Recently had a very interesting conversation about energy efficiency and thought it would be good to share in this setting. Basically, one of my colleagues here at Nortel engaged a valued customer on the question of energy efficiency, a topic covered in quite some depth here on greenroots. The questions were looking for the benefits of that value proposition form the customer perspective.

The results of the inquiry were a bit disappointing, as the customer wrote the following; "Honestly, energy efficiency is one of the last criteria we look at (if at all)". However, as you can see from my response below, I think this perspective sells EE a bit short. EE is all about maximizing the value of the network by insuring that the resources used in its operation are productive and lean. It is important to remember that the operating cost of a network throughout its lifetime is often greater than the purchasing price. So, significant differences in operating cost and power demands can lead to big differences in the lifetime cost of the system.

Anyway, I hope that you enjoy this dialogue, please share your thoughts on the role of EE in making operating and buying choices, I am very curious to get some more perspectives.

The Conversation

The question

I would benefit from any insight you or your esteemed colleagues have with Nortel equipment and energy efficiency. I'm looking for customer reasons why a user would believe the product could deliver the benefit.

The customer response

Honestly, energy efficiency is one of the last criteria we look at (if at all). We care much more about performance, manageability, reliability, longevity, vendor relationship, etc. and those criteria are generally the deciding factors before we even get to things like energy efficiency. I will concede that we aren't your typical customer. We struggle with the aforementioned criteria much more than others may since we push the product so hard from a feature and scaling perspective.

My feedback

Reading this view, I am not surprised by the customer's stance, as I have always understood that the EE (energy efficiency) focus has been a subset of our customer base, and the market as a whole. But, I think it is important to remember that this subset is a growing percentage of the market. For example, you only need to Google 'green it', and see the 705,000,000 hits it generates.

A second thought from me is that efficiency is embedded in several of the areas (the customer) identifies as more important than EE, for example longevity and performance. The Nortel energy efficiency value proposition includes those considerations, and our calculator methodology reflects that. It includes the cost savings and shows an accurate TCO, which are aspects of efficiency that every one of our customers cares about, no matter their green stance.

Finally, I think there is probably some language issues here as well, in that the customer has not clearly been communicated our holistic approach to EE. Part of our EE value prop is taking the issue to our customer base and teach them about the issue and why it should be on their short list of major criteria used to select a vendor and solution. This education is a key part of nurturing customer relationships that employ a positive feedback mechanism.