Welcome to Partnerships Matter, our column on businesses changing lives and growing their operations through strategic partnerships and collaboration. In this first edition, we explore how Ayla Networks and REGEN Energy are collaborating to help businesses save on energy through the Internet of Things.

Ayla Networks, provider of the world’s first Agile Internet of Things platform, has announced a strategic partnership with energy management company REGEN Energy Inc. The partnership aims to help commercial and industrial customers lower their energy consumption and associated costs through easy to adopt demand response technologies.

“Commercial and industrial customers account for 46.4 percent of all energy consumption in the U.S. Peak power is a particularly urgent problem: over 20 percent to 50 percent of an industrial customer’s utility bill can come from peak power use.”

The partnership represents a natural collaboration between the two businesses, combining Ayla Networks’ Internet of Things (IoT) expertise with REGEN’s leading wireless energy management capabilities. The alliance will provide any manufacturer incorporating Ayla’s technology in its products access to REGEN’s Swam Logic solution for wireless energy management. The platform is geared toward controlling devices and electric loads of building systems, thermostats and equipment in commercial and light industrial facilities.

Demand Response and Smarter Energy

Through combined product development and a shared go-to market strategy, Ayla and REGEN plan to create an ecosystem of “intelligent” equipment designed to curb energy use without sacrificing critical operations or comfort. The partners also aim to make it easier for commercial and light industrial customers to adopt demand response technologies.

Regarding how Ayla’s partnership with REGEN is changing the game for commercial and industrial customers looking to benefit from demand response and demand management capabilities, Ayla Networks co-founder and chief executive Dave Friedman pointed to the extreme costs of peak energy consumption. He cited Ayla and REGEN’s unique positioning to help customers cut back on one of their largest energy expense:

“Commercial and industrial customers account for 46.4 percent of all energy consumption in the U.S. Peak power is a particularly urgent problem: over 20 percent to 50 percent of an industrial customer’s utility bill can come from peak power use. REGEN and Ayla will let commercial building owners install energy-saving equipment on their own. Combined, the technology enables more customers to reduce peak energy consumption, save money, and analyze performance data and customer feedback.”

Ayla has created an ecosystem for the Internet of Things that allows virtually any manufacturer or service provider to start making and supporting connected devices. Manufacturers can obtain semiconductors and hardware modules from major manufacturers like Broadcom that come embedded with software that talks natively to Ayla’s cloud services. Networking, compatibility, security and other complex IT issues are managed by Ayla so manufacturers can concentrate on what they do best.

Partnerships as a Vehicle for Success

Strategic alliances are a primary growth strategy for Ayla this year. In light of recent partnerships with service providers like REGEN and manufacturers like TCL, Ayla is poised to drastically expand the market for demand response and energy management technolgoies in the coming months. “Ayla works with manufacturers all over the world, and international expansion is a key focus of the company in 2015,” Friedman said. “Ayla’s mission is to provide the world with the first truly agile platform for the Internet of Things and to allow our manufacturing partners to market their connected products on a global basis.”

The partnership is a prime example of collaborating around shared values.

As of last week, Swarm Logic has already been put into use by over 300 organizations who have reduced energy costs by 25 percent or more through automated demand response.

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Featured image by Brian Barnett.