Leading analysts such as Gartner are predicting massive uptake of PC Power Management technology in the year ahead, given it is one of the easiest ways to kick start a sustainable IT initiative. However, what in theory should be as simple as turning off the lights when you leave the office, can slide backward into technical pushback and organisational inertia.

If you want to navigate the issues successfully and promote positive changequickly and effectively it pays to be across some of the typical objections that may challenge you along the way. The good news is that there are technology advances that are making the deployment of this technology simpler and less resource intensive. Once you have ticked all of these off on your list, you will be well on your way to becoming your organisation’s sustainable IT hero.

Provide a sound projection of cost savings

Before proposing a PC Power Management initiative, develop projections that illustrate where the company is now and how the program will boost the bottom line. Use real case studies and energy saving calculators (but keeping the caveats outlined in No. 4 in mind) to demonstrate ROI. 

Remember that electricity rates vary over the course of a week 

Almost all electricity suppliers vary the cost of power supply throughoutthe day and week. Calculators or applications that do not take this into account will not give you an accurate picture of potential savings. Note that the vast majority of savings are typically at the cheaper “off-peak” or “night” rate. PC Power Management still makes financial sense, but don’t get caught out by this. Refer to recent power bills from your major sites to get a clearer understanding of power costs.

Different power companies have different carbon rates

Not all electricity is created equally. If carbon emission reporting and reduction is important to you, then you’ll need to understand where your electricity supply comes from and the carbon footprint associated with it. Some suppliers provide a high proportion of nuclear or hydrogenerated power and the associated emissions are relatively low. You will typically need to contact your electricity supplier for this information if it is not available on your bills. Of course, if your PC Power Management application does not take this into account then you might want to question how they generate emissions reports. Relying on national averages (assuming the countries you operate in are available) is not always appropriate. Note too that some suppliers offer a Green Power purchase option – usually at extra cost. You will want to find out whether your organisation uses this option if it exists.

Be wary of building a business case based entirely on a calculator 

Most power management solutions vendors provide Excel or Web-based ROI calculators that attempt to show companies what they could save if they buy their software. Many of these calculators are problematic because they make undocumented, simplified assumptions that lead to inflated predictions of savings. None of them take into account reliable measures of how your staff a tually behaves across different parts of the business. Calculators do have a place, just be wary if the assumptions are not explicitly outlined. PowerMinder’s ROI calculator is available for download online with assumptions clearly listed. Visit www.powerminder.com for more information.

Consider the implementation process

One of the main barriers or challenges to PC Power Management is the lengthy and cumbersome deployment cycle associated with traditional solutions. However, the good news is that modern solutions are based on agentless technologies. This means you will not have to install any software agent to perform PC Power Management. Since there is no software to install, it is quicker and easier to deploy, manage and maintain.

Reporting

Real-time reporting enables IT managers to see which areas, workstations, department or groups are using the most energy, how to address these issues, and, most importantly, the actual power saving in hard currency. This is invaluable for presenting PC Power Management initiatives to highlevel decision makers. The most compelling aspect of any power management tool is the cost saving. You need to have a strategy to be able to report on results and tell stakeholders what type of information will be available to measure success. The pitfall would be if you did not think about how to report and capitalise on the success of the program, so make sure you have the tools to report.

Be sceptical about power saved reports

Writing a report that tells you how much you are saving requires a comparison between a before and after state. Some reports of this nature produced by software vendors take short-cuts here and make optimistic assumptions. Given that user behaviour varies, you will want to understand if the report is actually looking at what each machine was doing before power management was implemented, then after, before comparing the two.

Look at the PC idle utilisation

The amount of power used by a PC at work can vary enormously depending on how it is being used. This is largely irrelevant for estimating power savings that you can gain from implementing PC Power Management. The only fair way to calculate power savings is the difference between a PC doing nothing (powered on but not being used) and a PC powered down (typically to a sleep or standby state). The exception to this is where users install applications that are designed to use spare CPU cycles.

Don’t rely on old statistics as hardware changes

Some vendors will quote published studies about rates of staff leaving their PCs powered on and the amount of energy that can be saved. One study for example is quoted as saying that a PC uses 84 Watts of power when idle. That is quite a high number for modern hardware. We would advise you to check whether this is true for your PC and monitor estate.

Understand the difference between schedules and power profiles in terms of user annoyance

Some PC Power Management solutions only allow you to hard code the settings that come with Windows (e.g. power down to Standby after 30 minutes). Don’t be caught out by this. Users will be unhappy if they come back to their desks and have to log in and wait for their PCs to wake up. The time wasted in cumulative staff hours will outweigh the costs saved. It is better to focus on schedulebased power management – there are approximately 15 hours in a day that staff are not at work, and two days at the weekend. This is where attention should be focused.

Invest in a power meter

For about $10 you can find out how much your PC estate actually wastes when left on while staff are not in the office. Take it around a few different models of PCs. Probably the best investment you can make in terms of building a business case is to have real data points based on your PC estate.

Don’t bias the analysis

If you install software agents on someone’s PC for the purpose of seeing whether they power their machine down when they are not in the office you will probably find that staff will power their machines down knowing that someone is taking an interest. Find a way of monitoring PC power down behaviour without users knowing about it - agentless software for example.

The right tools for the job

Once you have successfully identified that you can save money and reduce carbon emissions by transferring your company’s PCs to lower-power states
when they aren’t being used, the next job is to decide whether point-solution commercial tools are required, or whether free tools are sufficient.

Free solutions come at a price

PC lifecycle management (PCLM) products offer basic power management capabilities at a significantly lower price, but you won’t have the control, functionality and reporting available in mainstream commercial solutions. For instance consider whether you need to be able to measure and report the cost savings or carbon reduction from doing active PC Power Management. Your organisation should use a PC Power Management tool with the primary purpose of transferring PCs to lower-power states at nights and weekends, when most of the cost savings are possible.