Case Study

IBM’s historic Research and Development facility faced a challenging imperative: proactively combat Legionella outbreaks while adhering to the imposed limits on structural upgrades, requiring a non-intrusive approach to implementation due to the building’s historical significance.

Collaborating with CBRE, the facilities management provider for the IBM Hursley campus, Spica introduced a pioneering Internet of Things (IoT) solution, ensuring water supply safety and worker well-being.

In partnership with CBRE, Spica devised a revolutionary IoT solution: GemEx Engine® for Healthy Water. This solution harnessed Spica’s cutting-edge sensors, eliminating the need for extensive structural modifications. Spica’s solution introduced an unobtrusive, accurate, and data-driven method for water supply monitoring.

Spica’s GemEx Engine® for Healthy Water sensors are simply connected directly onto the water pipes that need to be monitored, taking just a few minutes to install. Designed specifically for building retrofit, they remove the need for altering existing interior and exterior fittings.

Spica’s solution replaces a previously labour intensive testing regime, in which a staff member would walk the entire site with a thermometer, testing water outlets, taps and showers to ensure that its water was within the acceptable temperature range. This was a full day’s work that sampled only a small proportion of water in actual usage.

Results of the testing were recorded manually in a paper based log. There was no further use of the data past this point and no trend or location based analytics were applied. Now, Spica’s GemEx Engine® for Healthy Water allows for greater accuracy in readings over the entire estate, which are fed into Spica’s GemEx Engine® dashboard for analysis of historical data and predictive modelling. The solutions uses IBM’s Watson IOT platform.

‘Watson IOT and Spica Technologies hunt for Legionella contamination. The Spica Devicepoint® solution does not replace site maintenance teams;  it allows them to focus their efforts on problem remediation instead of monitoring. Using IOT and applied analytics, health risks posed by Legionella at the site are reduced.’

Neil Postlethwaite, Director Watson IoT, IBM

This case study outlines the collaboration between IBM, CBRE, and Spica to revolutionise Legionella monitoring through the implementation of GemEx Engine® for Healthy Water. It addresses the challenge, details the solution, highlights key features, and underscores the significant benefits achieved.