Entry by Casey TalonEntryC3 unveiled Energy and Emissions Management Version 3 this morning expanding the offering’s functionality, adding flexibility to the user interface, and broadening reporting capabilities. Most importantly the solution provides users with greater visibility into their facility operations, and provides the data management and analytics tools essential for defining and executing a comprehensive energy management strategy. A fundamental strength of C3’s new offering is the insight into the economics of energy conservation and Smart Building investments.
IDC Insights
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Most Topular Stories
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C3’s Version 3: Insight into the Economics of Smart Building Solutions
IDC Energy Insights Community > Clean Energy Blog23 Jan 2012 | 11:20 am -
Sales and Marketing – Focusing on Brand Management and the Customer Relationship
IDC Manufacturing Insights Community > Manufacturing Value Chain17 Jan 2012 | 5:35 pmEntry by Kimberly KnickleEntryOnce again, Simon Ellis and I will research Sales & Marketing in the consumer products industry in conjunction with Consumer Goods Technology. This research is for brand-oriented consumer products (CP) manufacturers that want to know if they're making the best use of their sales and marketing dollars. At the same time as they fight for the attention of consumers, these manufacturers are also deciding where they belong on the spectrum between private label and "direct to consumer" and how to support that strategy with the right sales and marketing… -
Ecologic Analytics and Landis+Gyr – Suitors Decide to Tie the Knot
IDC Energy Insights Community > Smart Grid11 Jan 2012 | 4:11 pmEntry by Jill FeblowitzEntryWith the recent announcement that meter and AMI provider Landis+Gyr (L+G) will assume full ownership of meter data management (MDM) vendor Ecologic Analytics (EA) and Siemens acquiring eMeter, MDM appears to be a hot application these days. Although not broadcast as an MDM acquisition when it bought Telvent in May 2011, Schneider Electric also acquired an MDM application. The question for these movements is why now? It stands to reason that while the smart grid market continues to mature, early entrepreneurial entrants like EA would become… -
Can Technology Save The Department Store?
IDC Retail Insights Community > Retail OmniChannel Strategies26 Jan 2012 | 6:20 pmEntry by Leslie HandEntryOver the last couple of days, J.C.Penney, under a new leadership team headed by CEO Ron Johnson, unveiled a transformation strategy that spans functional areas of the organization. Financial analysts and the market responded favorably - J.C. Penney shares ended up 11% today. Steven Russolillo of the Wall Street Journal quotes Ron Johnson, "We are fundamentally re-imagining every aspect of our business and we fully expect the bold and strategic changes we are making to our operations will result in improved profitability. This should enable us to fund the… -
Why the Payments Industry Should be Opposed to SOPA (2 Comments)
IDC Financial Insights Community > Financial Services Tech Forum18 Jan 2012 | 11:27 amEntry by Aaron McPhersonEntryOn January 18, 2012, several of the most prominent websites on the Internet, including Wikipedia, suspended operations in protest of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), currently under consideration in the House of Representatives. While the main arguments against SOPA have been focused on free speech and fair use, I have not seen any discussion of a provision that bears directly on the payment industry: the requirement that payment networks refuse to settle transactions with foreign websites alleged to have infringed on copyrights. MoreThe precedent for this…
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IDC Energy Insights Community > Clean Energy Blog
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C3’s Version 3: Insight into the Economics of Smart Building Solutions
23 Jan 2012 | 11:20 amEntry by Casey TalonEntryC3 unveiled Energy and Emissions Management Version 3 this morning expanding the offering’s functionality, adding flexibility to the user interface, and broadening reporting capabilities. Most importantly the solution provides users with greater visibility into their facility operations, and provides the data management and analytics tools essential for defining and executing a comprehensive energy management strategy. A fundamental strength of C3’s new offering is the insight into the economics of energy conservation and Smart Building investments. -
The Consumerization of Energy
2 Jan 2012 | 10:55 amEntry by Rick NicholsonEntryThose of you who follow or are involved with enterprise IT already know that the "consumerization of IT" is one of the hottest and most debated current trends in the market. Many articles in industry magazines like CIO and research reports from market research firms like IDC have been published on this topic over the past year, addressing the issues this trend raises for enterprise IT organizations. In the not too distant future we will see a similar trend emerge in the energy industry - the “consumerization of energy.” Like the… -
Understanding the Solar Roller Coaster – What's Really Going On?
16 Dec 2011 | 1:09 pmEntry by Ryan ReithEntryIf one were to mold their view of the solar industry simply by what they read in the media headlines, it would be tough to believe that solar is an industry with substantial future growth potential. I know, I know….the old saying goes 'Don't judge a book by its cover', and I guess the same can be said for an industry – don't judge an industry by its headlines. But it's hard not to. Solar headlines these days seem to focus on reduced margins, organizational restructuring, incentives cuts, and price erosion. So what's really going on with… -
ClearEdge Power Aims for the UPS Market
29 Nov 2011 | 3:19 pmEntry by Sam JaffeEntryFuel cells tend to be very good at providing slow and steady power, but quite poor at calibrating power generation up or down quickly in response to load demands. That's why they have not had a big impact yet on the Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) market: such systems need to be prepared to send a massive surge of power immediately after the grid goes down. A new product introduced today by ClearEdge Power turns that requirement on its head. MoreThe ClearEdge Critical Power System consists of two 5 kW fuel cell units which are in constant operation. One is providing… -
Is Combined Heat and Computing the Next Frontier for Distributed Energy? (1 Comment)
27 Nov 2011 | 7:57 pmEntry by Rick NicholsonEntryAn article in today's Sunday New York Times titled "Turn on the Server It's Cold Inside" caught my eye since it seemed to imply that servers could be used to provide space heating for homes. Combined heat and power (CHP) systems have long been used to generate electricity and use the waste heat for other purposes, especially for industrial processes. In some instances microCHP systems have attempted to use waste heat for residential space heating. So why not use waste heat from servers for space heating as well - creating a new class of…
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IDC Manufacturing Insights Community > Manufacturing Value Chain
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Sales and Marketing – Focusing on Brand Management and the Customer Relationship
17 Jan 2012 | 5:35 pmEntry by Kimberly KnickleEntryOnce again, Simon Ellis and I will research Sales & Marketing in the consumer products industry in conjunction with Consumer Goods Technology. This research is for brand-oriented consumer products (CP) manufacturers that want to know if they're making the best use of their sales and marketing dollars. At the same time as they fight for the attention of consumers, these manufacturers are also deciding where they belong on the spectrum between private label and "direct to consumer" and how to support that strategy with the right sales and marketing… -
Consumer Goods Manufacturers Rethink Procurement
12 Jan 2012 | 4:08 pmEntry by Catherine WhiteEntryProcurement is one of those dark horses in the consumer products manufacturing world. Retailers have to buy stuff from their suppliers (the manufacturer) – there's no getting around it. And if the current system isn't broken, manufacturers shouldn't mess with it. Or should they? MoreThis is where the line between retailers and manufacturers, in the procurement area at least, is starting to blur. As discussed in the recent Perspective: Consumer Goods Collaboration and the Changing Face of Retail Procurement Organizations (IDC Manufacturing Insights,… -
Mentor Graphics builds up its Mechanical Simulation Product line: Acquires Flowmaster
10 Jan 2012 | 11:10 pmEntry by Sanjeev PalEntryManufacturers and product development companies have realized immediate cost savings by using Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) software or commonly known as the simulation software, contributing to the growth of CAE market across industry verticals. Mentor Graphics a key Electronic Design Automation vendor or better known as EDA, recently acquired Flowmaster group. Flowmaster is a UK based CAE vendor that offers CFD (computational fluid dynamics) software packages, it specializes in simulation for one dimensional fluid and heat transfer… -
SAP Influencer Summit: The Need for Speed!
16 Dec 2011 | 1:04 pmEntry by Simon EllisEntryThe theme of speed was prominently displayed at the SAP Influencer's Summit in Boston this week. To the degree that manufacturers are dealing with a more rapid pace of business, a number of technologies seem poised to provide some 'relief'. Indeed, during one of the keynote panel discussions at the summit, a gentleman from Heinz made what I felt to be the defining comment of the day. More Paraphrasing, he observed that his company thinks about speed on two dimensions: the speed of the initial IT implementation and then the speed of decision-making to… -
Next Generation Manufacturing in Practice at GDS' Conference, Austin TX 2011
12 Dec 2011 | 1:36 pmEntry by Kimberly KnickleEntryBob Parker and I recently took part in the Next Generation Manufacturing conference hosted in Austin, TX, The theme of the conference centered on managing complexity. If this sounds familiar it's because we participated in a similar program earlier in the year in Spain. Once again, we made a distinction early in the proceedings between "complication" -- essentially waste which should be eliminated, and "complexity" -- a fact of life in modern manufacturing given the advanced products, dispersed supply networks, and multiple sales…
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IDC Energy Insights Community > Smart Grid
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Ecologic Analytics and Landis+Gyr – Suitors Decide to Tie the Knot
11 Jan 2012 | 4:11 pmEntry by Jill FeblowitzEntryWith the recent announcement that meter and AMI provider Landis+Gyr (L+G) will assume full ownership of meter data management (MDM) vendor Ecologic Analytics (EA) and Siemens acquiring eMeter, MDM appears to be a hot application these days. Although not broadcast as an MDM acquisition when it bought Telvent in May 2011, Schneider Electric also acquired an MDM application. The question for these movements is why now? It stands to reason that while the smart grid market continues to mature, early entrepreneurial entrants like EA would become… -
The Next 12 Months of Your Utility's Compliance and Cybersecurity Strategy
22 Dec 2011 | 1:40 pmEntry by Usman SindhuEntryThe last 12 months were quite busy for utilities on the cybersecurity and compliance fronts. Very much like last year, 2011 also witnessed increase in the targeted attack vectors. Although, many industries were hit with specific security attacks, utility industry continued to untangle the affects of "Stuxnet". In addition, multiple security research firms found a new malware "Duqu", reported to be built using Stuxnet code. Utility IT and operations professionals will see more compliance activities around NERC CIP as well as continued focus on legacy system and… -
Putting the Pedal to the Metal on Smart Grid
9 Dec 2011 | 10:35 amEntry by Jill FeblowitzEntry This blog was co-authored with Marcus Torchia and Usman Sindhu The utility industry has spent a lot of time in the last 5 years looking at the benefits – hard and soft – of smart grid investment. Utilities have had to justify investments in smart grid to regulators and to the federal government in order to receive cost recovery and matching grants. Enter new legislation in Illinois that will tie profits to performance on metrics that depend partly on smart meters and smart grid. This will make smart grid performance more visible to the… -
Siemens acquires eMeter
9 Dec 2011 | 6:38 amEntry by Roberta BiglianiEntry This post is authored by Daniella Muallem, Jill Feblowitz and Roberta Bigliani Operational Technology (OT) vendors continue to acquire Information Technology (IT) vendors. Siemens, a leading European electronics and electrical engineering company, took a further step in its commitment to smart grid with its recently announced acquisition of meter data management (MDM) company, eMeter. This deal follows in the footsteps of OT vendors seeking to build out their software portfolio such as the acquisition by Schneider Electric of Telvent, Lee… -
Smart meters for smart markets?
8 Dec 2011 | 8:31 amEntry by Dean ChuangEntryOn Tuesday, December 6th, IDC Energy Insights issued the third quarter 2011 release of the Worldwide Quarterly Smart Meter Tracker. The global appetite for smart metering continues to rise, and the steady increase in international demand has offset the slowdown in the North American market. As I touched upon in our press release, the activity of recent quarters has established a clear demand for a wide range of "smart" metering communications capabilities (demand for metering hardware capabilities varies as well, but that's a…
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IDC Retail Insights Community > Retail OmniChannel Strategies
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Can Technology Save The Department Store?
26 Jan 2012 | 6:20 pmEntry by Leslie HandEntryOver the last couple of days, J.C.Penney, under a new leadership team headed by CEO Ron Johnson, unveiled a transformation strategy that spans functional areas of the organization. Financial analysts and the market responded favorably - J.C. Penney shares ended up 11% today. Steven Russolillo of the Wall Street Journal quotes Ron Johnson, "We are fundamentally re-imagining every aspect of our business and we fully expect the bold and strategic changes we are making to our operations will result in improved profitability. This should enable us to fund the… -
NFC in Retail Will Mimic eCommerce + WiFi (1 Comment)
26 Jan 2012 | 5:50 pmEntry by Ivano OrtisEntryIn the International markets we have completed, during 2011, custom research efforts to provide support to retailers that are seeking answers to the following questions: To NFC or not to? Which vendors should I select for payment terminals and payment processing? Are there other key IT implications to consider beyond payment terminals & readers, payment software engines, acquirers, promo and loyalty software changes? I thought about sharing some of the overarching findings that emerged from our past research in the field (hope we are near..okay that… -
Why Social Works Better than Search - in POS too
23 Jan 2012 | 5:41 pmEntry by Ivano OrtisEntryThe concept is the following. When you search for something in google or other search engines, the results are linked to the keywords you submit. Certainly google and other search engines have sophisticated algorithms and capabilities that make it such powerful tools. And their search spiders spreads into social media too. But when the individuals use social in the first place they actually find a lot of information. Consumers are continually exposed or can navigate through a vast amount of links and connections that grow exponentially. The process follows… -
Signs That 2012 Might Be the Breakout Year for Collective Intelligence
23 Jan 2012 | 8:38 amEntry by Greg GirardEntryI've blogged about the merits of collective intelligence (CI), aka wisdom of crowds, as a "new and improved" way of "reading the tea leaves" to identify which forthcoming products will be hot and which not. I know it works--MIT's center for collective intelligence, to cite one example among many, has assembled several proof points. Two developments last week, mid-January 2012, suggest CI is about to gain traction in retail. MoreWalmart's Collective Intelligence Gambit--New Product Introduction and Assortment Planning A couple of years ago the Wall Street Journal… -
To NFC or not to NFC? A Quick Overview of Contactless and NFC Payments in the UK
10 Jan 2012 | 9:22 amEntry by Christine BardwellEntryAs a follow up to Leslie's post on January 4th, 2012 'Prepare for the NFC Enabled Consumer Now', this post provides a quick overview of contactless payments and NFC mobile payments in the UK. MoreAlthough contactless payments in the UK are maturing much slower than any of the interested parties (i.e. the bank, technology providers, telcos etc) had anticiapted, signs of adoption are generating hope for those concerned. Approximately 17 million contactless enabled debit and credit cards have been issued in the UK, and many…
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IDC Financial Insights Community > Financial Services Tech Forum
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Why the Payments Industry Should be Opposed to SOPA (2 Comments)
18 Jan 2012 | 11:27 amEntry by Aaron McPhersonEntryOn January 18, 2012, several of the most prominent websites on the Internet, including Wikipedia, suspended operations in protest of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), currently under consideration in the House of Representatives. While the main arguments against SOPA have been focused on free speech and fair use, I have not seen any discussion of a provision that bears directly on the payment industry: the requirement that payment networks refuse to settle transactions with foreign websites alleged to have infringed on copyrights. MoreThe precedent for this… -
A Fast Start to a Full 2012 Global Risk Agenda
11 Jan 2012 | 8:19 amEntry by Michael VersaceEntry We're off to a fast start to the Global Risk Advisory and Research agenda for the 2012 New Year, with a set of what is proving to be timely research recently published, and a handful of new reports either in production or in final analysis and preparation. Here's a snap shot of what's new and what's currently in the pipeline: MoreThe Asia/Pacific ALM Market - This is comparative analysis of Asset Liability Management solution providers with growth and deployment strategies targeting the Asia Pacific regions, developed by the global risk team in… -
Missing That Human Touch (4 Comments)
5 Jan 2012 | 8:39 amEntry by Marc DeCastroEntryTechnology is great. Many of us have made a good living in the technology field, and all of us have benefited from technological advances since the beginning of time. But something happened to me the other day at my credit union that makes me wonder if technology has gone too far. Could financial service firms have "jumped the shark" when it comes to human interaction? MoreI was recently making some rather significant deposits into my account and I started a conversation with the teller. I had purchased something on my debit card that was not fulfiled, and I… -
Thoughts on Tech Investments and Global CIP for 2012 (2 Comments)
15 Dec 2011 | 6:59 amEntry by Michael VersaceEntryOne topic we're looking into in 2012 is the risk to critical infrastucture, specifically the infrastructure supporting financial services as a backbone for business. Heading into 2012, we're seeing continued downward pressure on tech spending and growth. Current forecasts call for the growth in IT spending (see chart below) in US banking for example, to be to less than 2%, approximately half the growth seen in 2011. The sub-2% growth rate is one of the lowest rates seen in the past 10 years. Growth rates in capital markets and the insurance… -
IDC Financial Insights' 2012 Predictions and Industry Q&A
13 Dec 2011 | 2:05 pmEntry by David PottertonEntryJust published a new IDC Link titled " IDC Financial Insights' 2012 Predictions and Industry Q&A" and thought you might enjoy some of the questions and answers it contains. Look forward to your comments. Regarding the struggle to find the optimal channel mix, what are some of the challenges financial institutions face in making that a reality? Part of the challenge is customer preference. The trend towards self-service varies from region to region and, in emerging markets, the "alternative" delivery channels are often the only channels. That said,…
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IDC Health Insights Community > The Changing Life Sciences Value Chain
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The Age of Genomics Has Begun!
12 Jan 2012 | 10:42 amEntry by Dr. Alan S. LouieEntryWhile still early, there are multiple signs that the age of genomics has already begun. With this new age will come both great successes and general disappointment. Successes will herald the beginning of the broader shift towards more personalized medicine. We are already seeing the early fruits of this trend, with MOA and mechanism-based biomarkers associated with most, if not all new drugs in development and general industry acceptance and adoption of translational research approaches. Translational research promises to greatly improve the… -
The Proper Approach to Building Your Serialization Business Case
9 Jan 2012 | 10:23 amEntry by Eric NewmarkEntrySerialization initiatives have slowed considerably over the last few years due to delayed industry mandates (i.e. CA Pedigree Law), global economic uncertainty, and competing priorities in other areas of the business. However, the most significant roadblock to serialization has been construction of ROI calculations at levels too low in the organization. MoreUntil now, most business cases have been built in a vacuum by manufacturing and/or supply chain management, which limits business case visibility to only those individual departments and their unique goals. By… -
Final Thoughts for 2011 (1 Comment)
14 Dec 2011 | 12:49 pmEntry by Dr. Alan S. LouieEntry I had planned on beginning a discussion around the increasing role of bioinformatics, driven by the rapid growth of data (both volume and complexity) and the increasing commoditization of NGS (and its relatives), -omics technologies, imaging and clinical trials data. Expect this discussion to begin in early 2012. I welcome suggestions and comments on how to frame this discussion, both from a resource standpoint as well as from a technology/data perspective. We remain far from the promised land with regards to a knowledge-based society,… -
Signposts for the Transformation to Personalized Medicine in View
17 Nov 2011 | 9:47 amEntry by Dr. Alan S. LouieEntryBuilding on my 2006 report laying out the Personalized Health paradigm and my 2010 HP white papers on the emergence of translational research, I walked into the HMS Personalized Medicine Conference with few expectations of more than incremental progress towards transformational change and changes that could impact patient care over the near term. I was surprised to find that, consistent with my own views on the likely ways that new knowledge will be transformed into improved patient outcomes, there is an growing open mindedness, urgency, and plans to… -
Outsourcing Partners Key to Life Science Industry Transformation
14 Oct 2011 | 2:10 pmEntry by Dr. Alan S. LouieEntryNote that I said partners and not vendors regarding the role of outsourcing in the future of the life science industry. Yes, there will continue to be lowest cost, commoditized BPO outsourcing as the baseline for externalized activities within the industry. Based on my recent IDC MarketScape research effort to better understand the major R&D IT outsourcing services ecosystem, it is clear that service vendors will work more closely with their project sponsors (i.e. acting more like partners) if both are to succeed in the future. With major…
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IDC Health Insights Community > Healthcare Transformation
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Connected Heath Top 10 2012 Predictions: Maximizing Consumer Engagement
23 Jan 2012 | 4:26 pmEntry by Lynne DunbrackEntryIDC Health Insights' top 10 connected health predictions identify major trends that will impact the U.S. healthcare IT landscape in 2012, and many will continue to impact the industry for the months and years to follow. connected health predictions for the healthcare industry in 2012. Ongoing market dynamics and trends will affect the acquisition, implementation, and use of connected health technology by U.S. healthcare providers, payers, and consumers. Increased understanding of these forthcoming changes will help healthcare organizations and IT vendors optimize… -
Australian Healthcare: Integration of Business and Technology
16 Jan 2012 | 3:05 amEntry by Sash MukherjeeEntryAustralian ehealth implementation is progressing at a dynamic rate, towards the implementation of the personally controlled electronic health records (PCEHR) system scheduled to go live in June 2012. The Australian government has identified and confirmed its commitment to ehealth as a key part of its strategy to transform the delivery of healthcare in Australia. MoreThe key business needs of the Australian healthcare system are: • Chronic disease management: Investments to the tune of A$872 million has been made for preventive health programs targeted at… -
ACO Readiness Making Progress
13 Jan 2012 | 3:28 pmEntry by Cynthia BurghardEntry Earlier this week the Texas Health Institute hosted the Austin ACO Forum which brought together participants from physician practices, hospitals and technology suppliers to share initiatives and thoughts about the emergence of accountable care. The central theme of the forum was relying on an external yet to be defined future state. Speakers provided insight into actions that can be taken and included representatives from a physician practice that had taken many steps towards "ACO readiness", an analyst's perspective on the IT actions that… -
A tweeting healthier heart
12 Jan 2012 | 10:58 amEntry by Silvia PiaiEntryThe Catharina Hospital of Eindhoven (the Netherlands), in partnership with Philips, has just launched the first "Twitter" enabled treatment of a patient with a heart rhythm disorder. Patient Ad Langendonk (@hartpatientAd )from Eindhoven, suffering from heart rhythm disorder and his cardiologist, Dr Lukas Dekker (@cardioloogLukas) will tweet about events before, during and after a minimally-invasive intervention to remedy Ad Langendonk’s arrhythmias. This initiative, similarly to others going on across Europe, is aimed at providing information to the public in… -
Top 10 Predictions for U.S. Provider Health IT in 2012
12 Jan 2012 | 9:30 amEntry by Judy HanoverEntryIDC Health Insights' top 10 healthcare provider predictions identify major trends that will impact the U.S. provider IT landscape in 2012. The title of this year's provider predictions report is "Moving on from Meaningful Use to Healthcare Reform." This reflects a key change in the market as well as my research agenda for the following year, I'll be turning away from foundational technologies for providers such as EHR, and moving toward infrastructure and analytics solutions that help organizations prepare for accountable care and healthcare reform. Key…
