Adopting Technology Is Like Restoring a 1967 Austin Healey
by CUBE Team
Every time someone asks me how a BMS company should adopt new technology, the first thing that comes to mind is a full restoration of a 1967 Austin Healey.
It sounds like a strange comparison until you look at how people actually restore classic cars. Nobody approaches it the same way, and nobody should. The same is true for technology in our industry.
Three things decide your approach
Before you pick a tool, a platform or a partner, be honest about three things.
How comfortable are you with the work? Some people know engines inside out. Others have never opened the hood.
What is your budget? A restoration can cost a few thousand dollars or a small fortune, depending on how far you go.
How much time do you personally have? Not your team’s time. Yours. Someone has to manage the project, make the calls and keep it moving.
Those three answers matter more than which product is the best on paper.
Three ways to restore the car
Do it yourself. You know mechanics, you have the time and the money, and most important, you enjoy it. In a BMS company, this is the owner or engineer who writes his own scripts, sets up his own automations and connects his own systems. It works well when you love it. The risk is that the business starts to depend on your nights and weekends.
Do it with a guide. You have the time and the budget, but not the know-how, or you simply do not enjoy it. You still want to work on the car, so you bring in someone who has done it before and work next to them. In a BMS company, your team does the work while someone experienced sets it up, trains them and checks the results. You learn as you go and you end up owning the result.
Hand over the keys. You have the budget, but not the time, the comfort or the interest. You give the car to someone you trust and wait for it to come back running. In a BMS company, a partner sets it up and runs it, and you use the results. It is the fastest path, as long as you choose that partner carefully, because you will depend on them.
None of these is wrong. It depends on who you are.
A quick self-test
Here are five terms you will hear more and more. Count how many you could explain to your team tomorrow.
API: the agreed way two systems talk to each other, the same idea as BACnet between controllers.
Automation: a sequence of operation for the office. When this happens, do that, every time, without anyone remembering to do it.
Bot or agent: a bot answers fixed questions. An agent can look things up, follow instructions and suggest the next step, while a person decides.
MCP: a secure connection that lets the assistant you already use work with your own business data, inside your permissions, a bit like a front end that can see every system in the building.
SQL: the language most databases speak. It is where your jobs, estimates and service history actually live.
If you could explain all five, you are probably a do-it-yourself restorer. If you know a couple, you will want a guide. If none of them ring a bell, that is fine. Hand over the keys and keep running the business.
The expensive mistakes
Paying for the full restoration when you only needed brakes. Buying a large system to fix one problem you could have solved with something much smaller.
Rebuilding the engine the first time you open the hood. Taking on your most critical systems, like your estimates or your accounting, before you have any experience with smaller changes.
Buying parts you never install. Software that gets paid for every month and never becomes part of how the team works.
Skipping the inspection. Starting without knowing what you already have: what data lives in your systems, what lives in spreadsheets and what lives only in someone’s head.
Where to start
Good restorations happen in stages. Brakes first, then the electrical, then the paint. Technology works the same way.
Pick the one task your team repeats most often and likes the least. Fix only that. Make the new way easier than the old way, so nobody has to be convinced. Look at the result after a few weeks. Then pick the next one.
You do not need to understand every new term or buy every new product to get started. You only need to know which kind of restorer you are, and which part of the car to work on first.
So, which one are you?