Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Interview with John Scumniotales, Verdiem
Yesterday, Seattle-based Verdiem (www.verdiem.com) announced new support for the Mac for its power management software. We thought it might be interesting to catch up with the company and where it is nowadays, so we spoke with John Scumniotales, the firm's CEO.
First off, for those not familiar with Verdiem, talk about what your firm's software does?
John Scumniotales: As you may or may not know, we've been around since the early 2000s, and have helped to define the PC power management space. We've been a leader in that space since the company's inception. PC power management is a set of technologies being used across businesses of various sizes, everything from large, commercial firms in the Global 2000, to state and municipal governments and education. Those are our three largest sectors and our user base. Those customers use us to manage how their PCs are consuming power. We achieve anything from 30 to 50 percent savings in respect to energy. We're now beginning our next step, of moving beyond PC power management to more, network connected devices, and managing, measuring, and controlling the power of network connected devices. The first small step was with this release, around the support for the Mac.
What's the big enhancements to your product in this release?
John Scumniotales: The key thing around this product release was support for the Mac. Plus, we've enhanced our Windows support, working better with Windows 7, handling power management for both older Windows machines and Windows 7's extended power settings. We can also operate in a more secure environment, with support for 801.x secure VLANs, which increases the security and robustness for enterprises.
Where are you seeing the most uptake an interest in your software nowadays?
John Scumniotales: We've seen a lot of growth in the company over the last three years. The big growth areas are in the commercial and global 2000 space. It's now 30 to 40 percent of our overall revenue, and a large portion of our recent growth. PC power management has shifted into large enterprise accounts, and have been classic enterprise deals.
How far along is the market now?
John Scumniotales: I think by anyone's estimates, analysts included, is that it's very much underpenetrated. We have 1.6 million PCs under management right now using our solution, and as a whole, there are 30 to 40 million PCs under management. But, there are billions of commercial PCs out there. If you just look at the raw numbers, the market is really underpenetrated. Surprisingly, when you look at the simplicity of our solution, the ROI you achieve, and the ease of deployment, it's surprising how few companies have chosen not to make it a priority, because of the clear savings and ROI.
What is the biggest reason your customers decide to adopt your software?
John Scumniotales: To achieve the energy savings. That's as much a financial decision as a desire to be green. A typical PC consumes 400 to 700 kilowatt hours per year, and we have even seen higher on systems with fancy screen savers. With PC power management, we can reduce that by anywhere from 30 to 50 percent. We can reduce that consumption to 280 to 530 kilowatt hours per year, which is a significant savings per PC. That's a direct translation to financial savings. For example, a large U.S. insurance company that we did business with, who deployed last year, purchased our software. That deal size was in the $400,000 to $500,000 range, and that installation paid for itself in less than six months. In my experience in enterprise software, I've never experienced such a clear and simple, irrefutable ROI. That's very attractive to our customers, especially at the C-level, such as a CIO or CFO.
What's the biggest challenge for the company now?
John Scumniotales: I think the biggest challenge is convincing companies to make this urgent. It's interesting, but with anyone we talk to about what our software does finds it is very important. No on eis going to say that making the world better, from a sustainability standpoint is bad, and no one says that saving money is bad. But, making it urgent for organizations is probably our biggest challenge. We typically are dealing with IT organizations when we're selling and deploying our software, and IT has to take all of the risk and effort to deploy and maintain the software. Even though the solution is really "set and forget", they still have to take on the burden of management. But, when you look at the financial benefits, that typically goes to the facilities group. From the IT perspective, they're taking on risk and effort, but the reward goes to facilities. So, it's critical that companies and organizations understand the value proposition at a more senior level, where they have more coverage of an organization rather than just the technical perspective.
Thanks!