 2022)© Frost & Sullivan 2022

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Azbil is focused on three growth fields: new automation, environment and energy, and life-cycle solutions
contributing to resolving societal issues and spurring its growth.
Pandemic-ready Airflow Control System. The Smart Urban Co-Innovation Lab is Southeast Asia’s firstindustry-led Lab focused on smart city solutions.
The company will seek potential partnerships through the Lab to create and oversee projects that call forenergy management solutions throughout the buildings’ life cycle. Azbil has installed its pandemic-readyairflow management system at CapitaLand's 5G-enabled Singapore Science Park as part of this endeavor.
It enables meeting rooms to temporarily morph into a “pandemic-ready room”, keeping anyone
suspected of harboring an infectious disease isolated while awaiting transport to medical facilities.
Intelligent Building Management Systems (IBMS). With support from the Singapore Economic
Development Board (EDB), Azbil announced the development of its new digital solutions with intelligent
building management systems.
The company launched a technological development project that enables cross-sector information
sharing. It seeks to create new IBMS digital solutions integrating AI and big data to transformcontemporary cities into smart cities. These solutions aim to increase building occupants’ safety andconvenience, reduce energy consumption and operational costs, and contribute to a more sustainable
society.
Over and above, Azbil participates in the Environmental Goods Agreement, showing solid results in
reducing CO2 at customer sites, with a total annual decrease of 2.94 million metric tons, sorting out COVID19 obstacles. By 2030, the company aims for a 3.4-million-metric-ton reduction and a 100% recyclable
product line. 6

Building Trust through a Customer-centric Approach
Azbil operates on the central tenet that its success depends on customer satisfaction. It constantly
monitors changing customer needs and determines contentment through dedicated account teams,
customer interviews, and interactive communication systems with stakeholders. Its service engineers
secure optimized operation, regular inspections, and maintenance while responding fast to urgent
problems and sharing feedback with the company. To this extent, Azbil integrates customers’ viewpoints
within all its business segments to achieve customer satisfaction.
For instance, to ensure safety in hospital settings and stop the spread of infections, it deploys specialized
Azbil workers to maintain the air conditioning systems, utilizes its risk management program, andexecutes numerous procedures while working closely with the hospital personnel
Azbil’s Quality Assurance department maintains its corporate reputation across all service lines,
monitoring quality target achievements, quality improvement activities, and crisis management inemergency events. Furthermore, the Safety Assessment department oversees safety guidelines, risk
assessment, authorization systems, and other standards with its risk-level management process.

6

Azbil Corporation Interview with Frost & Sullivan (Frost & Sullivan, September 2022)© Frost & Sullivan 2022

The Growth Pipeline Company™

The company helps its customers stabilize their operation quality, simplifying complex processes withmaintenance technology and automation. It reduces energy use while considering expected and actual
consumption without affecting indoor environment quality or productivity. Additionally, Azbil puts
together solutions to manage automated control“Azbil operates on the central tenet thatdevices more efficiently by collecting data remotely,
its success depends on customer
analyzing event outputs, and having technicalsatisfaction. It constantly monitors
specialists look over control operations. Currently, thechanging customer needs and determines
company is creating a systematic program to train its
contentment through dedicated accountmeasurement, control, and maintenance specialists
teams, customer interviews, andworldwide.
interactive communication systems withstakeholders.”
Several successful customer service examples are atestament to Azbil’s excellent customer strategy. For- Manuel Albornoz,
the Gaysorn group’s Amarin Plaza project, a 30-story
Best Practices Research Analyst
office and commercial building, the company uniquely
shortened the payback period from 3.2 years to 2.8 years. 7 Overall, the company’s remarkable capability
displays lead to customer loyalty, establishing its status as a preferred partner among the globallycompetitive candidates.

Positioned for Growth: Going Beyond Automation
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, several large-scale projects completed in 2020, and increased R&D
expenses, Azbil achieved sales growth in 2021. Sales overseas accounted for 52.1 billion yen, a 16.3%
increase from 2020, and total sales rose from 246.8 to 256.5 billion. 8 In the BA segment, the total numberof orders received in 2022 increased by 11.8% from the previous year. This outcome was brought about,among other things, by an increase in building renovations. Sales increased by 1.9% on an annual basis to119.765 billion yen. 9
In 2022, Azbil’s vision centers on developing new automation, environment and energy, and life-cycle
solutions as a response to climate change, natural disasters, behavioral changes due to infectious
diseases, declining birthrates, and an aging population. As a part of this objective, the company set specificgoals of reaching 300 billion yen in net sales in 2024. 10•

New automation field. The company will transition from automation to autonomy with datautilization and digital transformation promotion.

•

Environmental and energy field. Azbil will provide customer initiatives to become carbon neutral
by leveraging independent and distributed energy resources with interconnected facilities.

•

Life-cycle solution field. The company will address insufficient human resources with 24/7
solutions that provide primary decision support/instructions in the event of anomalies, like alarms
or complaints.

Gaysorn Tower, Case Study, Azbil Field (Azbil Corporation, 2019)azbil Report 2021 (Azbil Corporation, March 2021)
9
azbil Report 2022 (Azbil Corporation, March 2022)
10 azbil Report 2022 (Azbil Corporation, March 2022)
7
8© Frost & Sullivan 2022

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This medium-growth term plan visualizes the company’s objectives for the three business segments,
materializing an upward trajectory. After the transformation phase, Azbil will set the road for a growthphase to propel toward 400 billion yen in net sales in 2030. 11
By fostering its “human-centered automation” philosophy and unique business model, all employees feelproud about contributing to a sustainable society.
In the BA business, the company is enhancing its remote maintenance technology, enabling it to monitor
buildings overseas remotely and provide efficient maintenance services with high added value. It isdeveloping technologies to maintain automated control devices by remotely gathering data andimproving site inspections’ efficiency. By examining the equipment’s self-diagnostic data, Azbil can
provide preventive maintenance services that guarantee system reliability.

A Foot in the Present and an Eye on the Future
Azbil will work with NTT Urban Solutions, NTT Facilities, NTT Urban Development, NTT Communications,and Daikin Industries on HVAC devices as part of its GHG emission reduction initiatives. Through thesecollaborations, the company will establish a green transformation solution in HVAC control technologies
to reduce CO2 emissions from office buildings by 20%.
Ultimately, the company’s 2021 smart building projects sustain its corporate philosophy, goals, andmomentum in an illustrative manner: 12•

Azbil plans to implement a monitoring control system for a large-scale development project
involving a district cooling plan, five office blocks, three residential blocks, and commercial, art,and cultural facilities in central Bangkok.

•

The company is currently developing air-conditioning control facilities that utilize AI for a buildingthat combines research facilities and offices in Singapore.

•

Azbil is implementing its building management systems and HVAC control to optimize energy
usage in an eco-friendly multi-story office tower of the highest standard in Jakarta.

•

The company’s BMS and HVAC control optimize energy consumption and the living environment
in a multi-story office building next to one of Asia’s most recognized banks in Malaysia.

•

Major developers from Japan and Thailand are operating a multi-story building complex in central
Bangkok using Azbil’s BMS and HVAC management systems.

Aside from developing and launching new air conditioning systems, cloud computing, and AI products, thecompany plans to actively promote collaborative creation with other companies. Azbil intends to expand
its overseas customer contact points by introducing products for overseas markets and building
relationships with leading companies. The company will also unveil cloud-based energy-saving systems
and VPP services.
In the end, Azbil’s impressive growth acceleration, trajectory, services, and exceptional strategies earn its
customers’ trust and loyalty, enabling it to capture more market share.
11
12

azbil Report 2022 (Azbil Corporation, March 2022)
Ibid© Frost & Sullivan 2022

The Growth Pipeline Company™

Conclusion
Achieving a sustainable society relies on enabling human-centered buildings that ensure green cities anddigital transformation while improving occupants’ safety, comfort, and productivity. Contributing to
global environment preservation must align with reaching a crystal-clear synergy between people andtechnology through integration, measurement, and control.
Overall, Azbil addresses these unmet needs with a strong leadership focus that incorporates customercentric strategies and exemplifies best practice implementation. It optimizes buildings with energy-saving
technologies, demand management, innovative machine learning, and predictive control. Its model builds
life cycles, encompassing instrumentation design, installation and engineering, maintenance services,energy-saving solutions, and operation/management of facilities. Above and beyond, the company
constantly monitors customer needs and changes, responding quickly to emergencies while deliveringrobust results. Azbil remains a trusted partner, earning a reputation for offering the overall best in themarket.
With its strong overall performance, Azbil Corporation earns Frost & Sullivan’s 2022 Southeast Asia Smart
Building Solutions Company of the Year Award.

© Frost & Sullivan 2022

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What You Need to Know about the Company of the Year Recognition
Frost & Sullivan’s Company of the Year Award is its top honor and recognizes the market participant thatexemplifies visionary innovation, market-leading performance, and unmatched customer care.

Best Practices Award Analysis
For the Company of the Year Award, Frost & Sullivan analysts independently evaluated the criteria listed
below.

Visionary Innovation & Performance

Customer Impact

Addressing Unmet Needs: Customers’ unmet orunder-served needs are unearthed andaddressed by a robust solution development
process

Price/Performance Value: Products or services
provide the best value for the price comparedto similar market offerings

Visionary Scenarios Through Mega Trends:
Long-range, macro-level scenarios areincorporated into the innovation strategy
through the use of Mega Trends, thereby
enabling first-to-market solutions and new
growth opportunities
Leadership Focus: Company focuses on building
a leadership position in core markets and on
creating stiff barriers to entry for newcompetitors
Best Practices Implementation: Best-in-classimplementation is characterized by processes,
tools, or activities that generate a consistentand repeatable level of successCustomer Purchase Experience: Quality of thepurchase experience assures customers thatthey are buying the optimal solution foraddressing their unique needs and constraints
Customer Ownership Experience: Customers
proudly own the company’s product or service
and have a positive experience throughout thelife of the product or service
Customer Service Experience: Customer service
is accessible, fast, stress-free, and high quality
Brand Equity: Customers perceive the brandpositively and exhibit high brand loyalty

Financial Performance: Strong overall businessperformance is achieved in terms of revenue,
revenue growth, operating margin, and otherkey financial metrics© Frost & Sullivan 2022

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About Frost & Sullivan
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Analytical Perspectives:© Frost & Sullivan 2022

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