verdantix report: urjanet supports growth of energy management ecosystem

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URJANET SUPPORTS GROWTH OF ENERGY MANAGEMENT ECOSYSTEM APRIL 2015

Verdantix Ltd © 2007-2015. Reproduction Prohibited. 2

April 2015

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Founded in 2010 and headquartered in Atlanta, Urjanet is a cloud-based provider of energy data

that uses proprietary technology to capture and aggregate near real-time data on energy prices

and consumption, directly from utilities and interval meters. This report provides strategy

leaders in energy management software and services firms, and those responsible for energy and

sustainability management within large corporates, an update on Urjanet’s progress, its product

roadmap and its growth strategy. Verdantix spoke with Sanjoy Malik, CEO; Erik Becker, VP

Sales; Gary Brooks, Chief Marketing Officer; and Mike Pridemore, VP Products to find out more

about Urjanet’s strategy going forward.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

URJANET SUPPORTS GROWTH OF

ENERGY MANAGEMENT ECOSYSTEM

Urjanet Embarks On International

Expansion

FOCUS IS KEY TO URJANET’S

CONTINUED GROWTH

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Figure 1. Utility Data Management Is An

Issue For Firms Regardless of Size

Figure 2. Improving Energy Data Collection

And Reporting Is A Priority For Firms

ORGANIZATIONS MENTIONED

Ameresco, BrightPower, Ecova, EnerNOC,

Envizi, Honda, Nest, PlotWatt, Powerhouse

Dynamics, Salesforce.com, Schneider Electric,

SchoolDude, Siemens, Tesla, thinkstep, Uber,

Urjanet, Verisae, Workiva

FIGURES & REFERENCES

URJANET SUPPORTS GROWTH OF ENERGY MANAGEMENT ECOSYSTEM

Licensed Content


URJANET SUPPORTS GROWTH OF ENERGY MANAGEMENT ECOSYSTEM

Founded in 2010 and headquartered in Atlanta, Urjanet is a cloud-based provider of energy

data that uses proprietary technology to capture and aggregate near real-time data on energy

costs and consumption, directly from utilities (see Verdantix Urjanet Unravels Utility Billing

With Big Energy Data Service). In July 2013, Urjanet believed it had found a scalable and cost-

effective way to capture, process and manage utility bill data. This report provides strategy

leaders within energy management software and services firms, and those responsible for

energy and sustainability management within large corporates, an update on Urjanet’s

progress with regards to its ambitious plans. Verdantix spoke with Sanjoy Malik, CEO; Erik

Becker, VP Sales; Gary Brooks, Chief Marketing Officer; and Mike Pridemore, VP Products to

learn about the firm’s progress against the goals shared with Verdantix in 2013, and find out

more about Urjanet’s strategy going forward. Verdantix heard from Urjanet that it has:

Increased the utility connections that underpin its entire proposition. Urjanet’s core

value proposition exists around capturing electricity, gas and water consumption data

directly from utilities and transforming this into a format that is easy to use by

commercial and industrial firms or software and services firms using its solution (see

Verdantix Energy Management Software And Services Partnership Map). Urjanet has

increased the number of direct data connections it has with North American utilities

from 800 in July 2013, to 1,500 in February 2015. This represents 80% of commercial

utility accounts in North America. Urjanet is now able to serve a much larger

addressable market, increasing the value of its service for software and services firms.

Expanded beyond utility bill data. With the penetration of smart meters within

commercial and industrial firms approaching 50% in the US, utilities are now a rich

source of granular energy consumption data. Where smart meters are installed, Urjanet

can capture 15-minute interval data on a day + 1 basis. This opens up rich possibilities

for users and services firms to analyse energy consumption and cost patterns. The meter

data service is usually positioned as an add-on to Urjanet’s monthly bill data services,

but is attracting some interest as a stand-alone product. One prominent bill processing

vendor in the US is taking the reverse journey: it uses Urjanet’s meter data service and is

now considering adopting its bill management services as well.

Tripled its customer base since July 2013. Urjanet has managed to add a number of

large corporates and services firms to its expanding customer base. In 2014, Urjanet

added firms such as BrightPower, EnerNOC, Honda, PlotWatt, Powerhouse Dynamics,

Verisae and Workiva to its customer portfolio. Managing utility data is a headache for

firms regardless of industry or size. While larger firms have a more complex problem to

deal with, smaller firms have fewer resources to call upon to manage utility bills (see

Figure 1). The commonality of this pain point is reflected in Urjanet reporting interest in

its solution from firms across a wide range of industries and of varying sizes.

Established a stable revenue base to build on. Urjanet’s annual recurring revenues

from its subscription model have tripled annually since 2010. This has allowed Urjanet

to invest in its solution, doubling employees in both India and North America across

sales and marketing, account management and product development.

VERDANTIX — URJANET SUPPORTS GROWTH OF ENERGY MANAGEMENT ECOSYSTEM


Urjanet Embarks On International Expansion

Through its role as an enabler in the energy and sustainability management market rather

than a competitor, Urjanet has seen sustained growth over the past three years. Having

doubled its employees since July 2013, Urjanet does not plan on standing still. Urjanet’s new

set of goals for the next 12-18 months will see it:

Roll out its solution internationally. Urjanet has been able to establish itself as a

leading provider of utility and energy data in North America. Urjanet has now set its

sights on establishing an international presence. By June 2015, Urjanet plans to have

connections with 160 utilities in 20 different countries. Urjanet has already launched in

13 countries outside of North America, including Australia, France, Germany, Italy,

Spain and the UK. One of Urjanet’s international energy software and services

customers is supporting the firm in its international expansion.

Verdantix take: Although the structure of the utility markets are less complex outside North

America, the fundamental challenge of managing large volumes of utility data for multi-site

businesses or energy services firms remains (see Figure 2). This will allow Urjanet to replicate its

offering internationally. Urjanet should be able to establish a presence outside North America

quickly through existing customers with international operations, such as Ameresco, Envizi,

Schneider Electric, Siemens, thinkstep and Verisae. Having one of its largest customers offer to

support its rollout significantly de-risks Urjanet’s international expansion plans.

Source: Verdantix

Figure 1. Utility Data Management Is An Issue For Firms Regardless of Size


Overall

Resources Challenge

Complexity Challenge

Larger firms can find it easier to allocate internal resources to manage utility bills

Complexity of managing utility bills increases with the size of the organization and number of sites

Small Large Size of Firm

Lo

w

Hig

h

Challe

nge


16%

22%

30%

31%

32%

34%

42%

50%

58%

58%

47%

53%

50%

54%

30%

17%

10%

20%

12%

12%

4

5%

3

2

2

3

4

1

“How important is it for your firm to improve the following energy management processes in the next financial year?”

Reduce the cost and time taken to onboard new accounts. Urjanet is investing in its

solution to reduce the time and effort required to connect with new utilities, as well as

add new accounts and tariffs. For example, when a new type of tariff is detected,

Urjanet’s solution identifies which of its existing templates is most similar; it then

duplicates the template updating the necessary parts.

Verdantix take: Investing in areas such as reducing the time to develop new tariff templates helps

to reduce unnecessary complexity and repetition within its solution, and the time taken to

incorporate new accounts or tariff types. These investments will help to improve customer

satisfaction and lower operational costs. But more crucially, this work feeds into Urjanet’s

fundamental proposition and differentiator: it needs to continue to work towards having the most

comprehensive number of inbuilt connections to utilities, accounts and tariffs in the market.

Give users greater control through its customer portal. Urjanet has been developing a

new customer portal and is currently rolling it out to customers in beta mode. The new

portal allows customers to input utility account data directly into the system rather than

having to send it to Urjanet for processing. During the upload process, validation checks

are applied to all data to ensure accuracy and that there are no duplications. The new

portal can also discover accounts that the customer has not requested, but which can be

brought into the platform using existing details. Through the portal it is easier for

customers to manage which data they would like to receive from Urjanet and how the

data should be structured.

Source: Verdantix Global Energy Leaders Survey 2013 N=250

Figure 2. Improving Energy Data Collection And Reporting Is A Priority For Firms


Energy data collection & reporting

Energy procurement & energy risk management

Automated energy monitoring & targeting

Utility bill management

Energy project implementation & monitoring

Energy data analytics & dashboards

Asset level energy management

Very important Unimportant Neutral Important

Note: data labels are rounded to zero decimal places, percentages less than 5% have been written as numbers


Verdantix take: Urjanet’s investment in its customer portal will help it achieve scalability.

Urjanet is attempting to emulate the self-serve model that has proved to be so successful for CRM

software supplier, Salesforce.com. The new process will reduce the cost to serve customers as well

as improve the customer experience by allowing users to handle import issues directly. The more

transparent user portal will help encourage users to manage more data through the portal.

Allow for greater configurability through the launch of an API. Urjanet will be

gradually rolling out an application program interface (API) for its solution in 2015. The

API will allow customers with their own software to fully integrate Urjanet’s solution

within their existing applications, using their own graphical user interface (GUI).

Software and services customers will also be able to develop features that query the

Urjanet database as required, helping them build and deliver higher value solutions to

end customers.

Verdantix take: Urjanet has positioned itself as a provider of data and not a competitor to

software suppliers. This has helped it build up an impressive list of software customers that use

Urjanet’s solution to simplify data acquisition. Launching an API will further support this

market positioning. Another benefit is that allowing customers to develop capabilities through an

API will take some of the product development burden away from Urjanet. Urjanet can then

assess what customers are developing before building it into the standard solution.

Develop new usage scenarios. Having developed a robust process for managing utility

and energy data, Urjanet is looking at other markets where its solution could be used.

Urjanet has identified demand response, electric vehicles, home automation, on-site

generation and waste management as markets where an intermediate service provider

managing and aggregating utility data could bring value. Utility costs is one of the

factors that will play a role in determining the underlying economics of these markets.

There will also be an ongoing need for data as part of influencing customer behaviour.

Verdantix take: The new markets that Urjanet has identified are sensible as each one has a close

link to energy management, and energy savings contribute to the business case for each. In the

electric vehicles and home automation markets, for example, firms are using cost savings to help

justify investment in their products (see Verdantix Home Energy Management Market Gears Up

For Growth). Historically, firms have found it very challenging to develop energy management

solutions targeted at the residential market as utility costs and the level of complexity are much

lower. Urjanet is taking the correct approach to this market by educating significant market

players on the potential to use its solution for new applications, rather than shift too much time

and investment from its core offerings.

FOCUS IS KEY TO URJANET’S CONTINUED GROWTH

With an ambitious team and good growth over the past two years, Urjanet is targeting further

growth by broadening its offering, expanding into international markets and reducing the cost

to serve its growing customer base. Urjanet is entering an important phase of its development

as it attempts to transition from a small national technology start-up to a medium-sized

profitable technology firm with an international footprint. Having assessed Urjanet’s forward

looking strategy, Verdantix expects Urjanet to achieve its latest set of goals by:



Remaining focused on tackling an established market need. Urjanet has developed an

approach that maximizes technology to solve the universal issue of collecting and

managing utility data. The benefit of approaching an established problem with a

different solution is that there is an existing customer base to target; an example would

be the rapid growth of taxi firm, Uber. Urjanet must maximize opportunities within its

core offering before turning attention to longer term opportunities in emerging markets,

such as electric vehicles (see Verdantix Ten Predictions For Energy Management in

2014). Urjanet should attempt to work alongside firms with established brands – such as

Nest for home energy management or Tesla for electric vehicles – to investigate

opportunities.

Maintaining its market facilitator status. By avoiding direct competition with suppliers

of software and services, Urjanet is becoming the go-to firm for utility bill and

consumption data. Firms that would usually compete for end customers, such as

Ameresco, Ecova, Schneider Electric and Siemens, are all using Urjanet’s solution.

Securing some of the largest names in the industry as customers, and having them speak

at the Urjanet user conference about the benefits of using Urjanet, helps give Urjanet

and its solution a great deal of credibility. As Urjanet’s software and services customer

list continues to grow, those firms not working with Urjanet will have to start asking

themselves why.

Further promoting the benefits of its interval data. Greater penetration of smart meters

is increasing the amount of data captured by utilities. Urjanet’s interval meter data

service delivers data where available. Urjanet must continue to push this solution

because the need to manage interval data is increasing as firms shift to strategic energy

management programmes, founded on good quality granular data (see Verdantix

Building Energy Management Software Market Size and Forecast 2013-2019). The

solution is also targeted at energy management software and services firms and, in most

instances, would be a much easier additional sell-on rather than a completely new sell.

Supporting software and services customers develop the market. A direct sales and

marketing approach for energy management solutions has to be highly targeted to

specific industry verticals and energy domains (see Verdantix The Future Of Energy

Management). These strategies are expensive to develop and manage while also being

time consuming. Because of Urjanet’s position in the market, it can avoid the issue of

having to engage end customers by targeting channel partners, such as its energy

software and services customers. For example, Urjanet customer, SchoolDude, has been

working with educational institutions since 1999 and now has over 6,000 customers.

Using technology innovation to improve customer satisfaction and margins. Urjanet

has been able to reduce the cost of managing utility and energy data by applying

technology to an issue previously addressed with staff. Investments in changing the

approach for creating utility templates, the new customer portal and developing an API,

has helped Urjanet reduce its costs. Since 2012, Urjanet’s margins have improved year-

on-year as a result of scalability benefits and lower costs through process improvements.

Urjanet needs to continue to invest in its solution to further reduce the costs associated

with capturing and managing utility data while also improving customer service.



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