Star supports growth strategy for solution provider
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM – 7 SEPTEMBER 2010 – Star, a provider of on-demand computing and communication services to UK businesses, today announced that Harvard Engineering has chosen Star as its technology partner. Harvard Engineering is one of the world’s leading companies in the LED lighting and street lighting industries and has chosen The Star PlatformTM to provide high availability access to the company’s revolutionary wireless street lighting solution LeafNut. The service, delivered by Star, will initially give 30 local authorities the ability to remotely manage their street lighting sytems, comprising more than 40,000 street lights, helping them save up to 40% on their energy bills.
Local authorities across the UK are looking for opportunities to save on energy usage and it is important for Harvard Engineering to be able to quickly and easily scale up their service on the dedicated and secure platform, without investing in new and expensive hardware. The hosted service means Harvard Engineering now has the capability to help customers manage and monitor important data, such as power consumption sent and received by each street light, and then communicate this back to the central system.
Working with Star in this way, Harvard Engineering is now offering local authorities the ability to remotely control dimming of street lights via 3G technology over a mobile network. This has transformed Harvard’s capability to deliver the service in a flexible and cost effective way, keeping costs low and maintaining margins, while delivering maximum value to customers.
Martin Baum, Finance Director at Harvard Engineering commented, “We are excited about this partnership with Star, because it releases us to concentrate on our core business. We chose Star specifically because of their highly resilient and secure service and the scalability of the platform is crucial to our growth plans. With Star’s support, we can deliver LeafNut to new customers quickly and seamlessly.”
Ricky Hudson, CEO at Star is equally delighted, “Harvard Engineering is a truly compelling company with a unique offering that is as relevant to our need as citizens to acknowledge social responsibility, as it is to showing the technical prowess of their skilled professionals. Given the growing considerations of energy conservation and public sector cut backs we are facing, demand for their solution looks set to grow. We are committed to supporting this growth by providing a strong platform on which to easily add and support new customers. In this way I can see a mutually beneficial and long term partnership with benefits going all the way back to the taxpaying public.”
About Harvard Engineering
Established in 1993, Harvard has grown to be a leading player in the LED lighting and wireless street lighting industries. Harvard’s innovative range of products includes the CoolLED range of switchable drivers and LeafNut, the revolutionary wireless remote monitoring system for street lighting.
About LeafNut:
- The LeafNut system has already been deployed in nearly 30 locations across the world.
UK: Hertfordshire, Blackpool, Luton, Suffolk, Westminster, Durham, Sheffield, Monmouthshire, North Somerset, Hartlepool, Plymouth, Warrington, Medway, Nottingham, Surrey, Neath Port Talbot, Blaneau Gwent, Merthyr Tedfil, Kirklees
World: Heerlen (Netherlands), Lech (Austria), Madrid (Spain), Budapest (Hungary), Poitiers (France), Cork (Ireland), Hobart (Tasmania), Canberra (Australia)
- The system can save up to £46 a light per year and up to 100kg of carbon emissions per year on each street light
- LeafNut uses the WiMAC wireless Central Management System to remotely monitor and control the output of each individual street light
- The innovative technology reduces maintenance costs by identifying lamp problems in advance and accurately predicting lamp failure
- LeafNut helps Councils meet Carbon Reduction targets
Awards
2010 - Winners of the Yorkshire Forward Innovator/10: Innovation in Action Award
2010 - Winners of the Light Sources & Controls Award at the Lighting Design Awards