Verdafero Inc. announced the launch of a new Utility Monitoring & Analysis service module for the global commercial security monitoring market. Leveraging its expertise in utility monitoring and analytics for commercial buildings, Verdafero will now offer its Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform to security channel partners within the commercial property security monitoring market.
“Our software platform was designed for commercial buildings to constantly monitor electric, water and energy, alerting if there is a problem with systems or bills,” explained Alastair Hood, CEO, Verdafero Inc., San Jose, Calif. “We developed it for energy efficiency but realized it is a perfect fit for commercial security monitoring.”
This expansion into the commercial building physical security market provides Verdafero security channel partners, such as security dealers, integrators, and central monitoring stations an additional service to offer to their customer base, resulting in much-needed additional Recurring Monthly Revenue (RMR), Hood explained.
“It’s a software platform,” he said. “There is no installation needed. Really, it becomes a pass through for the security dealer or integrator — a service they can supply to their customer. They are already a trusted advisor doing security. Now they can ask, ‘Who is looking after your utilities?’ We give them a commission from sale of the service; we get the data feeds coming back either from smart meters in a building or they can install small sub meters to get immediate notification.”
Building on Verdafero’s extensive suite of utility data analytical software modules this new commercial property service delivers analysis of utility data to detect leaks, potential billing errors, operational problems or misuse, adding value to building owners/operators. Verdafero’s channel partners can now offer a comprehensive commercial security service utilizing Verdafero’s Utility Monitoring & Analytics service and constantly track, analyze and report all their customer’s buildings and immediately notify them of any irregularities or problems.
In addition to utility monitoring, the software is also capable of being integrated into an existing security system to alert if there has been tampering with the system. “It can show if someone is sucking energy from them and can compare to the previous time period,” Hood explained. “It could be people leaving things on or whether there is a water leak.”
Beyond the RMR potential, the software can also lead to more services security dealers or integrators can offer their customers. “With the data they start getting back from analysis, if there is a problem like a billing error they can step forward and offer services to help the customer fix that.”
The current pricing structure is $50-60 per month, per meter, Hood explained, and the service is ideal for commercial buildings such as hotels, office blocks, and customers that may have several meters and sub meters that are owned by real estate investment trusts. “If they can lower operational costs it increases value,” he said.
Hood also pointed to increasing legal requirements in different cities where buildings have to do an energy benchmark and submit a report to the city every year. “This could easily help them do that: People find it a struggle.”
Hood added, “As Verdafero continues to expand the limits of building analytics with this new service in a new market, we believe that it is a natural step in a security provider’s IoT strategy to offer their existing property owner/manager customers a secure and vital utility monitoring platform to better secure their properties and businesses. This marks a significant step forward for the worldwide property security market. We are proud to have achieved yet another milestone in this emerging market and look forward to bringing more deep learning analytics to key industry segments.”
Visit www.verdafero.com for more information
