By Gary Audin
“Energy Management Endpoints Impact the Reseller”
Energy conservation and the related savings are pointed out in many articles and blogs. Most of the time, the energy conservation strategy is a plan and policies that are continually in operation. But the energy consumption is not monitored in real time. Organizations with multiple sites traditionally have the energy conservation effort handled locally, sometimes with the headquarters defining the goals and methods for implementation.
Cisco announced an extension to their energy management portfolio at CiscoLive this past June, http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Cisco-Powers-Up-Energy-Management-Tools-for-Utilities-Consumers-Businesses-NASDAQ-CSCO-1283367.htm.
Cisco’s announcement builds “on its recently announced Connected Grid portfolio and help consumers and businesses better monitor and manage their energy consumption for cost and carbon savings, including an easy-to-use interface for the home environment.”
Cisco also announced “updates to its Smart Connected Buildings portfolio, including the new Cisco Network Building Mediator Manager 6300, which enables centralized management of Smart Connected Buildings across global enterprise operations, and the new Cisco Network Building Mediator 3.1, which provides the platform for linking multiple disparate building automation systems and protocols over Internet Protocol and for allowing greater integration and visibility of energy flows across real estate and information technology.”
The addition of these products will have an impact on the reseller. Offering products for voice, video and data usually do not require a cost benefit analysis. The customer already has these products or can easily imagine their use and justification.
The energy products from Cisco or any other equivalent vendor will require that the reseller present a financial advantage case to the customer. The reseller should know the electrical rates for the customer’s locations and be able to show the energy cost reduction through real time energy management. Resellers should look to the vendor for help and examples of how to present the value proposition to the customer.
A big question is “What does the reseller need to know about energy?” The reseller will have to educate the sales, installation, support and help desk staffs in the new products. The reseller staff will also have to learn a number of energy and electrical power concepts and terms. The sales effort will have to provide an education to the customer so the customer can speak the language and demonstrate the justification internally to those who need to approve the purchase.
The reseller may meet the customer’s facilities staff for the first time. The facilities staff will probably not have much knowledge about IP networks. They will however know a lot about energy consumption, cost and ways to manage energy use. The reseller needs to ensure that the sales personnel do not try to snow the customer’s staff. They will probably be caught and the sale may go nowhere.
The most likely candidates for the Cisco products are enterprises with multiple sites. These sites need to be moderate to heavy users of energy. An insurance company may see the value of the Cisco products for their national and regional offices but not be interested in deploying the Cisco products in small remote offices with 5 to 20 personnel.
The single site operation with everything under one roof will probably not see the benefits. If however, there are multiple buildings at the one site, then the enterprise may see a benefit. The smaller the enterprise, especially with a single site, the harder the sell.
