InTouch with ENTOUCH: Recent Episodes
ENTOUCH
This is InTouch with ENTOUCH. Join us as we create a path to a healthier planet by delivering sustainability solutions that reduce energy usage, drive profitability, and simplify facility management.
Maximizing ROI is the goal for every organization, but what is the cost associated with inaction? That’s the question Tyler Kern posed to Jon Bolen, CEO of ENTOUCH. Bolen said that over time, the cost of inaction and inertia begins piling up.
Those are areas well studied in terms of the environment and social justice, and the costs associated with nonaction are calculated. But Bolen says it’s something that too often gets overlooked in the commercial space. “The cost of inaction is the economic impact to your business by not investing.”
When an organization recognizes a cost-savings solution and is ready to implement it, bureaucratic inertia, which stalls such an opportunity, also delays the savings. Bolen sighted one example of a customer prepared to enact an ENTOUCH solution that would pay for itself in less than a year and provide yearly cost savings of thousands of dollars, only to have the deal hung up over seven months. In that time, the customer lost additional savings potential. “In the time they spent navigating their own decision process, they left enough money on the table to have paid for the implementation of the entire project. But instead, they continued to spend that money on energy.”
ESG entered the mainstream of business conversation 15 years ago. Today, companies know the importance of achieving environmental, social, and governance goals for their stakeholders. ENTOUCH’s Todd Brinegar, EVP of sales and marketing, and Melissa Parsons, director of marketing, shared their insights on ESG and six key performance indicators (KPIs) to effectively track ESG strategy.
When ESG strategies are deployed correctly, Parsons said the amount of greenhouse gas emission reductions businesses see is incredible, not to mention the energy reduction and bottom-line savings. With these savings, companies can invest in other opportunities to strengthen additional operational goals.
In this episode of InTouch with ENTOUCH, host Tyler Kern spoke with James Walton, ENTOUCH Founder and VP of Product and Commercialization at ENTOUCH, and Dana Guernsey, Co-founder and Chief Product Officer at Voltus, about the increasing need for energy consumption transparency.
The three dive right into a lively discussion about the past, present, and future of energy solutions beginning with a discussion of the DER (distributed energy resources) solutions Voltus presently offers compared to familiar legacy solutions.
"First, it's helpful to understand the market itself is different. There's an enormous shift in market needs with macro accelerators such as the ongoing rapid transition to renewables. You've got massive electrification of key sectors and growth of electric vehicles, climate change, and more frequent climate disasters are creating a real sense of urgency around grid resiliency," explained Guernsey.
For any organization to be a success, it typically needs to have strong partnerships. ENTOUCH embraces the partnership model and has a unique approach to ensuring success. Discussing the company’s take on partnerships, In Touch with ENTOUCH host Tyler Kern spoke with Todd Brinegar, EVP Sales and Marketing, and Jessica Beerman, Director of Channel Sales.
Beerman opened with some numbers. “I’ll let the data do the talking. In the past six months, we’ve expanded our partner ecosystem in every area—OEMs, local mechanical contractors and management companies.”
For Brinegar, partnerships with ENTOUCH are more than just on paper. “We consider our partners an extension of our company and culture.”
The key to strong partnerships, according to Beerman, is “showing up and investing in them.” It truly is an environment where they measure success based on that of their partners.
It helps to set the tone from the start.
“We develop a plan on revenue streams as we enter each other’s ecosystem. It’s more than just account planning because we also have quarterly business reviews that include performance data. Our data assets, which include machine learning, are unique. For those that use it through the managed services offering, we have a 100% retention rate,” Brinegar shared.
Since the company’s put so much into partnerships, they require a selective process. “It’s good to be in the multi-site energy management space, but it’s really a cultural fit. Do they have the same goals? Not everyone does,” Brinegar said.
Beerman and Brinegar also shared some success stories. One thing that stands out is that organizations proactively reach out to them about partnerships, which they attribute to a strong reputation in the industry.
For any organization to be a success, it typically needs to have strong partnerships. ENTOUCH embraces the partnership model and has a unique approach to ensuring success. Discussing the company’s take on partnerships, In Touch with ENTOUCH host Tyler Kern spoke with Todd Brinegar, EVP Sales and Marketing, and Jessica Beerman, Director of Channel Sales.
Beerman opened with some numbers. “I’ll let the data do the talking. In the past six months, we’ve expanded our partner ecosystem in every area—OEMs, local mechanical contractors and management companies.”
For Brinegar, partnerships with ENTOUCH are more than just on paper. “We consider our partners an extension of our company and culture.”
The key to strong partnerships, according to Beerman, is “showing up and investing in them.” It truly is an environment where they measure success based on that of their partners.
It helps to set the tone from the start.
“We develop a plan on revenue streams as we enter each other’s ecosystem. It’s more than just account planning because we also have quarterly business reviews that include performance data. Our data assets, which include machine learning, are unique. For those that use it through the managed services offering, we have a 100% retention rate,” Brinegar shared.
Since the company’s put so much into partnerships, they require a selective process. “It’s good to be in the multi-site energy management space, but it’s really a cultural fit. Do they have the same goals? Not everyone does,” Brinegar said.
Beerman and Brinegar also shared some success stories. One thing that stands out is that organizations proactively reach out to them about partnerships, which they attribute to a strong reputation in the industry.
Through the right energy management system, businesses can reach their ESG goals. ENTOUCH’s CEO, Jon Bolen, and Director of Customer Success, Trey Hernandez, joined host Tyler Kern to discuss what that energy management system looks like and how it benefits environmental, social and governance practices within organizations.
Today’s investors rely on ESG reporting as they evaluate the investment potential of a particular business. Bolen said a concept called socially responsible investing puts an ethical lens on how people want to invest.
“They may choose to or not to invest in a company because of their own personal ethics,” Bolen said. “And there’s impact investing, which is a group of investors who choose to invest in an organization because of the social impact that organization may have. And, sometimes, that impact may be climate change, but it could also be for human rights or a number of concepts. The idea is an impact investor is attempting to make an impact.”
With a significant component of ESG focused on the environmental impact an organization makes in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, among other energy-related concerns, it is paramount for these organizations to mitigate risks by reducing their GHG emissions. An excellent method for companies looking to meet their environmental goals is an energy management system.
And one of the ways an energy management system does this is through building energy management. Hernandez said ENTOUCH’s portfolio of energy management clients removed over 1 billion kilowatt-hours of energy through their solutions. And this reduction of energy usage also adds up to savings. Hernandez estimated they realized up to $30 million in annual savings and cash flow for their customer base.
Through the right energy management system, businesses can reach their ESG goals. ENTOUCH’s CEO, Jon Bolen, and Director of Customer Success, Trey Hernandez, joined host Tyler Kern to discuss what that energy management system looks like and how it benefits environmental, social and governance practices within organizations.
Today’s investors rely on ESG reporting as they evaluate the investment potential of a particular business. Bolen said a concept called socially responsible investing puts an ethical lens on how people want to invest.
“They may choose to or not to invest in a company because of their own personal ethics,” Bolen said. “And there’s impact investing, which is a group of investors who choose to invest in an organization because of the social impact that organization may have. And, sometimes, that impact may be climate change, but it could also be for human rights or a number of concepts. The idea is an impact investor is attempting to make an impact.”
With a significant component of ESG focused on the environmental impact an organization makes in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, among other energy-related concerns, it is paramount for these organizations to mitigate risks by reducing their GHG emissions. An excellent method for companies looking to meet their environmental goals is an energy management system.
And one of the ways an energy management system does this is through building energy management. Hernandez said ENTOUCH’s portfolio of energy management clients removed over 1 billion kilowatt-hours of energy through their solutions. And this reduction of energy usage also adds up to savings. Hernandez estimated they realized up to $30 million in annual savings and cash flow for their customer base.
Optimally managing the energy of each building is extremely important for every organization. With the majority of energy use going toward HVAC operations, how can facilities management teams boost efficiency and save costs? The answer is energy management systems.
Optimally managing the energy of each building is extremely important for every organization. With the majority of energy use going toward HVAC operations, how can facilities management teams boost efficiency and save costs? The answer is energy management systems.
To kick off this premiere episode of InTouch with ENTOUCH, Jon Bolen, CEO of ENTOUCH, and Todd Brinegar, EVP, Sales and Marketing at ENTOUCH, spoke about the company, its history, its goals and the differentiators that set it apart in the marketplace.
Bolen spent the better part of his career working within the multi-site environment of retailers, restauranteurs and service companies. His passion is to provide better technology enhancements for these environments. With that goal in mind, Bolen set out seven years ago to change the way these businesses operate and do it in an environmentally friendly way.
“We create energy management solutions for multi-site environments,” Brinegar said. “What we’re able to do is take a suite of offerings, which goes from our ENTOUCH.One thermostat through a gateway, our cloud environment, and our managed services which is ENTOUCH.360. We’re able to provide you a picture of your energy usage, then provide guidance on how to manage that energy.”
ENTOUCH's mission to provide energy management solutions is two-fold.
“We see ourselves as improving our planet and improving the profits of our customers,” Bolen said. “We do it one building at a time. Both of those drivers are critically important as to the why. Buildings account for 40% of the greenhouse gasses we’re putting into our environment on an annualized basis.”
By driving building efficiency, energy consumption and carbon emissions are reduced and cost savings are increased.
Bottom line – Bolen wants to offer customers a suite of solutions that can make them more profitable, and, if those solutions provide benefits to the environment, that is a mission worth accomplishing.