Making better use of energy

Staying competitive means finding ways to reduce cost, and Massy Technologies InfoCom has partnered with global leader Schneider Electric to bring the latest energy efficiency technologies.

The companies announced their partnership to select clients last month at a cocktail event at Jaffa at the Oval in St Clair.

“Our target market is everybody, really. Any business or service provider, once you are running an organisation (you can benefit) from these services to manage your energy (use), reduce cost and be more competitive,” Massy Technologies CEO Ian John told Business Day.

Schneider’s sales director for the Caribbean, Manuel Rodrigues, said the company’s focus is making a product that supports the end user’s goal by creating systems that can help them manage and control how they use energy, especially for critical infrastructure, including data storage.

And while it’s not their primary focus, their “solutions” go hand-in-hand with renewable energy platforms, including systems that can switch between solar and electrical power grids, allowing clients to tailor how they consume energy and ultimately reducing their carbon footprints.

Schneider is looking forward to the partnership, Rodrigues added, because the Massy network will allow them to tap into the regional English-speaking Caribbean market.

Massy is also excited because Schneider’s products embody the trends towards digital transformation and how technology is impacting industries, business and lives, John said.

“The World Economic Forum has suggested that by 2030, close to one billion people will have their jobs in some way affected by things like machine learning, automation, robotics and data analytics. It’s the fourth industrial revolution,” he said.

Massy hopes the partnership will allow local and regional businesses to embrace technology and automation. These systems will allow clients to digitally track the way energy being consumed – and allows for remote adjustments. Light controls, for example, can be set to a timer, or if a server, for example, has low activity, it can be turned off or conversely, if it has high traffic, it can get an energy boost.

“What we are looking at is allowing local and regional businesses to benefit from the technology and manage their energy costs and efficiency by using automation. It’s affording you agility and nimbleness allowing you reduce cost structures and be competitive,” John said.

Clients running on an old business model and who choose not to invest and upgrade their technology, run the risk of falling behind. “If my competitor invests in energy management and data transformation and are able to reduce costs while managing the digital process, they are able to do more with less resources and they are able to do it any time, anywhere in the world. So, guess who’s going to have a competitive advantage going forward?” John said. Automation and efficiency, then, are what will give a company the competitive edge. Through this collaboration, Massy’s reach and Schneider’s innovations will hopefully transform the business models for clients through the region.