Integrating live data into your energy management software

Live data and real-time visibility of energy consumption via wireless smart sensors can hugely enhance your software offering, bringing a host of benefits to your customers.

This article explores the value of integrating smart sensor technology into your software.

Access to accurate energy consumption data is key to an organisation’s decision making. But manual monitoring can be a chore, and asking your customers to provide or manually enter their data is frustrating and time consuming for them. It is also fraught with possibilities for errors and omissions, or can quickly become out of date. Businesses are often unable to make quick or accurate decisions – because they are accessing static, unreliable data.

Which is why using smart sensors really does make sense.

What are the benefits of integrating smart sensor technology?

Using wireless smart sensors enables you to integrate accurate building and asset data into your software or IoT platform, in real time. In turn, this streamlines processes and improves your customer’s experience, with automated data collection removing the need for any manual monitoring.

These accurate, continuous data records mean you can monitor consumption right down to a granular level, so you can track changes and receive instant updates. Organisations can set thresholds for consumption or spending and receive alerts when these are reached, and the intuitive software can instantly detect if anything is amiss.

Company responses can be as fluid as the data, enabling them to adapt seasonally, monthly, weekly, daily… even hourly.
As a software provider, you’ll be passing clear and profitable solutions on to your customers. Adding this type of hardware to your systems significantly enhances your offering, giving you a strong competitive edge. It’s a great way to attract new customers, as well as giving existing customers added incentive to continue working with you.

There is also the potential to gain an additional revenue stream if you choose to adopt a reseller model. This means you resell sensor products bought from manufacturers, acting as the middleperson between them and the customers.

What can your customers monitor?

The environment: CO₂, temperature, and relative humidity can all be monitored using sensors, so the workforce is operating under the most comfortable and safe conditions.

Desk occupancy: Occupancy sensors detect and monitor the presence of people, in real time. Live data can drive understanding of to make significant energy savings by observing what is being used… and what is not.

Doors and windows: Smart sensors can detect if these are left open in unoccupied areas, as well as working for fridges, cupboards and cabinets.

Equipment: Energy monitoring sensors measure electrical consumption at a circuit, zone or machine level, in real time. They allow you to see granular real-time energy use, track use over time, and monitor and control equipment.

Smart technology works for every industry, every business, every building. It can deliver cost savings, reduce carbon footprint and ensure resources are deployed wisely. Offering your customers an integrated solution with real-time monitoring gives you strong industry standout, bringing reputational and commercial benefits to your company.

If you’d like to find out more about how to integrate live energy consumption data into your energy management systems, please speak to our team today to find out more.