19 February 2014 — Energy efficiency technology provider BuildingIQ is expanding its Australian project base, as strategic partnerships with Schneider Electric and AE Smith open up new opportunities.
Since a venture capital raising in 2013 that brought substantial US-based investment onboard, BuildingIQ has focused strongly on the US market.
Chief executive Michael Nark said that as a result of lessons learned from US projects the company had made adjustments to the business itself and to the signature IT platform.
“From a product road map perspective, by being in the US we learned about the stability of the application. As a result, Version 3 was released last year,” Mr Nark said.
“The result is a model and product which is much more robust.”
Mr Nark said the company had also invested in developing the scalability of the application, and improving the expertise of the company’s staff.
“The market puts value on the expertise of personnel. Yes, it values technology, but there is more of a focus on the people because they deliver the technology. The Australian market operates differently to the US market; there is a better opportunity here to create win-win partnerships. In the States, [the business sector] probably doesn’t have the same openness to linkages.”
Mr Nark also said there was a difference in commitment to sustainability.
“There is a deeper commitment to ‘green’ in Australia than in the US. Over there some places are focused on it, such as pockets of California and the north-east states, but elsewhere [in the US] it is really not mainstream.”
The alliance with Schneider in Australia will assist with expanding the company’s activities beyond the commercial office sector, including positioning BuildingIQ within the health sector, Mr Nark said.
The company is also making inroads into applications for the museum sector, with Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art set to install a BuildingIQ system.
“We currently have 400,000 square metres under management [by our applications] in Australia, and that number is on the path to doubling,” Mr Nark said.
See our previous articles on the company: