by Shane Henson — October 7, 2011—Two new reports released by Verdantix, an independent analyst firm, reveal what many facilities managers have long known and tried to contend with: energy, facilities and sustainability leaders charged with cutting energy costs, optimizing enterprise energy efficiency and reporting GHG emissions face a huge technology integration challenge. The reports, Smart Innovators: Energy Management Software and a Buyer’s Guide for Energy Management Software, find that technology-enabled enterprise energy management requires up to 8 different software applications to meet 12 different usage scenarios.
The Verdantix surveys of energy software suppliers and buyers identified 72 suppliers globally of energy management software. The survey revealed that releases of entirely new applications peaked in 2009 with 21 product launches, in 2010 this fell to 10 new apps, and 2011 has seen an additional 7 new energy software applications. The buying community is firmly rooted in the line of business functions. Of 33 suppliers surveyed, 63% sell to the head of energy, 53% to the head of facilities, and 44% to the head of sustainability. By contrast the CFO only features as a direct contract sponsor for 28% of suppliers, and remarkably the CIO’s team has only been a software buyer for 19% of 33 energy software suppliers. The low involvement of information technology (IT) reflects the preponderance of SaaS propositions, tactical deployments and a lack of corporate IT policy on energy software, according to the analysis provided in the report.
The Verdantix Buyer’s Guide for Energy Management Software finds that market penetration is highest in the retail, government, education, technology, real estate and telecoms sectors. Media, basic resources, travel and leisure have the lowest rates of energy software adoption according to the 33 suppliers surveyed. Suppliers have responded to the integration challenge by throwing warm bodies at the problem: 64% of the software suppliers in the survey have developed their own wrap-around energy services while a further 12% partner for energy services such as data collection, processing, analysis and energy procurement.
“Without a doubt the energy management software market is hot,” commented Janet Lin, Verdantix senior manager in the New York office. “During the last two years total announced VC investment in the sector has exceeded $100 million and we estimate an equivalent amount in corporate funding or acquisition spend by the likes of CA Technologies, IBM, IHS, Oracle and SAP. But funding doesn’t immediately translate into value delivery, and corporate energy management is a complex challenge. IT services firms like Accenture, Capgemini and Infosys have the skill set to help their software partners crack IT systems integration. But connecting up the software to creaking, analogue systems to automate data collection and control devices will be costly and very slow.”
