All services are on one network

Lyubov Yulis: “All services are on one network!”

Winston Churchill once remarked: “We give shape to our buildings, and they shape us.”

There was talk then about the construction of a new House of Commons building.

If only he knew that half a century later his words could well become the motto of the concept of an “intelligent home”!

People first started talking about “intelligent buildings” (IB – Intelligent Building) in the 1970s in the USA. The most perspicacious developers and designers immediately saw that a new brand, “Intellectual House,” was born. Creatives of all stripes instantly tasted a new combination of sounds — “intelligent home”, smart house, IQ-home… Not just a new real estate industry was born, but much more — a new philosophy of the House. However, there is still no single standard for a “smart home”. At least on the Russian market. But more and more often there is a thesis about the need to create an integrated and automated infrastructure that would save energy resources, create comfort, provide information services, manage all processes, and ensure security. And all these diverse systems will be managed and controlled using the communication infrastructure.

The telecommunications company COMSTAR — United TeleSystems, created on the basis of the three largest telecom operators Comstar, MTU-Inform and Telmos, is actively working on the creation of IB, where all systems and resources will be managed using communication networks. And at the same time, he solves the problem of minimizing the costs of maintaining these systems.
We bring to your attention an interview with Lyubov Yulis, director of commercial real estate at Comstar — United TeleSystems.

Correspondent: Let’s start from the beginning Let us clarify in more detail the tasks facing your department?

L. Yulis: In a broad sense, our work can be considered as the automation of buildings, their intellectualization, since today neither a building nor a business can exist without IT. IT telecom services have become so integrated into the business of our clients that it is sometimes impossible to separate an IT service and a business application. Our department was created in 2004 and specializes exclusively in partnerships with players in the commercial real estate market. Over the course of two years, we have gained quite a lot of experience in working together with investors, developers, and management companies. We have a common goal with them: to make the client happy. That is, to provide him with maximum services and high quality service. Both the owner of the building, who wants to keep the tenant, and we, because we want to keep our client, are interested in this.

Correspondent: Attracting a client and not losing a client: this is the main component of the formula for success. But you are unlikely to find among the producers of goods and services those who would not lose customers. Perhaps this happens to you too?

L. Yulis: The market is changing. Tenants’ demands for office buildings are increasing. And the competition for tenants is intensifying, although there is still a shortage of office space. However, many things have changed for the better in our field.
For example, in the past, the main reason for client departure was not so much the quality of service of the telecom operator, but… moving to another office building. After all, each business center was serviced by a separate operator, with whom an exclusive agreement was signed. But today this approach is not practiced. At least in such iconic business centers as Krylatskie Hills, Aurora Business Park, Tower on the Embankment, Lotte Plaza, Dukat III, several operators are now already working.

Corr.: So exclusive is not only uniqueness, but also a monopoly with all its costs?

L. Yulis: Of course, a monopoly. But tenants must be given not only the right to choose, but also guaranteed full reservation. Not a single operator — no matter how good he is! – can never guarantee accident-free operation. And no provider can fulfill the reservation requirements, especially those imposed by international corporations today. We constantly convinced all market participants to abandon the vicious practice of “exclusive”. And, it seems, they convinced me.

Correspondent: How are your relationships with investors and developers built?

L. Yulis: We consider the owner of the building not as a customer, but as a partner. The logic of this approach is absolutely simple: the owner does not order anything from us and does not pay us anything.
We are united by a common client. The developer invests in the building, and we invest in our own communication systems: we lay the cable, build an entrance to the building, install communication nodes, etc. That is, we act as co-investors. And the owner of the building, as a partner, allocates us premises, provides power, grounding, air conditioning, provides embedded structures, and introduces us to the tenants. And we, in turn, take on all the headaches associated with obtaining technical conditions and work permits, coordinating projects, construction, obtaining permits for all our work, and preparing design documents at all permitting stages. That is, we take upon ourselves all the problems associated with installing telephones in the building.

Corr.: So the partnership begins at the design stage?

L. Yulis: At any stage. But the sooner, the less money the investor will ultimately spend. What does a “traditional” scheme look like? The investor orders telephony from the designers. And they follow the established path to MGTS, receive technical specifications for a copper cable, make a project — for all this, I note, a lot of money is spent! – and then all this turns out to be unnecessary, because it does not meet modern requirements. Then we come, and everything starts from the very beginning. And, by the way, when all embedded structures, all server rooms are being designed, it is important to immediately consult with those who understand what they should be like, how the communication infrastructure should be organized, and so on.

Corr.: Maybe the reason for the “monkey’s work” is that there are no IB standards?

L. Yulis: There is not even a clear classification for office buildings into classes “A”, “B” and “C”, not to mention the standardization of “intelligent buildings”. There is only a conditional agreement concluded in 2003 between leading real estate consultants. And most developers today declare their buildings, of course, as class “A” buildings. I am sure that brokers, developers and tenants need a clear classification that will streamline the market. Although for us these subtleties are not so important — the requirements for telecommunications in class A and B offices are practically the same.
When it comes to smart buildings, it is not clear what criteria distinguish it. Often in practice, an “intelligent home” is a building equipped with a single integrated system, say, only air conditioning or video surveillance, which is fundamentally wrong. We see serious difficulties due to the underestimation by market participants themselves (construction, IT and communications) of the potential benefits of cooperation. Today, the “hunt” for an IZ developer is carried out either by communications specialists or IT companies (options with numerous contractors are not even considered), and such a project is usually characterized by “one-sided” service in the building: either very good communications, or management of engineering systems not bad. Separate work by IT specialists to create an information management system can be very effective, but is by no means optimal for the end user. After all, it is impossible to ensure that, for example, a TV can work as a security system screen, and a telephone can function as an intercom without the participation of signalmen. In addition, this collaboration can reduce some of the investment in the project that is usually carried out by both IT companies and telecom operators.

Correspondent: What services are most in demand today in commercial real estate?

L. Yulis: The requirements for telecommunications services have changed a lot today. Among our clients there are companies that are already ordering Internet channels with a capacity of up to 100 Mbit/s. The fact is that new generation networks now provide previously impossible technical parameters for communication services (simultaneous transmission of voice, video and data at speeds of up to 1 Gbit/s, unification of geographically distributed objects into a single corporate network with an abbreviated numbering plan, provision of centralized video surveillance) .

Therefore, for telephony, as a rule, all serious customer companies already install their own equipment, receiving much greater freedom of action. True, hybrid solutions are still popular, and therefore the capabilities of IP technologies are being partially realized. To organize external telephony, clients prefer to take traditional E1 streams, connect them to an IP station, and then build IP networks inside the office. Although, having an internal IP network, there is no point in building an external network in the traditional way. Apparently, most customer companies are not yet psychologically ready to completely switch to VoIP. However, clients in new office buildings are increasingly ordering channels of completely different bandwidth. If earlier the norm was the E1 channel (2 Mbit/s), now they order E3 (45 Mbit/s), or VPN (private virtual networks — ed.) over an IP network with a throughput of 20, 50 and 100 Mbit/s . For example, in the Krylatskie Hills complex, where the offices of Microsoft, Cisco, and Huawei are located, orders have already been received for 45 Mbit/s channels.

In the Aurora Business Park business center especially for one of the tenants – bank – we installed several VPN channels –
100 Mbit/s, 100 Mbit/s, 10 Mbit/s. In buildings of this level, operators must use only new generation networks and reach them with Gigabit channels. I repeat, full-fledged services can be offered only by a few large operators with their own new generation networks.

Corr.: What is your forecast for 2008, when the Moscow City International Business Center will bring a million square meters of office space?

L. Yulis: Experts predict that in 2008 the commercial real estate market should become saturated, i.e. balance between supply and demand. Most likely, the vacancy rate will increase slightly.

Correspondent: Are prices expected to decline, in your opinion?

L. Yulis: There is hardly any point in counting on price reductions in the near future. But they will definitely stabilize. If supply significantly exceeds demand, then rates will begin to decline. Today this is difficult to predict.

Correspondent: Who can you name among the developers with whom you have developed good partnerships?

L. Yulis: These are Forum Property, CMI Development, Hines, MIRAX GROUP, HORUS, AIG/Lincoln, we are establishing relationships with ENKA and Capital Group. And we are open to cooperation with everyone who works in this market — IT integrators, already well-known players and newly emerging investors and developers.

Corr.: What place do wireless technologies occupy today, what is their future?

L. Yulis: Today Wi-Fi is quite widely used to access the Internet. Comstar-UTS is engaged in a whole program of organizing hot spots, installing them in public places, restaurants, hotel lobbies, and libraries. This solution is also interesting for large hotels, where instead of building an expensive SCS, Wi-Fi equipment is installed and thus provides Internet access from the hotel rooms.
But the problem of complete mobility can only be solved by the convergence of wired and mobile communications, the so-called FMC service (Fixed Mobile Convergence — ed.). This is a service of tomorrow, today we are testing it on our network together with our partners MTS.
We are confident that the future of telecommunications lies with FMC, i.e. soon all users will work with mobile devices capable of switching from GSM to Wi-Fi mode upon entering an appropriately equipped building.

Corr.: The list of services is constantly expanding. What stimulates the development of the IT and telecom services market — customer requirements?

L. Yulis: The process is two-way. On the one hand, the client needs something new, on the other hand, we offer a new product that he never even imagined. When we launched a new generation network in 2003, it was a colossal technological breakthrough; most of our clients had no idea that such services existed. VPNs of the second and third levels appeared and completely new possibilities, speeds and quality guarantees opened up. But the demand for good “new” is growing instantly. For example, we have already received the first order for a 1 Gbit/s VPN channel.
Corr.: Finally, the last question: what is the most pressing task of building automation today?

L. Julis: This is the task of integrating systems from different manufacturers. One company cannot create universal “intelligence.” But what happens? Each system itself is magnificent and unique. But together, these “smart solutions” do not want to work, or each is controlled from its own center, which creates inconvenience and redundancy during maintenance. Ideal scheme: all services are under the control of a single management system! I have already mentioned the second problem — the separate work of IT integrators, developers and telecom operators within the framework of projects to create automated buildings.