Smart homes are all the hype these days. We asked Emmanuel Francois to elaborate on his expertise: smart buildings.Question: Is there a big difference between home automation and smart buildings? Answer: I would say there are two major differences: a smart home has less technical equipment than a smart building, and in a smart building efficiency is much more important. But another difference is that in smart buildings the focus is more on local IT solutions. The BMS (Building Management System) is largely ‘analog’ and not necessarily interactive or remotely controllable. A smart home is more likely to be fully ‘digital’ and remotely controllable via the Internet.