Sales Strategy

IPenable 561 Keystone Ave Suite 116 Reno, NV 89503 sales@ipe.com - www.ipenable.com

Key Decision Makers

Utility & VendorThe utility sector includes a broad umbrella of companies who provide natural gas, electric-ity, water, steam, sewage removal, and related services to a variety of end customers. In the last 25 years, these companies have made sweeping changes to their delivery models because of fluctuating energy demands, governmental regulation, volatile pricing, integra-tion of renewable energy sources, and extreme competition. With ever-increasing pres-sures to further modernize delivery, utilities are turning to solutions such as Advanced me-tering infrastructure (AMI), automatic meter reading (AMR) technology, smart grid, end-user consumption control, and demand based pricing to save money and gain more insight into the utility usage across the grid.

IPenable is focused on electric power utilities. Electric power companies handle power generation, transmission and distribution to the end customer. IPenable designs communi-cations solutions around existing technologies for device vendors & electric power utilities who are focused on Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI), Distribution Automation (DA), and SMART Infrastructure solutions.

Key decision makers include the Business Decision Maker (BDM) and Technical Decision Maker (TDM). At the utility level IPenable works with the power distribution project man-ager and IT infrastructure network operator of the AMI/DA platform.  Decision makers at the vendor level are typically the CTO or the project engineering team responsible for the device communications solution. 

IPenable Sales Strategy 1

Understanding the Key Decision MakersUtility Vendor

Job Title CTOCIOChief Engineering Officer-SVP/VP/Director/ Manager of transmissions and distributionSystems Analyst Manager/ Systems Project ManagerIT Manager/DirectorProject EngineerUtilities Services Manager

CEOCIOCFOCOOSVP/VP/Director of Business DevelopmentSVP/VP/Director of Research and Intelligence/Strategy

Characteristics Mix of old-generation utilities veterans and new generation; very different mindsets based on old monopolistic approach and new smart-grid approach

- Long sales cycle with significant upfront business development/consulting- Focused on improving communications path to reduce error

Responsibilities - Increasingly expected to drive revenue and reduce costs by way of advanced technology implementation- Align IT investments with business goals and vision- Ensure day-to-day operations of IT infrastructure- Reduce Inefficiency- Utilize technology to enable innovation and allow for reduction in environmental impact

- Manage contracts and distribution agreements- Constantly evaluate and optimize operational and project management efficiencies- Manage end-to-end design and engineering of communications path to minimize risk and liability

Challenges - Lack of universal standards makes selecting technology difficult- Large aging/manually skilled workforce not always reliable adopters; managing adoption and utilization of IT solutions is a challenge- Making Innovative solutions a reality: Building out “smart grids.”- Leveraging Public infrastructure/networks with building out proprietary infrastructure networks

- Communications link is a small but critical component of the device that requires skills that are not core to device vendors- Environmental issues continue to drive change- Adapting to consumer demand for more efficient solutions to manage smart grids- Finding trusted advisors experienced in Smart Infrastructure

IPenable Sales Strategy 2

Part of the sales cycle for customers in the utility and vendor space includes providingan architectural roadmap & business justification for the IPenable solution as well asactual design & schematics. IPenable will act as an extension of the vendor or internal utilities engineering team. Vendors will often start with a small consulting arrangement to address critical roadblocks and establish rapport prior to establishing a large, long term partnership. Smaller engagements could be one-off consulting contracts, while largerengagements would likely utilize a more formal RFI/RFP approach.

7 point approach Sales Strategy

Sales Strategies• Prospecting is always the first approach to a sale and the least expensive. Making calls is an integral part of success

for a business model of any kind. • Resources of social media such as Linkedin, Google+, Facebook, and Twitter are immediate and direct ways to

connect with KDM’s. • Introductions through suppliers and vendors in an adjacent space work well to get the vision of our solution in the

hands of those who will make a direct impact with it. • Conferences & Industry trade shows such as: DistribuTECH, CES, and formal partner events will grow our business

model• Electrical & Utility Associations are key to driving our brand, image, and solutions.• Online advertising, trade magazine, and direct mail are other sources of sales strategies

IPenable Sales Strategy 3

Execution

Sales Action Description DateBranding IPenable company name established - ipenable.com 5/21/2013

Website - Branding IPconnect Website launched 6/1/2013

Promotion - Sales Generation LaunchRock Page Launched - Page views: 198, Sign-ups: 13 6/2/2013

Social Media Twitter Page Created - Followers: 6 6/2/2013

Branding - Business Development Business Canvas Submission for Course 6/4/2013

Customer Engagement Landys+Gyr Meeting 6/6/2013

Customer Engagement King Controls 6/6/2013

Customer Engagement Intellistreets Meeting 6/7/2013

Social Media LinkedIn Page Created 6/9/2013

Customer Engagement Contacted Sensus - Potential Customer 6/11/2013

Sales Generation SureveyMonkey Survey Created for potential customers 6/12/2013

Customer Engagement Verizon Meeting 6/14/2013

Social Media Google Page Created 6/14/2013

Customer Engagement PCCW Meeting 6/24/2013

Social Media Facebook Page Created - 5 followers 7/12/2013

Branding - Business Development One Page Prospectus 7/21/2013

Customer Engagement NAv6TF 7/22/2013

Customer/Business Development Stanford Mentor - Interview 7/23/2013

Customer Engagement Elster Meeting 8/1/2013

Customer Engagement Mesh Systems 8/10/2013

Customer Engagement CalAmp 8/15/2013

Customer Engagement Intellistreets Follow-up Meeting 8/20/2013

IPenable Sales Strategy 4

Summary

Customer conversations: 10 (Over 200 engagements)

Made a sale? Not yet - but we have several customer leads and are on track for developing the necessary breadth and depth of our utility solution.

What has your team learned from these experiments? Our customer calls have proved that there is interest in our solution. Our next steps are making more customer calls to increase our sample size to find out more about what the compelling and unmet customer needs are so that we can continue to mold our business model.

Did it cause you to rethink any part of the business model? IPenable is working from what we call a “lean” business model: i.e. we dynamically develop our business offering based on the feedback we receive from our customers. Therefore, we rethink our business model with every customer engagement. As of now, we have a focused pitch of three solutions that speak to customer needs: IPembed, IPmanage, and IPoptimize. These offerings enable the IP communication integration, communication solution security and management, and communication solution analytics across the grid.

If you couldn't make a sale, what did you learn that you need to change? We are less focused on what we need to change, and more focused on how we want the business to develop. That means creating case studies and technical specifications surrounding existing customer situations to establish credibility. A key next step would be to work with an initial customer on a new technology build-out with IPenable design.

How long is the sales process for your startup from start to finish? The consultation, design, and build out for a utility network is a long and varied process. Depending on the size and scope of the project, the sales cycle could range from 6 months to 5 years.

Initial Sales Success & Failures• Informational calls are most effective to communicate IPenable vision and offering. Conveying our story in a less

technical scope and focus on our value proposition will allow us to target company executives and customers who may be less technical.

• Establishing a trusted advisor relationship and persuading them to pay for the service is difficult without understanding their organizations strategy. In some cases where the organization lacks with strategy, IPenable must be able to take a consultative approach to help the customer understand the value in our solution: they will be able to manage multiple input streams and a massive amount of data by making sure the data is managed and routed correctly and securely.

• Sales cycles within the utility sector can take a long time, by historical numbers it may take 5-10 years to make a decision on technology. By 2020, analysts expect to see 50 billion devices on the network and a large part of those numbers will come from the Smart Grid. By the same time, the AMI market is set to grow to $9,7 billion. There is no more time to wait to make decisions in this sector. When aligned with the Key Decision Makers from both sides of Technical and Business we will enable the grid with IP like never before.

IPenable Sales Strategy 5

Sample Sales Page

IPenable Sales Strategy 6

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!WAN

APPLICATION!H/E!&!NETWORK!MANAGEMENT

SECURITY!&!AUTHENTICATION

DEVICE!MESH!NETWORK

FIELD!AREA!ROUTER

!U"lity'Requirements:!•  Mul%&service!Field!Area!Network!that!can!support!AMI!&!DA!•  Highly!secure!&!reliable!communica%ons!!•  Simplify!handling!of!mul%ple!proprietary!protocols!•  IPv6!addressing!•  Select!the!op%mal!communica%on!solu%on!that!can!evolve!to!support!future!requirements!!!!Device'Manufacturer'Requirements:!•  Augment!exis%ng!engineering!teams!with!IP!Communica%ons!exper%se!•  Meet!current!&!future!communica%on!requirements!•  Meet!the!Total!Cost!of!Ownership!(TCO)!targets!•  Combine!best&of&breed!components!•  U%lize!the!op%mal!design!•  Follow!a!lean!engineering!process!'!IPenable'Solu"on'Specifica"ons:!•  802.15.4&based!IPv6!mesh!with!QOS!and!mesh!algorithms!to!op%mize!reach!&!reliability!•  6LoWPAN!and!RPL!based!!

IPembed!Firmware +

Engineering services to embed low-cost,

highly reliable communications

modules!

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IPoptimize!Services to support the

planning, building & operating of IoT device

communications!

IPmanage!Devices and

applications that improve

communications and data management!

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Lean IP Engineered Utility Solutions!