That's because integration means so many different things to so many different people. And for fire management, I see cooperation as the goal. To support that contention, we can look to Webster's Dictionary. So it seems that cooperation is the most accurate and appropriate term to describe how those systems relate to one another. What is critical is that before the actual installation of a fire detection and alarm system, the system designer and installer must have a clear agreement with the building owner about the design goals of the system.
Cooperation requires good planning.
Let's examine data first. And data is unquestionably a critical element of effective building systems cooperation. Because ultimately, data can be processed into information. Data can also be used to generate integrated reports to help correlate various activities occurring in a building. Naturally, many of those activities relate to life safety.