A practical guide to help procurement teams securely purchase connected building technology. It provides a clear, risk-based approach to balancing cybersecurity, sustainability, compliance and operational efficiency, covering the full technology lifecycle and offering practical supplier questions, procurement principles and tools to help organisations make informed, secure purchasing decisions.

Building technology has changed. Lighting, heating, ventilation, access control, lifts, CCTV, energy meters and intelligent parking now commonly share the same converged network as laptops and email. This connectivity between systems is what gives commercial real estate the data it needs to hit sustainability targets, and meet new rules. It also creates risks — the procurement decisions we make today will be lockedin for the next ten to fifteen years.

This guide is written for the people who buy, approve, operate, or rely on technology in buildings. It’s in plain English. You do not need a background in IT, operational technology, cybersecurity, or law to use it. You DO need to know which colleagues and stakeholders should be in the room before a technology purchase is signed off.

It also draws directly on the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors’ practice information ‘Digital risks in buildings’ (1st edition, June 2025), which sets out how property professionals should identify and manage these risks. Where RICS guidance applies, this guide says so.

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