Article Top Ad

AVOB Aims to Crack US Market with Free PC Power Management

The French firm hopes to use its experience with France's largest enterprises and a zero-upfront-cost billing model to crack an already crowded U.S. market wide open. Read More

(Updated on July 23, 2024)

Although PC power management may still be an underutilized green practice in many companies, there is no shortage of solutions seeking to meet companies’ needs when they do get a power management project underway.

As of last week, there’s a new player in the field, and one that brings a couple of big guns to bear. AVOB, a French firm whose name stands for “Alternative Vision of Business,” has officially entered the U.S. market with the release of an English-language version of its flagship product, Energy Saver, and a new free download called Energy Viewer Express.

The free product is essentially a PC auditing tool, one that will give IT managers a quick view of a company’s energy use for two weeks. (See below a screenshot from the free Energy Viewer Express.)

energy viewer express screenshot

The aim of Energy Viewer Express, according to CEO Pierre Duchesne, “is to give IT managers the information so they can provide proof [to the CIO or COO] as to why you need to invest in a PC power management tool.”

One of AVOB’s big guns is its experience working with large enterprises. In the nearly 18 months since the company launched, it has signed up major firms including Airbus Industries, Essilor, LNA, Air France, Renault and the French Postal Service.

“Our French market is too small,” Duchesne said in an interview. “We launched the company in May 2009, now we are working wtih 60 percent of the Fortune 500 companies in France.”

The other big gun AVOB hopes to use in the U.S. is its pricing structure. While the company’s software program returns the usual savings on energy use — $20 per PC per year, Duchesne said — with a six-month ROI, how companies pay for it is the key.

AVOB has developed a pricing plan similar to a “shared savings” model used by some utility companies. It comes down to AVOB providing the software for free, and customers pay based only on their savings.

The company is once again targeting the biggest firms in the U.S. market — Duchesne said Global 500 companies are the optimal customers for AVOB, because of the scale of the savings and emissions reductions that are almost instantly available.

But the firm is aiming smaller as well. “We are also looking for companies with two thousand to three thousand PCs,” Duchesne said. “Our aim is to reduce the energy bill and the carbon footprint everywhere. We’re looking for success stories, sure [from working with the world’s biggest companies], but we’re just as interested in providing a fast solution for small businesses.”

More details about AVOB and Energy Saver is available at AVOB-USA.com, and we cover PC power management extensively in GreenerComputing.

Trellis Briefing

Subscribe to Trellis Briefing

Get real case studies, expert action steps and the latest sustainability trends in a concise morning email.
Article Sidebar 1 Ad
Article Sidebar 2 Ad