I'm unashamed to say that there's nothing better than being able to show real tangible savings in a great customer case study. And we happen to have one right here!

We've been working with Ford Motor Company for some time, with a view to implementing a PC Power Management solution based around NightWatchman that would reduce their (quite enormous) power bill. So now the big red 'go' button has been pushed, here's the breakdown.

The system works by using a Power Profile for each type of PC in the business. All departments tend to work differently, including the use of different applications, work hours etc so you can't just go around blindly shutting down all computers at 5:30 in the hope that everyone has gone home!

The following diagram neatly illustrates the type of schedule that Ford are using:

The key point here is that alonside the considerable power savings that are being made by shutting down PC's when they are not is use, is the availability of those computers for overnight updates such as patches etc. This is absolutely key in ensuring that your desktops are managed and updated as well as saving as much energy as possible.

In order to do this, Ford use 1E Wakeup to power on computers according to their maintenance schedule, and then power them off again to maximise those savings. All of this happens when the user is not present which of course is the perfect time for such activities.

Those savings

Ford exepct to save $1.2 million in power costs using our solution, which equates to 25,000 tons of carbon emissions, which in turn equates to around 5,000 cars taken off the road per year! This PC Power Management project is part of Ford's overall drive to reduce energy efficiency across the business, which it says has improved by 35% since 2000. Ford is also an Energy Star partner and has been recognised no less than five times for it's efforts in energy efficiency.