Executive Summary | Education | Home Owners | Expertise | Equipment | B2B | Storefronts

The Energy Independence Network - EINsite

Executive Summary

by Crittenden C. Jarvis, Jr.

Version: 1.0 ~ 24 Feb 2000 0830am

The Energy Independence Network, EINsite, is an independent, web-based marketplace for the renewable energy industry. EINsite will offer a secure Web-based marketplace for the online purchase of renewable energy products and services from various suppliers in the U.S. and abroad.

EINsite will provide homeowners with an easy step-by-step acquisition process through all decision points from design to implementation.

EINsite will provide equipment manufacturers and local service providers a goods, services, and information exchange network.

The site is open to all renewable energy manufacturers and service providers that wish to sell product or service through the EINsite online marketplace.

EINsite will provide homeowners and industry professionals with the latest industry news and information.

Launching in phases, EINsite's first phase will focus on the solar energy industry and feature online sales of goods and services from participating manufacturers and service providers.

For homeowners, EINsite will be a one-stop, up-to-date resource for comprehensive information about the appropriate implementation of renewable energy as best applied to their geographic location. Home owners will be able to easily find the best service providers with indigenous knowledge, or buy direct from the manufacturers of their choice.

For equipment manufacturers and local service providers, EINsite will create an opportunity to expand their customer base, increase efficiencies in the selling process, turn inventory more quickly and free up the sales staff from non-value-added tasks. Its important to note that EINsite does not change the basic buying and selling processes, it just makes them easier and more convenient.

Sellers will provide EINsite with product and pricing information independently of each other. In effect, EINsite is serving as an independent clearinghouse for renewable energy industry information, product availability and online purchases. The individual sellers, and not EINsite, are responsible for pricing, order fulfillment and payment processing through traditional channels.

Homeowners can access and use the site for free. Sellers will be assessed a transaction fee for each online sale as well as an annual service fee for consulting and development of an individual market center, which basically is a mini-Web site for each seller within the EINsite site.

The comprehensive EINsite site will feature four main access components and two commerce components. Access components provide the market space: Home Owners, where home owners can easily and cost-effectively locate and purchase products and services from multiple companies online; Expertise, where service providers can easily and cost-effectively offer their services to homeowners; Equipment, where manufacturers can easily and cost-effectively offer their products to homeowners and multiple service providers; and EIN, which features extensive industry information while providing renewable energy education for the homeowner. The commerce components provide the transaction network between users: B2B, where manufacturers and service providers interact and transact with their peers; and storefronts, where homeowners, service providers, and manufacturers conduct business.

Copyright (c) 2000 by Crittenden C. Jarvis, Jr. All rights reserved.

-- Anonymous, February 22, 2000