“3 questions to…” Christian Roche, IoT Business Unit Director

A source of comfort, savings, and security, smart homes are becoming more popular thanks in part to the use of intelligent virtual assistants that enable voice controlled smart home systems. The connected device and smart home market reached the milestone of one billion euros in sales in 2018 in France. Christian Roche, IoT Business Unit Director at Rexel, shares his perspective on the latest trends.

Where are we today?

Even though this market has not yet reached full maturity, we are experiencing strong growth across our connected products and services offering. Energeasy Connect has greatly benefitted from this momentum thanks to the evolution of the new home market: today, real estate developers and single-family home builders systematically want to include a “smart home” solution in their constructions.

For them, it isn’t just a matter of meeting a clearly expressed customer need—to have access to a range of complementary services in addition to controlling the home’s features. It also enables them to offer a higher use value and comfort level at a lower cost in regard to the overall investment. With its modular offering directly integrated into the electrical board, Energeasy Connect is positioned as this market’s most representative product.

Why present Energeasy Connect as a universal smart home control system?

Energeasy Connect is an interoperable smart home controller that can automate three aspects of the home: openings and closures, heating, and lighting. The solution’s 18 uses are of course entirely scalable. In concrete terms, Energeasy Connect enables users to manage numerous devices and to regularly add new products whose technical evolution is another underlying trend: they become connectable by nature and some are natively interoperable with our solution.

Today, 35 manufacturing partners and more than 1,000 products are involved in equipping smart homes.

Faced with these simultaneous market and product changes, how do you support your customers?

Our installer customers’ professions are indeed undergoing deep change. In response, we are strengthening our technical and commercial support and are organizing informative meetings. More specifically, we have created a training program dedicated to Energeasy Connect, which has been launched in the Ile-de-France region this year. This training module enables installers who want to increase their expertise in this field to do so. Available to all, it is more specifically aimed at the 7,000 installers who have carried out their first installation with an Energeasy Connect controller. We also focus on those who have already completed several installations but are not yet experts in the entire offering and all of its related features.

At Rexel Expo, the Group presents a sneak peak of its app “E.Connect PRO.” Dedicated to professionals, it enables them to configure and activate a controller as well as monitor their Energeasy Connect hubs and associated equipment.

Energeasy Connect for the smart home in a few figures:

1 single app to manage all features
1,000 compatible products
160,000 connected devices
7,000 installers have completed at least 1 installation
1,000 installers have successfully completed more than 3 installations