{"id":5411,"date":"2013-07-02T10:25:30","date_gmt":"2013-07-02T14:25:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theweekinimaging.com\/?p=5411"},"modified":"2013-07-02T10:25:30","modified_gmt":"2013-07-02T14:25:30","slug":"looking-beyond-power-protection-with-esps-steve-galloway-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/feature-articles\/2013\/07\/looking-beyond-power-protection-with-esps-steve-galloway-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Looking Beyond Power Protection with ESP\u2019s Steve Galloway Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Steve<\/a>

Steve Galloway<\/p><\/div>\n

(Editor\u2019s note: Last week\u2019s interview with Steve Galloway of ESP continues with a rundown on new products for the dealer channel, why dealers should consider partnering with ESP, trends affecting future product offerings, and what the industry can expect to hear from ESP over the next 6-12 months.<\/em><\/p>\n

The dealer channel has discovered that you can help them better manage some of the devices they\u2019re selling and you\u2019ve got some new products that extend those capabilities. Tell me about them?<\/em><\/p>\n

Galloway:<\/strong> Dealers who we work with on their MPS have asked if we could help them with an energy management capability. So we launched the first of its kind eCommandCenter [a platform that empowers businesses to control plug-level energy consumption, protect equipment, and implement sustainability programs] in conjunction with our surge protection. We just signed an order in excess of over $150,000 wholesale with a dealer who is bringing this solution into one of his big customers. This is an annuity stream because it has licenses. Dealers and OEM\u2019s can charge for set up as a service and go in and meet with the customer on a quarterly basis to show them their energy usage and run reports for them.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a lot of independent research data out there and we\u2019ve found that about 70 percent of the time the end user turns off the energy saving mode on the equipment because they don\u2019t want to sit there and wait for the fuser to warm up to make that image. Customers also turn off energy saving modes on PC\u2019s. That\u2019s what we\u2019re finding with this solution.<\/p>\n

Again, I go back to the IT community, they don\u2019t want to use up a lot of their bandwidth with all these other offerings. ESP\u2019s eCC platform doesn\u2019t use up bandwidth or IP addresses since it is based on Zigby wireless technology, and we\u2019re seeing people get interested in it in the IT space along with our imaging dealers and OEMs.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve done the same thing with SurgeX new IP control capability. It\u2019s a different technology. It\u2019s Web enabled and has an IP address. You can use it to control your speakers and flat panels at the plug level. You can have it on your iPad and use it to turn on and off things here while you\u2019re in London, for example.<\/p>\n

The key with energy management and high-level data is that a lot of work has been done over the years with HVAC and lighting to save energy in the building. What\u2019s left is the equipment and plug-level energy use, which is about 30 percent of the energy used in a building. We can now give the customer, the OEM, and our dealer partners the capability to understand how that energy is being used. Our ESP and SurgeX solutions measure actual usage, not an estimate or algorithm used to model device usage.<\/p>\n

Why should a BTA dealer partner with ESP?<\/em><\/p>\n

Galloway:<\/strong> Studies by Industry Analysts and Buyers Laboratory have shown that we have the overall best technology for let-through energy, surge protection, EMI\/RFI noise and interference filtering (CAT5e and CAT 6 network protection) with our devices. The new enVision line with diagnostics and an integrated scope meter capability for the service community has gained a lot of traction in our preliminary customer conversations. We are bringing them totally new solutions and capabilities to grow their business within imaging, audio-visual, IT, security and sustainability\/MPS.<\/p>\n

The star of course is our technology. As important, and we\u2019re all in business to make money, is because of our lifetime warranty. If something happens to our device and an imaging unit gets damaged we stand behind that product and we will either fix it or replace it. It\u2019s a value add for imaging dealers to offer our connected warranty and \u2018piece of mind\u2019 to their customer. The dealer can then add this to the lease and get a nice profit stream.<\/p>\n

If you think about it, most of the imaging devices are on a lease and depending on the technology and what they want to offer to their customer, the lease payment can be $3 to $4.50. That\u2019s a fairly decent conversation to have with the customer. It\u2019s a great insurance policy and we are all familiar with that concept. The dealer gets their revenue and profit up front because they\u2019re going through a leasing concern. That\u2019s a nice value add to them and we\u2019ve lowered their service expenses and we better their customer experience \u2013 everyone wins.<\/p>\n

Plus, we have an experienced team in the imaging space. Our team will come out and train a dealer\u2019s service technicians. When they\u2019re working large deals, they\u2019ll do joint calls with the dealer to explain why a customer would want to use this surge protection or the new technologies we now offer. We are not the cheapest product out there, but we are offer the best technology portfolio and we have\u00a0 85 percent market share.<\/p>\n

What trends are you watching that will have an effect on your future product offerings?<\/em><\/p>\n

Galloway:<\/strong> Two trends\u2014technical and sales. Whether you\u2019re in the IT business, whether you\u2019re in the digital display business, or whether you\u2019re in the imaging business, there\u2019s this view that these devices have become less susceptible to surges, spikes, and noise in the office. Quite the contrary, the power of some of these devices is higher than four, five or six computers inside of them, so they are very susceptible to power anomalies. The electronics are more sophisticated and are being compacted into smaller spaces.<\/p>\n

The other thing you see is all this technology in the office\u2014imaging devices, servers, PCs, refrigerators, heaters under employee\u2019s desks. There\u2019s a lot of draw on these circuits and a lot of these buildings weren\u2019t designed to handle that. We just finished a study of real power anomalies in four major metropolitan areas and anomalies averaged over 40 per month on a branch circuit. What we\u2019ve done to improve the technology over the last few years is to provide less let-through energy, better noise protection, more noise filtering, and the capability to understand what\u2019s happening in that building with hard facts and data due to the smart nature and recording capabilities of our technology.<\/p>\n

Whether you have an imaging device, a server, or some other kind of high-end electronic device running your business, most of them, have a switch- mode power supply. And a switch-mode power supply, whether in the server or in the imaging device or other electronics, is susceptible to surges, and spikes.<\/p>\n

The other thing we\u2019re seeing is this convergence with the IT departments who are now responsible for the imaging devices, the IT equipment, and the AV equipment. You think about my old company and our executive conference room. That was recently managed by facilities and now it is switching to IT since everything is networked, so we have capabilities to enable that and protect the audio-visual devices.<\/p>\n

Although people, frankly, when you talk to them don\u2019t want to pay for it, there\u2019s a lot of interest in the sustainability space and how much energy they\u2019re using and where can they do better. We\u2019ve seen IT people use our eCommandCenter to justify equipment upgrades. Those are the two or three things we\u2019re looking out at into the future to engage the IT services business of our OEM partners and then try to help our dealers understand that business model and market.<\/p>\n

What can we expect to hear out of ESP over the next 6-12 months?<\/em><\/p>\n

Galloway:<\/strong> An expansion of our IT server line, additional sophistication in our surge and noise protection and integration with OEM platforms. We want to take our technology and push it into that system to enable service providers to do remote Tier 1 or Tier 2 support by understanding whether anomalies are causing the customer issue. We will soon have new remote access and communication capabilities.<\/p>\n

If the customer calls and says their machine is down, they can access our unit remotely to see if it\u2019s a surge, a spike, whether they have a brownout or SAG. This integration of communication with improvements in the technology is something we\u2019ve shown at tradeshows. We\u2019re coming out with enVision, which is\u00a0 a power conditioning system with advanced diagnostics and scope meter capabilities. We\u2019ll be launching that in the third quarter.<\/p>\n

The other thing you\u2019ll see is an expansion of the energy management solutions we have at the plug level. We recently launched a network management and appliance\/device manager system called Cervella that can overlay a dealer\u2019s or OEM\u2019s service dispatch system to see other things on the network, but more importantly, control other things on the network with this technology. This technology is encrypted, offers secure access management and single user password control at the administrator level. They can set up their service communities easier, they can control\u00a0 device access management easier, and they can manage other things on the network other than imaging devices. We\u2019re showing that to the OEMs.<\/p>\n

You can also expect to see more new technology, more sustainability and green, and more network capabilities. We\u2019re still going after our core business in the audio visual and imaging space, but we are now taking our technology and offering it to non-imaging communities where they see a value in protecting their mission critical electronics that are the life-blood of their business and operations.<\/p>\n

At ESP-SurgeX we will continue to invest heavily in technology and platforms to help our partners grow their businesses, lower their service expenses, and improve their customer experience.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Editor\u2019s note: Last week\u2019s interview with Steve Galloway of ESP continues with a rundown on new products for the dealer channel, why dealers should consider partnering with ESP, trends affecting future product offerings, and what the industry can expect to hear from ESP over the next 6-12 months. The dealer channel has discovered that you can help them better manage some of the devices they\u2019re selling and you\u2019ve got some new products that extend those capabilities. Tell me about them? Galloway: Dealers who we work with on their MPS have asked if we could help them with an energy management capability. So we launched the first of its kind eCommandCenter [a platform that empowers businesses to control plug-level energy consumption, protect equipment, and implement sustainability programs] in conjunction with our surge protection. We just signed an order in excess of over $150,000 wholesale with a dealer who is bringing this solution into one of his big customers. This is an annuity stream because it has licenses. Dealers and OEM\u2019s can charge for set up as a service and go in and meet with the customer on a quarterly basis to show them their energy usage and run reports for them. There\u2019s a lot of independent research data out there and we\u2019ve found that about 70 percent of the time the end user turns off the energy saving mode on the equipment because they don\u2019t want to sit there and wait for the fuser to warm up to make that image. Customers also turn off energy saving modes on PC\u2019s. That\u2019s what we\u2019re finding with this solution. Again, I go back to the IT community, they don\u2019t want to use up a lot of their bandwidth with all these other offerings. ESP\u2019s eCC platform doesn\u2019t use up bandwidth or IP addresses since it is based on Zigby wireless technology, and we\u2019re seeing people get interested in it in the IT space along with our imaging dealers and OEMs. We\u2019ve done the same thing with SurgeX new IP control capability. It\u2019s a different technology. It\u2019s Web enabled and has an IP address. You can use it to control your speakers and flat panels at the plug level. You can have it on your iPad and use it to turn on and off things here while you\u2019re in London, for example. The key with energy management and high-level data is that a lot of work has been done over the years with HVAC and lighting to save energy in the building. What\u2019s left is the equipment and plug-level energy use, which is about 30 percent of the energy used in a building. We can now give the customer, the OEM, and our dealer partners the capability to understand how that energy is being used. Our ESP and SurgeX solutions measure actual usage, not an estimate or algorithm used to model device usage. Why should a BTA dealer partner with ESP? Galloway: Studies by Industry Analysts and Buyers Laboratory have shown that we have the overall best technology for let-through energy, surge protection, EMI\/RFI noise and interference filtering (CAT5e and CAT 6 network protection) with our devices. The new enVision line with diagnostics and an integrated scope meter capability for the service community has gained a lot of traction in our preliminary customer conversations. We are bringing them totally new solutions and capabilities to grow their business within imaging, audio-visual, IT, security and sustainability\/MPS. The star of course is our technology. As important, and we\u2019re all in business to make money, is because of our lifetime warranty. If something happens to our device and an imaging unit gets damaged we stand behind that product and we will either fix it or replace it. It\u2019s a value add for imaging dealers to offer our connected warranty and \u2018piece of mind\u2019 to their customer. The dealer can then add this to the lease and get a nice profit stream. If you think about it, most of the imaging devices are on a lease and depending on the technology and what they want to offer to their customer, the lease payment can be $3 to $4.50. That\u2019s a fairly decent conversation to have with the customer. It\u2019s a great insurance policy and we are all familiar with that concept. The dealer gets their revenue and profit up front because they\u2019re going through a leasing concern. That\u2019s a nice value add to them and we\u2019ve lowered their service expenses and we better their customer experience \u2013 everyone wins. Plus, we have an experienced team in the imaging space. Our team will come out and train a dealer\u2019s service technicians. When they\u2019re working large deals, they\u2019ll do joint calls with the dealer to explain why a customer would want to use this surge protection or the new technologies we now offer. We are not the cheapest product out there, but we are offer the best technology portfolio and we have\u00a0 85 percent market share. What trends are you watching that will have an effect on your future product offerings? Galloway: Two trends\u2014technical and sales. Whether you\u2019re in the IT business, whether you\u2019re in the digital display business, or whether you\u2019re in the imaging business, there\u2019s this view that these devices have become less susceptible to surges, spikes, and noise in the office. Quite the contrary, the power of some of these devices is higher than four, five or six computers inside of them, so they are very susceptible to power anomalies. The electronics are more sophisticated and are being compacted into smaller spaces. The other thing you see is all this technology in the office\u2014imaging devices, servers, PCs, refrigerators, heaters under employee\u2019s desks. There\u2019s a lot of draw on these circuits and a lot of these buildings weren\u2019t designed to handle that. We just finished a study of real power anomalies in four major metropolitan areas and anomalies averaged over 40 per month on a branch circuit. What we\u2019ve done to improve the technology over the last few years […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5136,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[82],"tags":[487,486,561],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5411"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5411"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5411\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5412,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5411\/revisions\/5412"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}