Finance operational excellence: Unlocking 7-figure savings from day 1

A leading financial institution operating over 1,200 retail locations across Canada sought to modernize and optimize its building management operations. Faced with outdated infrastructure, alarm fatigue, and limited visibility into energy consumption, the organization needed a scalable and cost-effective solution to improve efficiency, reduce operational costs, and enhance sustainability.

By leveraging KODE OS, the client transformed its approach to building management—implementing predictive monitoring, proactive maintenance, standardized alarm management, centralized vendor coordination, and advanced energy optimization.

Challenges

Outdated systems & vendor lock-in

The client’s buildings were equipped with legacy BMS controllers that were neither open to modifications nor optimizations. Upgrading these systems required expensive fees from incumbent vendors, leaving the organization with two undesirable options: overpay for necessary enhancements or operate inefficiently with outdated technology.

Unstructured & inconsistent data

Building and system data varied widely across the portfolio, creating a lack of standardization that hindered effective analysis. This inconsistency prevented the organization from making data-driven decisions to optimize energy usage and operational efficiency.

Limited visibility into energy performance

Due to vendor lock-in, the client struggled to gain a comprehensive view of its portfolio’s energy consumption. Without centralized insights, the organization lacked the ability to quickly diagnose inefficiencies, implement energy-saving measures, or meet the needs of various internal teams, including:

• Operations teams requiring a unified vendor management platform
• Regional engineering managers needing precise control and analysis tools
• Central engineering and energy teams responsible for tracking, diagnosing, and optimizing energy performance

Alarm fatigue & inefficient resource allocation

Thousands of daily alarms—received via BMS, emails, or calls—overwhelmed the operations team. The lack of prioritization and categorization meant that urgent issues were sometimes delayed while minor ones received unnecessary attention, leading to inefficiencies and excessive truck dispatches.

Manual alarm reconciliation

Investigating alarms and identifying root causes required manual reconciliation across multiple systems and communication channels. This time-consuming and labor-intensive process slowed response times and made issue resolution cumbersome.

KODE Labs’ Solution

KODE Labs implemented KODE OS, an open, unified smart building management platform that seamlessly integrated with the client’s existing infrastructure—eliminating the need for costly BMS upgrades while unlocking significant operational efficiencies.

Data standardization & portfolio-wide optimization

KODE OS created a centralized, structured dataset across all locations, making operational and energy data easily accessible. With an intuitive user interface, the system enabled streamlined data utilization, real-time insights, and automated decision-making for store operations.

Automated fault detection & alarm management

KODE OS’ Fault Detection & Diagnostics (FDD) system consolidated alarms from multiple sources, categorizing them by severity, type, and urgency. This helped prioritize critical issues, reduce unnecessary truck dispatches by 10-15%, and improve overall operational efficiency.

Work order automation & proactive maintenance

By integrating directly with the client’s work order systems, KODE OS automated maintenance workflows based on alarm criticality, location, and issue type. Using its Digital Commissioning application, KODE OS proactively identified and flagged performance issues across HVAC, energy efficiency, comfort, and network operations.

Energy optimization & real-time insights

Through an intuitive dashboard, the client gained a clear, portfolio-wide overview of key operational metrics, including:

• Alarm management & leak detection
• Setpoint deviations & work order tracking
• Weekly and monthly fault reports
• Energy consumption insights ranked by impact

With real-time visibility, the organization could quickly diagnose inefficiencies, optimize energy performance, and drive sustainability improvements.

Results

• 10-15% reduction in service calls through automated alarm prioritization and proactive maintenance
• Eliminated reliance on costly BMS upgrades with an open, modernized system
• Optimized operations by unifying data across 1,200+ locations
• Improved energy efficiency with real-time analytics and AI-powered optimizations

By partnering with KODE Labs, the client successfully transitioned from a reactive, fragmented operations model to a proactive, data-driven, and highly efficient smart building management system—unlocking long-term cost savings and sustainability benefits.