Enigin Voice

ESA and Enigin Looking Forward to 2010

Well, that’s it….the first half of the “festive season” is over and the turkey and gift wrap are done with for another year. There is a bit of a skeleton crew in the Enigin office today. With the UK taking one more public holiday than the rest of the world at this time of the year and another day off for New Year’s Day on Friday, several Enigin colleagues are using up their annual leave and recovering from recent excesses.

But the three “working” days left this week mean that it is a good opportunity to continue the build up to the ESA launch and my fellow Council Members all seem to be back at the coal face and working away to meet the deadlines we have set.

As we near the big day, I am very gratified at the level of interest we are receiving in the ESA, from all around the world. Whilst I have been away from the office for the last four days, there has been no let up in the flow of emails expressing interest in the Association and asking to be added to our mailing list, I guess there are many people who find refuge in the internet from all the “Ho ho ho”.

This year, the “New Year” is particularly significant for me. Whilst I have my Enigin responsibilities to fulfil, I am of course very focused on the ESA launch. The plans now coming to fruition are really exciting and we will be able to provide a superb resource for energy saving businesses 24/7. The new features will make membership essential for all those who work in the industry or those who are involved in making significant savings at work or at home.

The launch is of course important, getting it right is critical. However, as I have learnt from everything we do in the Enigin business, keeping the momentum going and the standards high will be the challenge. Feedback is a major element, and we are already reacting to the views of members, including many new ideas that they have suggested – and I am looking forward to the Association evolving over the next twelve months.

“All work and no play” is not the best recipe for life so tomorrow evening I and a few Enigin friends are going to a local restaurant. Not exactly corporate New Year celebrations, but the chance to relax with colleagues, enjoy some good food and a few laughs.

So, a happy and prosperous New Year to you all…..

ESA and Enigin Survive “Winter”

It’s that time of year….everything and everyone quietening down for the “big break”. Here in the UK we have of course been having our usual winter panic brought on by relatively little snow and some minus winter temperatures. I was away from the office yesterday, so sadly missed the chance to see various colleagues in their cars sliding across the Enigin car park, but understand there was some fun to be had.

Since working at Enigin, talking to people from all around the world, I always feel pretty stupid about our inability here in the UK to cope with what we call winter. I was talking to fellow ESA Council Member Ken Cheyne who has a metre of snow around his house and, like many others; he cannot believe how easily the UK is brought to a halt by what he sees as a minor “snow flurry”.

I’m going to get my own back though as Ken is visiting us in January to discuss the ESA and other matters, and with a bit of luck we will once again be “suffering the winter”, so his plane, train etc may well be disrupted and then he has to get to the Enigin offices perched high (sort of) above sea level.

Seriously, I am looking forward to his visit as I have been working with him on the ESA product “road tests” I mentioned in an earlier blog and it will be good to be able to sit in the same room (in the same time zone!) and review progress.

December 24^th, and I am sitting in the office with few Enigin colleagues left, I have just have a couple of ESA emails to send and then I too will be off to begin the seasonal festivities. Next week we will be beginning the final push for the ESA website re-launch, so I will be around to post a ‘tween Xmas and New Year update, until then ……..

Enigin Trainees Can Know Too Much About The ESA

Well, here we are in the last week before “the break”, my Enigin colleagues had their last training course of 2009 last week and are already winding up for the first of 2010. It’s fascinating for me to meet the people that visit from all around the world as I am able to get a good idea of what are the key energy saving issues in all corners of the globe – not unhelpful as we develop the new ESA website!

Enigin give me a slot during the training week to talk about the ESA. I am able to share the aims and objectives with the trainees, get their feedback and give them a glimpse of the exciting new developments we are working on.

As 2009 draws to a close, the pace doesn’t let up as all the ESA Council Members are pulling together the materials that are needed to build the website and the emails and skype are constant as we talk through the various nuances, disagree and then agree again – one thing is set in stone – no compromises.

Of course, when a launch is being planned the temptation is to tell people what is going on and what to expect, it’s difficult not to let your own excitement get the better of you. In training last week I was in danger of letting the latest batch of Enigin Distributors in on too many secrets, enthusiasm can sometimes be dangerous.

All the Council Members are in daily contact with companies and individuals working in one way and another in the energy saving industry, and whilst we are not exactly sworn to secrecy, we all agree that we need to keep our powder dry to ensure that launch day has the greatest impact possible.

So no more from me now, I have already in earlier blogs sailed pretty close to the wind and I will be posting more between now and D Day!

Youthful Enigin Input to ESA Project

I’m told by my friends at Enigin that my blogs, whilst quite interesting, are pretty lengthy so let’s keep this short.

The product review tests for the ESA are now well under way and I’m looking forward to seeing the results and recommendations and then getting them up on the website.

As my colleagues at Enigin beaver away towards the end of the year, I and my fellow ESA Council Members are working towards the ESA website re-launch with an ever increasing fervour. As we are spread around the globe, co-ordinating conversations between Australia, the UK and the United States can be an issue and requires holding conversations at some pretty silly times of the day.

Where would we be without modern technology? Email, skype and mobiles have now become so much part of our daily lives that we don’t give them a second thought, and so the world shrinks and we think nothing of being in contact with colleagues in far flung places at all hours.

One of the Enigin marketing guys helping me out with this project is only a youthful twenty-three years old and I was recently saying to him that we couldn’t get the ESA show on the road without all these technological developments (he did point out that we wouldn’t have internet either which would make building a new website a bit tricky!!).

He couldn’t believe it when I was saying that I could remember the time when the most exciting new development was the fax machine, and the first mobile phone I saw came linked by a cable to a battery the size of a brief case. The mention of the telex system just made his eyes glaze over!

So onwards and upwards, the full panoply of technological wizardry to the fore and more power to the ESA - definitely a “product” of the 21^st Century.

ESA Road Tests – Sorry Enigin, Not Those Kind!

Hello again, when I first started this blogging I reckoned I would be lucky to sit down and do a new entry every couple of weeks or so, and even then only if it was rainy on the weekend, but I’m actually finding it easier than I thought to put a few minutes aside to tap out a few thoughts.

As you know, my main purpose here at Enigin at the moment relates to our status as a Council Member on the ESA, and I have already talked about the work all the Council Members are involved in for the launch of the new website in the New Year. Another good idea that has emerged from a far flung corner of the world has been taking up my time recently.

I have already mentioned in an earlier blog that we are going to be doing monthly product review reports, starting with shedding light (sorry!) on the world of LED. But now we have a new angle. What’s the best way to explain this? OK, after somewhere to live, what is often the most emotive purchase you make, particularly I suppose if you are a male? Yes, your car. If my colleagues at Enigin are anything to go by, this always deserves great attention to detail! So, you read the magazines, search the web, talk to friends and probably test drive a few. But how do you really know that the one you finally settle on will actually be exactly right for you and what you actually need it for? You don’t, not 100%.

Let’s say you need to travel 40 miles per day to work, on your own. Then two nights per week you have to transport your son’s soccer team. Saturdays you like to take the kids, dogs and bikes out to the country and of course there’s the weekly trip to strip the shelves in the supermarket. And of course, you like a bit of power but you are mindful of economy and green credentials. Quite a challenge when choosing just one vehicle. A test drive, even if it’s for a few hours isn’t really going to tell you if that car is going to be the best for all those needs.

How would it be if you could give the overall brief to an expert, let him line up a selection of suitable vehicles test each one for a week, exactly as you would use it, and then give you a detailed report with data and recommendations? No, my Enigin friends, the ESA is not getting into road tests!

Well, not for vehicles (yet), but we are going to do this for energy saving solutions. We’ve picked a typical commercial situation where there are savings to be made, and we are actually going to “road test” all the available solutions on the premises, ending up with a full report, test data and recommendations for that application.

So, two ways of bringing significant product reviews to the members. The LED review as a “laboratory” test and the other (I’m holding back on exactly what it will be) as a true field test.

More soon……

The ESA – New Skills Courtesy of Enigin

Today has been one of those days, the sort of day that you really feel you have achieved something. This, of course, is not to say that most days I feel I have been wasting my time! But today we have been trying to finalise the look and content of the ESA website for the New Year, really getting down to the nitty gritty and making the choices and decisions that will make all the difference.

As you will know from previous blogs, as a Council Member, Enigin has a part to play in making it all happen, and I have to make sure that we do our bit. So today I have been liaising with all the other Council Members, literally all around the world, to make sure that everyone’s ideas have been discussed and included wherever possible. This has been an interesting exercise as we now all have so much to offer and so many thoughts on how things should work.

It’s not just a question of what we should be providing for the members (based on their feedback), but also how it should look, how it will work, how it will link together and what is actually possible!

It’s all really under one enormous umbrella, called “content”. To me (not too savvy regarding website building) this meant agreeing the types of information, news, articles etc we need to have and who was going to provide what. But of course, that is just naïve, it is also all about how we make it all work – and this is where the clever people are needed. Coders and designers.

Here at Enigin we have some of the best guys in this line of work but I have always simply enjoyed the fruits of their labours, rarely venturing into their kingdom as I frankly don’t speak their language. Today I have crossed that line, and begun my education.

These guys are responsible for the many software programmes and websites that we at Enigin depend on, and which are key to our success, so who better to ask for advice and a rapid tutorial. Today I have been finding out just what can be done, and trying to feed this back to my ESA colleagues on all continents. Not easy, but we have agreed and built a brief and have decided who we can use to get it underway.

I should have lots to report over the next few weeks as we approach the turn of the year and ideas have crystallised into reality, so watch this space.

The ESA Charter – How Does it Relate to Enigin?

Hello!

Well, here I am again and at the moment still keeping at the blogging. Actually it is not as much of a strain as I thought it might be…I’m sure we all know that “Oh, why did I start this” feeling, but so far so good.

As I, on behalf of Enigin, and the other Council Members work harder and harder to make the new look ESA website really exceptional, we have of course been giving more thought to who the members are and how they have told us they want the Association to evolve.

I found that a useful starting point for this was to look back at some of the decisions we made when we got together to begin the ESA, see how much things have already changed and review some of the good feedback I have received from the members.

An important first decision that we all agreed on was the need for the Energy Saving Association to have a Member’s Charter. This was not to be a horrid list of do’s and don’ts, but a clear statement of purpose and aims that all members who wished to join would identify with and would be proud to agree to.

Can you imagine putting this together? We are all in the same industry but scattered around the world and coming at things from different angles. One major consideration for the Enigin management was that it could not be at variance with our own Mission Statement. We take this particularly seriously as it was written, and is periodically reviewed, by the entire Enigin staff.

The ESA Charter, in its finished version, is a meaningful document. I won’t give you the entire 300+ words here, but this extract from the opening statement neatly sums up why we set off down this road:

This Charter has been prepared by the Energy Saving Association, whose aims are to promote and support the reduction of energy consumption, particularly by commerce and industry, on a global basis. The ESA believes that energy efficiency is the single, most important future source of energy. The ESA recognises that energy use contributes significantly to the threat of climate change and that we must all play our part by taking sensible and considered action to reduce energy consumption.

Now, back to the Enigin Mission Statement, this had to be in tune with the Charter and vice versa.:

“Enigin will continue to promote and deliver dynamic, innovative and responsible energy saving solutions – empowering forward thinking individuals and organisations worldwide to Profit With Integrity… without costing the earth.”

As the Mission Statement declares, we are here to provide the best possible energy saving solutions, what better synergy could there be than with the aims set out in the ESA Charter?

It is this concern with energy saving that shapes all the decisions the Council Members take and this why I am so pleased to be Enigin’s “man at the ESA”

I’ll blog again soon, by then I will have the latest news on the added features soon to be found at the ESA.