"Stuck in a highly fragmented industry, building-automation designers are formulating new initiatives to provide interoperability, simplify management, conserve energy, provide security, and reduce costs.
"The OASIS oBIX (Open Building Information Exchange) Technical Committee is working to define a standard Web-services protocol to enable communications between building mechanical and electrical systems and enterprise applications. Because oBIX integrates with enterprises, it will allow continuous visibility of mechanical- and electrical-control systems and will identify problems and trends for system analysis or human interaction..."