KGS’ Clockworks API – a commitment to the future

June 21, 2018

In 2016, KGS made a significant development investment to open up the Clockworks platform with an application programming interface (API). As we push Clockworks Fault Detection and Diagnostics into the future, it is very important to us that our clients choose KGS with the knowledge that they are future-proofing their investment. This means that their data will not be lost in yet another data silo, but rather open and available for future use cases not even thought of yet today.

The API allows our clients and partners to interface with the underlying diagnostics, virtual meters, performance metrics, time-series data, tasks, and other data monitored, created, and sustained by Clockworks. We have used the API already to support use cases such as integration with computerized maintenance management systems (CMMS), export of data into business intelligence applications such as PowerBI, and integration with external dashboards.

Our clients and partners are interested to create an ever increasing number of applications and metrics that span data sets and systems, be it for facilities teams to better their workflows or owners to aggregate key metrics across their portfolios and businesses. As a result, our API has become a critical feature to allow our clients and partners to fulfill ambitious and interesting business needs.

Over time, we anticipate many more use cases. Today, we use inference algorithms to infer the meaning of objects in building automation systems, such as controllers and points. We may, in time, open up this inference engine through our API to support applications outside of our platform. We are keeping a close eye on the evolution of blockchain technologies applied to the buildings industry, including such applications as asset management systems which use blockchain to create a secure, distributed ledger of information relating to a building’s lifecycle. Analytic applications like Clockworks can become contributors to this process, adding intelligence applied to system data that may initiate or inform workflows on the building’s blockchain.

The future holds many solutions that will dramatically change the way we manage, operate and maintain buildings. Our investment in an API, and its ongoing evolution, is part of our commitment to be flexible, adaptable, and practical to think beyond the confines of our application and the analytics at its core, but to think of the broader context of our clients' and the industry’s needs to change the way we do business for the better.