Photo by Odin Media/Mediamenn

Welcome to the eSmart:labs. All of us in eSmart will use this blog to post updates that are of interest to our partners, customers and future and former colleagues. In this first post I would like to give you a little update on where we are in the process of building our new business.

eSmart is off on a flying start! Not only are we sitting on the opportunity of a lifetime, but with the support we have received from Innovation Norway and our partners have made it possible to work with full force right from the start. I am sure that with the current pace and the team we have, eSmart will really take off in the next few years.

The idea behind eSmart have come from two important observations, first is the current technological revolution in the electricity distribution grid with AMS, local production and Smart Grid, and the second is the major technological changes occurring in the IT industry that Gartner has chosen to call the Nexus of the Forces. For us in eSmart these two play together and gives us a tremendous opportunity to build a new platform that will revolutionize the industry. In the future we will rely less on historical data for operations as the energy industry has done until now - intelligent prediction based on large amounts of data and handle this in real time will be very important for all stakeholders industry. It is not enough to update legacy systems and build on a platform based on ancient architecture, ancient source and outdated system solutions.

From the beginning, we have had a very good dialogue with Innovation Norway and we have used several of their programs. As part of TINC program, we went to Silicon Valley for a longer stay and worked intensively deep diving into Big Data, real time analytics and cloud solutions and creating relationships and agreements with the right partners. Ensuring that we use the correct forward-looking technology and cooperate closely with technology partners has showed to be very important as we develop the next generation systems. Working closely with our partners has been so important that we opened our first international office in Palo Alto in March this year. This office is located at Innovation Norway In "Innovation house." Another issue where cooperation with Innovation Norway has been valuable.

We have also entered into a partnership with Sogn og Fjordane Energi, Fredrikstad energy and Big Data Energy Services in Texas and received approval for an R&D project through Innovation Norway with an initial budget of 50 million. This gives us a good start with the right focus in this early phase of eSmart development.

I watch with great anticipation on the further development of eSmart. The system we are developing represent new solutions for the energy industry - both in the Norway and internationally. It is in my opinion very clear that new technologies such as Big Data, Big Data, real time analytics, cloud solutions, mobile platforms and social business is on track to create a new IT revolution and it is on this wave eSmart Systems is now traveling. That this happens at a time where there are also major technological upheavals in the electricy grid through a variety of smart grid initiatives creates the opportunity of a lifetime for us at eSmart.