“It seems like a stupid thing, but honestly, companies just go through boxes and boxes and boxes of paper,” he explains. “We really don’t need to print. If we can take advantage of shared folders and Google Drives and PDF documents and email, we can reduce our printing needs to almost zero.”
Rick is a veritable fountain of knowledge when it comes to environmentally friendly tips for business. It’s not surprising and, in fact, is pretty much part of his job description. After all, WiSuite is in the business of helping hotels go green.
Going Green
Although green hotels are still far from ubiquitous, the current environmentally-conscious state of the hospitality industry is a far cry from how it was when WiSuite was founded.
“We did a little exploratory research back in around 2008 and we found that the hotel industry was definitely a market that wasn’t that green at that point,” says Rick. “The industry wasn’t really focusing on green initiatives back then and there weren’t that many players in the market at the time.”
The lack of competition was enticing, but the relative lack of demand for energy-saving technologies at the time must have been a little daunting. The WiSuite team, however, was determined to educate the hotel industry about their product.
“We were interested in saving energy and also very interested in leveraging some experience we had with wireless technology,” Rick says.
The team’s interest in saving energy isn’t just lip service. Even before Before starting WiSuite, the team was quite active in developing the low-cost, low-power network standard ZigBee. In fact, Rick was part of the working group that designed the ZigBee Smart Energy Profile currently being used worldwide.
The WiSuite team’s desire to conserve energy hasn’t changed. Even now, they talk the talk and walk the walk. One of WiSuite’s recent big initiatives at their Canada office, for example, was moving it to within a 3-kilometer distance of their homes. Now, Rick and his staff can walk or bike to work instead of driving 45 minutes and wasting gas.
A Wireless, SaaS-based Approach
The team’s wireless technology background helped distinguish them from their competitors and bring them to the attention of hotel managers and owners, as did their SaaS approach to energy management.
“We were the first wireless technology to do ZigBee Wireless energy management in hotels; we started doing that back in ’08,” Rick explains. “Compared to our competitors, our installation costs were much lower as a result of the fact that we didn’t need to run wires.
“We also started our business as an online SaaS application and so we were providing a database-driven application from day one,” he continues. “Making a change to the settings in an individual thermostat in a guest room can be done from a web interface from anywhere — from a tablet, a phone, or a PC.”
Hotel staff don’t need to change the settings on individual thermostats, so it cuts out a lot of the legwork involved in a more traditional approach to temperature control.
WiSuite’s wireless approach also means that customers aren’t adversely affected by the hotel’s energy saving initiatives.
“During a 24 hour period a hotel room is empty 50-65% of the time, so we try to save energy in the hotel rooms when people are out of the room,” Rick says. “We don’t use timers or anything that might affect them. It’s all based on taking advantage of vacant times in the building to optimize energy consumption.”
Integrating WORK[etc]
As a SaaS-based company itself, WiSuite has fully embraced and integrated other SaaS applications into its day-to-day operations. Google Drive plays a large part in sharing important documents, and so does WORK[etc] CRM software, which plays a primary role in WiSuite’s customer support side.
“We use WORK[etc] as a tool to maintain all of the customer contacts as well as all of the back and forth email transactions,” says Rick. “We also keep documents on there with IT configurations for buildings.”
Documents created and kept in Google Drive are easily attached to tickets, projects, and even Knowledge Base articles, keeping WiSuite’s installation and support teams armed with the correct information. WiSuite has also found an interesting use for WORK[etc]’s Knowledge Base by integrating it with their own proprietary web app.
“Our WiSuite web app actually links back to the WORK[etc] Knowledge Base,” he explains. “We use those documents directly for online help in the WiSuite app.
“As we add more documents to WORK[etc], those become available as online help, so as our customer support people are dealing with an issue they’ve never dealt with before, they create new documents and we publish those as part of our online help.
“There is a real integration between the WORK[etc] system and the WiSuite web environment, which is quite nice. We document once and make it available to everyone.”
Making a Positive Change
With more and more of the industry integrating green initiatives into their businesses, Rick has noticed a definite uptick in competition in the green space. He, however, is far from bothered.
It’s not just because WiSuite already counts world-renown brands like the Marriott International, Hilton Hotels, Westin Hotels, and the Palazzo in Las Vegas among their clients. In fact, Rick sees it as a very positive development not only for the green hotel industry but for the world as a whole.
“When we started there were very few players,” he says. “People were more concerned about the dollar savings for green initiatives at that time than they were with just the fact that they’re doing a good thing for the environment.
“I think today people are a lot more concerned about the fact that they’re making a positive global change when they’re doing green initiatives. We see companies that are making green changes in their buildings just because it’s a good thing to do, because it’s the right thing to do. And that, I think, is the biggest change that I’m seeing in the industry. People are becoming more aware of the environment and the impact that greening these large buildings is having.
“There’s now a global awareness and we’re seeing it on a day to day basis. It’s not just about saving money anymore. It’s about making a positive change, and I think that’s why we’re here — developing and installing systems that significantly decease the carbon footprint of hotels. That’s why WiSuite’s been here the whole time.”
Rick’s Top Green Tip for Small Businesses
“You need to look at your big hits like utilities especially electricity and water. Determine where improvements like WiSuite can help reduce your costs and truly green your buildings. Doing simple things like putting motion sensors in boardrooms, putting in LED lights where possible, and plain old recycling make for a good start. And, of course, don’t print!”
— Rick Bojahra, CTO and Chief Software Architect, WiSuite
COMMENTS
Let’s raise the stake a bit…do you use an indoor toilet or an outhouse? Which hand do you wipe your ass with…you left? ahhhh. some of us started using this invention call toilet paper. Using Work[etc] is like have toilet paper after you took a dump for the first time….NO MORE STINKY FINGERS. Like the software, its a much more efficient way of getting things done. All of information at your fingertips to do the job when you want to. Though I would add that a 25 column spreadsheet on my watch app is sheer torture.
The Work[etc] app works…it that simple….much like toilet paper, its simple to use, intuitive once understand its purpose and it does its job elegantly. If don’t think the analogy matters, there is nothing worse than closing a deal, look at yourp otential purchaser’s hands and if they smell of shite and are crusted under the nails, you may not want to do business with them.
Our company barely prints anything; the only time things get printed is when we need to pass something onto a customer. We’re always using a combination of Dropbox, WORK[etc] and a cloud server. And unfortunately, as we rent our space, we can only do so much to make it more energy efficient, but we do what we can!
We have used all SaaS products for years. Primarily G Suite, Work[ect], and Quickbooks Online. It allows us to work from any location at any time we need, or feel like it. By doing that we don’t have to use the resources, or associated expenses, normally associated with an brick and mortar office. I have worked for us to be a virtual company since 2010.
I love the concept of managing technology to save energy when the hotel rooms are empty. There is nothing worse than people who leave the hotel rooms with the air on high and all the lights still on. They would never do that at home so why do it anywhere else. Great job, WiSuite, thanks for leading the way!
One more note, I try so hard to keep us to a minimum of printing through our technology. But, as someone still stuck in tech support some days, it is still the most common reason people freak out – “I can’t print!” (My personal favorite – I can’t print my emails) Just another reason I cheer for your note: “And, of course, don’t print!”
We are always using cloud-based technology. It’s safer, better for the environment, cheaper and take less space. It’s also easier to share files with colleagues if they are in the computer. If the information concern a customer we upload it to WORKetc to be able to keep track and know the latest status of each contact
Great use case for cloud. The hotel industry is wasteful by nature but it is great to see energy management coming into play. Hopefully in the end not only will it help the environment but also keep hotel rates low in the ever increasing competition from the likes of AirBnB
We love SaaS based products. My company is in this space as well, and it’s nice to see another perspective from another company who deals in similar application delivery. As some others have stated we use many SaaS products to keep our business running smoothly, and Work[etc] is an integral piece to that success. Also thank you for introducing these companies to the Work[etc] community, I will have to check out wisuite.