Dashing Past the Platform Plateau

I recently had a great conversation with Greenwave Systems CMO Nate Williams -  the subject of which was what is driving the market and making it so we can reach the next level of adoption. And while I cannot seem to find agreement on the exact nature of the chasm to be crossed, I believe it has to do with connecting the software behind the systems to the employees who are engaging with the customer.

Though I see great developers produce fantastic software time and again, the maintenance of elegant code is seemingly not in the nature of these earth shakers.  They want to be constantly excited by what is new, by trails not yet blazed, and thus leave the work of maintaining code and keeping the customer happy to the rest of us.

Greenwave Systems has a strong customer base that includes carriers and utilities delivering Home Monitoring, Energy Management and Connected Lighting.  Rather than talking to me about the platform, my discussion with Nate Williams focused on their dashboard delivery to Greenwave customers. The platform is table stakes, and the story is about getting the software right to support the customers both directly and indirectly.

With Greenwave’s fourth release of their software, the company has moved beyond the element management system, past the throughput requirements of big data, and now directly — as in their app for TCP light bulbs (sold in Lowes)which works with your smart phone to adjust the lights.  Their solutions include hardware sensors too, as you would expect, but their focus is squarely on the app side. The company’s goal is to fit the business process of delivery for their customers.  As they like to say, their architecture does not dictate the business model it enables the business model.   More importantly, much like the FOG Computing statements being made by Cisco, Greenwave is comfortable in configurations for the premise and the cloud.

Engagement with Greenwave Systems focuses on the processes and not the platform, which is a nice way of saying the proof is in the User Interface of the Dashboard and not on the SDK discussion. For many companies this is a harder discussion to have, because the legacy of the operation is hard to re-imagine. Greenwave Systems’ experience, though, may very well put the right tools in place for better solutions.