Walter Crowder
The name of the game in the power protection world these days isn’t power protection, it’s intelligent asset management. The technology is evolving into solutions that provide power protection along with monitoring and analytics software that protects and optimizes the performance, productivity, and usable life of all sorts of digital devices. That’s the perfect description of what Innovolt’s Intelligent Asset Management platform does.
A pioneer in power protection and asset management software, Innovolt is reinventing the power protection and asset management wheel with solutions that are microprocessor technology driven to cloud-based management software.
The company was founded by individuals with a background in grid and power protection in 2006 while its microprocessor-based technology was perfected at the laboratories of Georgia Tech. Since then, the company has been growing its product offerings and now has a substantial portfolio of intellectual property, copyrights, and patents related to their power protection technologies.
Recently, I had the opportunity to speak with Walter Crowder, vice president of sales for Innovolt, about the company, its products, its growth in the office technology space, and how office technology dealers can be successful selling their products.
Tell me about your background in the industry?
Crowder: I didn’t grow up in the copier business, I grew up in the technology business and was running a company in Atlanta that did high-end home theater and audio video. I ran that company for about 20 years, and some of the people who started Innovolt reached out to me and asked me to do consulting for them. After seeing the technology and its potential, I knew it was something I wanted to be a part of. It’s been a great ride.
What kind of growth has Innovolt been experiencing since its founding and what do you attribute that growth to?
Crowder: We’re experiencing explosive growth primarily due to our ability to lower service costs and improve the equipment’s reliability. During the economic downturn, there was an opportunity and a demand for improving performance and extending the life of products. We’ve been able to reduce service calls by as much as 80 percent.
Innovolt plans to further penetrate the office equipment industry, and we continue to identify new verticals that can benefit from our technology. It’s one new customer after another; it’s mind boggling how we’ve grown year over year.
How does Innovolt differentiate itself from competitors?
Crowder: Our combination of complete electronics protection as well as our SaaS-based management software provides a quantifiable result that’s not available with other competitive products. It’s increased the reliability of electronics in the office equipment space and it reduces the total cost of ownership by proactively preventing equipment performance issues at the outlet before they negatively impact business.
It’s also easily implemented—it’s a quick plug-and-play option for our customers.
Innovolt customers have seen real results. We continue to collect new stories where we make a positive impact after replacing a competitive product. Customers are choosing Innovolt because after testing our technology on their electronic equipment, they find their equipment is failing less often. This results in a measurable reduction in service calls that can mean millions of dollars in savings.
Our competitors have done a good job and our position has never been to knock them. New technology comes out, new software technology comes out, and new apps come out. We are a society that gravitates toward technology, and Innovolt is riding that wave. The performance of the office equipment is better when we’re attached. The differentiation has been demonstrable, it’s not surge protection where in the past it was a surge protector, now it’s an asset management product.
You have some strong relationships on the OEM side of the office technology business, don’t you?
Crowder: We have very strong relationships with OEMs and they continue to expand. We have been engaged with Ricoh Canada for almost four years and Konica Minolta has been bundling our device for about two and a half years. Additionally, we do business with Toshiba and several branches of the Sharp organization. We’ve had great success with Neopost branches and are now in the process of taking that relationship to the national level. The OEMs have proven that our technology reduces service costs and improves equipment performance which has made them very loyal to us.
And that’s having an effect on the dealer channel too?
Crowder: When they see the traction we’re having with the manufacturer it certainly makes them sit up and pay attention. “If they’re putting Innovolt in the equipment on the direct side, maybe this is something we ought to look at.”
We are making great headway in the dealer channel and continue to build the relationships that allow us to grow this business.
What is the best way for a reseller to market or position your products to their customers?
Crowder: Our customers [OEMs, dealers, distributors] don’t always realize they have power problems, they think it’s inherent. They’re spending a lot of money on servicing equipment and we have to show them the reduction in service and the improvement in the equipment, and how we can increase its lifespan. It’s refreshing how quickly we can show the results. Once we get the reseller or the OEM to see the results, it’s easy for them to articulate that to their customers.
What’s next for Innovolt?
Crowder: Later this year we’re going to be announcing new products and new ways to monitor and manage assets. We’re continuing to develop new modules and ways to enhance the existing functionality of the Innovolt Management Cloud that allows companies to manage their distributed assets and equipment from a centralized location. You’re going to see some of that later this year.
