What does IoT mean for your consumer business?

Question: To warmup a bit, could you please tell us a bit about your role here in Cozify?

Antti: I am responsible for business development, which in practice means working with our channel partners to introduce smart home solutions to their customers.

Question: Internet of Things (IoT) has been around some time and the hype around it has been huge. Why IoT is relevant to me?

Antti: IoT affects our everyday life already today, even though we don't necessary recognize it. For businesses, IoT is a huge megatrend that is sweeping across industries creating opportunities for increased operational efficiency and data driven business logic.

From the consumers point of view, for example TV's, amplifiers, speakers, game consoles are connected to the internet. It starts to be difficult to buy devices that are not somehow connected. The issue is most of them are point solutions that are good in the one thing they are designed for. This results in a clutter of apps in the smartphone and none of them interact with each other, thus wasting a lot potential benefits.

Question: What kind of benefits do you mean?

Antti: Well, you may already have a wireless multi-room speaker system, such as Sonos. And then you might have a Belkin Wemo motion sensor. Wouldn’t it be nice to make them play together? You would want to turn on the music when you walk into the kitchen at a time when you typically prepare food. Or play a loud dog bark when you are not around and there’s movement on the porch.

Obviously just the imagination is the limit once you start exploring the possibilities. Use cases can range from convenience to security to energy efficiency. For example, motion sensors are very handy in many cases: it is possible to automate lights as you move around the house and have the right kind of light based on the time of day/sunrise/sunset/darkness level. Or movement can trigger video recording if nobody is supposed to be at home.

Question: I’m interested in saving energy. How can I do it without compromising comfort?

Antti: If you have an air-to-air heat pump (like they are called here in Scandinavia) or an air conditioner, you probably don’t want the AC to run when the door has been left open for more than a minute. Or only heat the room or house when somebody is around. When devices are connected, everything happens automatically and best part is, it is remarkably easy to adjust rules and scenes whenever you want.

Question: What about data security?

Antti: That really is a hot topic and it makes sense to have a bit of patience to look at the implementation. Some systems rely entirely on cloud services, i.e. all the data is transferred to a remote server, which then determines what should be done with it. This could be a bit of a risk if you value your privacy or reliability of the system. I would recommend looking at products that are based on a hub that resides in your home. This way it is possible to make it more secure and much more responsive as it doesn’t rely on your internet connection.

To ensure everything is in order from the security point of view, we conduct security audit at least once a year, where third party company completes a full security review of our backend, hub software and mobile application. If issues are found, everything is fixed and audit is done again. This way we can be sure all possible issues are fixed and the security is not compromised.

Question: Can service providers benefit from IoT?

Antti: Yes, definitely. It is possible to start offering smart home as a service to your consumer customers and complement your current offering. Once your customers get used to the perks of the system, it is unlikely that they want to churn to another service provider. This way you can increase customer stickiness and be relevant in their everyday life. There is strong evidence that this increases your Net Promoter Score.

Question: Great! Are there any other benefits?

Antti: There are examples where the core business benefits directly from the smart home. Take e.g. the insurers: they can offer their customers an open smart home system that is making their life more comfortable every day while protecting against water leaks, fires and burglaries. The insurer saves on the number and value of claims and can proactively take care of repairs if the damage happens.

It is also good to remember the IoT derived data is the potential bonanza for the service providers. With careful analysis, it is possible to segment your customers very specifically and offer only relevant services to them. For the insurance industry, this paves the way towards usage based property insurance products. However, one must be extremely conscious about communicating the benefits the consumer can expect in exchange of submitting data generated in his home to a 3rd party. Naturally, we don't share our users' data in any way without asking permission to do so from our users. And all shared data must be anonymized anyways.

Question: Sounds interesting, where can I find out more?

Antti: Cozify is a Finnish consumer IoT startup that has developed a full-stack smart home solution. We sell our solution directly to consumers while building our channel partner network internationally. If you’d like to learn more in your consumer role, feel free to explore our website http://en.cozify.fi/. For your business needs, just head to http://en.cozify.fi/pages/for-partners or request a meeting with me (antti@cozify.fi).

Antti Vihavainen
Business Development & Sales, Cozify Oy

A cozier and a more energy efficient home - air conditioner support published!

It is great to publish heating and energy efficiency related new features in autumn. Controlling an air conditioner using a Cozify Hub has been on our customers' wish list for a long time. Now it's possible! I've pointed out here the basics of how to take AirPatrol into use, and what kind of new and exciting features we support for it.

AirPatrol WiFi

Ultimately the decision to user AirPatrol was easy. AirPatrol WiFi supports over 700 different air conditioner models from several different manufacturers. With one integration we were able to reach a truly comprehensive support for a wide selection of air conditioner models. Already own an air conditioner? Check the complete list of supported models here. It is important to take into account the fact that the support was implemented for only the AirPatrol WiFi version. SMS controlled GSM versions are not supported.

Setup and installation

Setting up the AirPatrol Wifi is easy and straightforward, and is done according to the instructions of manufacturer found in the AirPatrol WiFi sales package. Ensure that during the setup, the AirPatrol WiFi is connected to the same home network where Cozify Hub is connected to.

Tip: Always before pairing 3rd party devices with Cozify hub, ensure that the device is working as expected using the manufacture's own mobile application.

When the AirPatrol WiFi is installed, you can pair the device with Cozify Hub.

Pairing is done by following these steps:

• Initialize the pairing by selecting the (+)-icon at the right top corner of the Devices screen
• Select ADD MANUALLY button
• Select Add WiFi devices (by technology) or AirPatrol (by manufacturer)
• Type in the AirPatrol WiFi serial number from the back of the device, and select OK
• Press the pairing button on the right side of the AirPatrol WiFi device
• And finally select the OK button

Tip: If you don't want to type in the lengthy serial number using your phone or a tablet keypad, write down the number using your laptop and send it to yourself via email, and copy-paste it directly into the input field.

The manufacturer of the climate control unit is copied from the settings you made in the initial setup. Name the device and define the room the device is in, and you are ready to go!

Use

Basic controlling of the air conditioner is done using the Cozify application. You can

• Turn air conditioner on and off
• Set the mode to cooling, heating, fan, dry or auto
• Set the fan speed
• Turn swing mode on and off

These are the basic features, but the real value comes from the fact that Cozify Hub allows you to control air conditioner automatically using motion detectors, door and window sensors, wireless temperature sensors, and several other Cozify Hub supported devices. Different modes of the air conditioner can be stored into a theme, allowing you to take your own preferred setting into use with a press of a single button. For example, you could have separate themes for cooling and heating without need to remember the setting you had before.

Tip: Schedule cooling or heating to begin 30 minutes before you wake up or arrive home from work or school. What a nice wake up or homecoming treat!

Tip: Set the air conditioner to begin the heating or cooling automatically when you arrive home (rule: when mobile at home, turn scene on). Or control the heat pump manually using a wall switch.

A few examples of the rules

"Turn off the air conditioner if any of the home's exterior doors are open for more than 3 minutes. And turn on the heat pump when the door is closed."

When in a hurry, the front door is easily left open by accident. I love the possibility to leave it to Cozify Hub to automatically take care of controlling the air conditioner: It's rather expensive and frustrating to heat or cool the outdoors. Adjust the delay the way you want.

To create this rule, you need a door/window sensor for example from Centralite.

Another nice rule that adds the comfort of your home, is turning the air conditioner on only when someone is in the room.

"Turn on the cooling when motion is detected. And turn the cooling off when the room has been empty for 5 minutes."

Like in the previous example, you can adjust the delay the way you want.

To create this rule, you need a motion sensor for example from Centralite.

Other examples of possible air conditioner related rules:

• Turn on the air conditioner (cooling or heating), when certain room temperature is exceeded or fallen below (the level can be defined freely)
• Turn on the air conditioner, when certain relative room humidity level is exceeded or fallen below (the level can be defined freely)
• Send notification (push, sms or email) when certain room temperature is exceeded or fallen below (the level can be defined freely)
• Send notification (push, sms or email) when certain relative room humidity level is exceeded or fallen below (the level can be defined freely)
• Turn a theme on or off based on the room temperature
• Turn a theme on or off based on the room relative humidity level
• Turn the air conditioner off automatically after 2 hours of use (set the time freely)
• Turn off the air conditioner if smoke is detected (requires smoke detector) 
• Turn off the air conditioner if water is detected (requires water leak sensor)

Order the AirPatrol WiFi from Cozify Store from here.

If you don't yet own a Cozify Hub, a nice way to start exploring how your smart home could improve your home safety and energy efficiency, is to begin with one of our well thought starter bundles.

Cozify User Story - Home of a young couple

We've been using Cozify in our home for a little bit over a year now. I’ve grown to like the convenience that when the morning or night comes, I don’t need to walk through all the rooms to switch on or off all the individual lights separately. Especially for us who prefer atmospheric lighting, Cozify has given a flexible and convenient way to use individual lights in selected locations.

We have currently a total of 7 different individual lamps across the rooms and balcony in our apartment. This gives us creative and flexible possibilities to use lighting as part of decoration which is constantly evolving. If I’d need to manually to go to turn them on and off every time I 1) wake up, 2) leave the house, 3) return to the house and 4) go to sleep, it would require me to visit to switch those lights on and off 28 times during one day. If we left the house two times per day instead of one, the number would be a total of 42 times switches of lights per each day. It is 2016, and it should be easier, and it is.

You can automate traditional “non-smart” lamps ON and OFF via a smart power socket

Once we leave the house empty, we turn on the AWAY mode on our way out, and all the 7 lights go off + the Sonos music speaker if it’s on. Once we return home and open the door, the Nyce contact sensor tells Cozify to turn on the HOME -mode, switching on all the lights we want with desired settings regarding the time of the day. Once we go to sleep, I will set Cozify to NIGHT mode at the same as I put on the wake up for the next day from my mobile. In the morning as I shut down the phone’s alarm, I turn OFF the NIGHT mode, and all the lights are back on + music/radio in bathroom for a morning routine if we feel like it.

While still in AWAY mode, when you enter your home (by opening the door), the Nyce door sensor turns automatically ON the HOME mode

Of course, as soon as we’d get geo-location tags attached to our keys, going away from home could be also detected automatically, and I believe the geo-tag device support is coming still during this year to Cozify. But meanwhile, I will take the manual AWAY-switching using Cozify application anytime over the manual light switching across the rooms.


Another convenient use of lights in addition to switching them and off, or changing the mood according the time of the day, is at night. If there is movement in the hallway at night time (detected by the Nyce motion sensor), the desired set of lights turn ON and OFF automatically (dimmed at 20% brightness not to blind you in the dark) if one of us visits the bathroom.

Proove outdoor power socket enables controlling also your balcony’s traditional lights and for example heating.

It's also possible to decide when the lights are off, even if someone is at home - I’ve used Cozify’s timer function to turn off the balcony lights when there’s enough light outside. Proove‘s outdoor smart power socket does the job beautifully. Cozify knows when the sun rises and falls, and the balcony lights and some of our indoor lights’ timings are based on that. I have added one hour buffer for those events through Cozify, being: the lights go off 1 hour after the sunrise, and 1 hour before the sundown as the sun in Finland doesn’t often tend to be too bright.

Another fun example we have connected to Cozify is the Sonos wireless speaker which is located in the bathroom. With Proove remote switch I’m able to change a Spotify-playlist or radio channel in the speaker depending on what kind of mood I’m having - without the need to have my phone and Cozify mobile app there with me. Enjoying sauna is often an essential part of a Finnish house party and for that it is also convenient to have switchable music at hand at the sauna premises. I have three dedicated playlists attached to the Proove remote switch. One of them being called “saunaChill” which contains chill out songs to be played in random order while having sauna or in the mornings. If I've been listening music/radio, the speaker goes off automatically with the lights via Cozify’s AWAY-mode as we leave the house for work.

If we are on a holiday elsewhere, we know that everything in the house is fine. In case the front door would open while we are on holiday, or if the temperature or moisture levels (detected by the NyCe multi sensor) would change unexpectedly, Cozify would send us an sms or push notification to our mobile notifying about it. As the camera device support is about to be included to Cozify, via a video camera we will also see then remotely exactly what is happening in the house.

As we’ve grown to the convenience of having Cozify, it definitely is giving added value and convenience to our home experience making every day living more convenient and enjoyable. We’ve just scratched the surface so far regarding the possibilities Cozify. Cozify Hub will introduce a bunch of new features still during this year, such as the video camera support etc.

Here is our Cozify setup:

Cozify Hub 249.00 €	Philips Hue Bloom x2 69.95 €	NyCe Multi-Sensor - Ceiling 55 €	NyCe Door/Window Sensor 45 €
Sonos Play:1, white 225.00 €	Proove wall plug x3 9.90 €	Proove Outdoor wall plug + 8-button remote 17.90 €	Osram Lightify Smart Bulb, Color 45 €

The total cost of this home automation setup of ours is 806.5 € . What is to be noted though is that over half of the price is formed by the powerful high fidelity speaker of Sonos and the decoration lights, which cost always - them being smart devices or not. The difference in them compared to traditional solutions is of course that they bring now more value and convenience as I have them all working and connected together through Cozify in the house.


One cool aspect is that once you’ve gotten your basic home automation up and running, adding affordable new features to it little by little makes the future of your home and living gradually even more convenient and evolving. Next I am waiting for the camera, and a way to more precisely detect when someone is at home and when not. In the near future I’m considering adding probably a couple of affordable 433 MHz wall switches to control the Cozify’s currently manually controlled AWAY and NIGHT modes. There's also newly added security devices such as water leak detector, which as a home owner I'm motivated to setup next to our washing machine and fridge.

Setting up Cozify Hub

Cozify Hub is wireless, easy to install and setup, beautifully designed DIY home automation product. Setting up your wireless home automation is easy to do and requires no technical skills. Still, there are a few important topics you need to take into consideration to make everything work as you wish. In case you are in the middle of setting up your Cozify home automation, this blog post is for you.

You can buy Cozify Hub as a one at a time purchase or as part of Cozify starter package, which we call Cozify bundles. This post covers installation and setup of hub delivered with the Cozify bundle. In case you already have Cozify Hub and you’d like to pair new devices with your hub, you can skip the beginning of this post and jump directly into section Setting up Cozify Hub, or read instructions from www.cozify.fi/install.

What Cozify Hub package includes?

Cozify Hub includes following items:

1 pcs Cozify Hub

1 pcs Power

1 pcs Network cable

1 pcs Quick guide

All our bundles include one NyCe multi sensor and a few Osram Lightify bulbs. Based on the bundle, package might also include Sonos wireless speaker and Belkin Wemo Insight switch.

Where to begin?

I know you are in a rush of setting up your Cozify Hub, but hold on for a while. Before setting up your beautiful hub, you should setup Sonos speakers and Belkin products.

In case your package doesn't include Sonos or Belkin products, you can jumb into section Setting up Cozify Hub.

How to setup Sonos speaker?

Sonos speaker is installed following the instructions you can find from the Sonos product package. In practice, you will need to turn on the power, download Sonos application from your phone app store and follow the installation instructions.

Note for Windows Phone users! There is no Windows Phone application for Sonos speakers, so in case Windows Phone is the only phone you have at home, you can setup the speaker using your desktop or laptop. More in detailed instructions can be found from http://www.sonos.com/en-eu/support.

Sonos installation and setup video: Setting up Sonos speaker

You need to install the speaker into the same network with your Cozify Hub.

After the Sonos speaker has been installed, it will appear automatically into Cozify application devices view.

How to setup Belkin Wemo Insight Switch?

Just like Sonos, Belkin Wemo products must be installed using instructions provided by the manufacturer. 

Download Belkin Wemo application from the app store and plug the Belkin WeMo Switch into an outlet at your home. The device will form its own wifi network. Connect your phone into that network. Application will guide you to the right direction.

Like Sonos wireless speaker, Belkin Wemo Insight Switch must be installed into the same network with your Cozify Hub.

Note to Windows Phone users! There is no Windows Phone application for Belkin Wemo devices. You need to have either iOS or Android device to complete the setup.  But no worries, after you have done the setup, you are able to control the device using Cozify application.

Btw, Belkin Wemo application might ask you to update the device firmware. We recommend you do the update even though it might take up to 15 minutes.

Setting up Cozify Hub

After you have installed all your wifi devices, you can plug-in the Cozify Hub. So, plug-in the power and connect the network cable into your home wifi router.

When you switch on the Cozify Hub for the first time, new software version is updated into the hub automatically. This might take a few minutes. Please note, that during this time you can't connect the hub.

Be patient, this will take only a few minutes.

During the hub update you may install the Cozify application from the app store. The Cozify app asks you type in your email address. Registration code is sent into this address and you need to type in correct code to proceed. In case hub software update is still in progress, application might say it cannot connect the hub. In this case you need to wait for a moment and try again after a few minutes.

Important! You have to use the same email address you used when you ordered the hub.

Video about setting up Cozify Hub can be found from Youtube Cozify Hub Setup

After you have registered the hub, Sonos speakers and Belkin Wemo devices are shown automatically on Cozify application devices view. In case devices are not shown, ensure that all devices are connected to the same network with the hub.

How to setup NyCe multi sensor?

NyCe multi sensor is a Zigbee device. All Zigbee devices are installed from the Devices view.

1. Select (+)-icon from the top of the Devices view

2. Select Search Devices

3. When the search is on, turn on the NyCe multi sensor by placing the batteries

4. Device will appear automatically into the Devices view after the pairing has been completed

How to setup Zigbee bulbs?

Like NyCe multi sensors, setting up bulbs is done from the Devices view, too.

1. Select (+)-icon from the top of the Devices view

2. Select Search Devices

3. Turn on the bulb when the search has begun

4. Hub will take care of the rest. Bulb will blink a few times after successful pairing.

What next?

Now you have all your devices installed and you are ready to go.

Open Cozify app, create new rules and themes, and automate your devices to the way you like. More details about how to use Cozify app can be found from http://en.cozify.fi/support.

And finally, please remember to send feedback. If you find something that is not working as you like, please let us know. If you have ideas of what we should do next, please let us know. If you have found great devices you’d like us to support, please let us know. We are here to help you to solve all issues to enjoy your smart home and get everything working perfectly. You can reach us from support@cozify.fi.

Don't have Cozify Hub yet? Visit our webstore and order your hub today!

Have a great day!

- Tony / Cozify

What is so special about Sonos loudspeakers?

I was asking myself the same question. Until I had the chance to try them.

I immediately fell in love.

I have been a fan of Tivoli radios for some time. The impeccable audio quality, solid structure and portability are important features for me. Tivoli meets these requirements well.

When I got the chance to test the Sonos Play:1 loudspeaker I immediately understood what I had been missing.

No more fruitless searching for radio stations: Sonos is able to play almost any music and audio you find on the internet. The splash-proof loudspeaker is resistant to moisture and considering its compact size, the audio quality is incredible.

Let me tell you more.

First of all, the loudspeaker is very stylish. It weighs just as much as a loudspeaker the size of a Play:1 should weigh. Not too much but enough to make you aware of its quality. One of my good friends often says that you know a good loudspeaker from its weight. And he is right.

The loudspeaker is splash-proof, so you can safely use it outdoors in your garden or take it with you into the sauna or bathroom. As it is an active speaker, it requires mains current. A little water vapour won’t do it any harm but you will need to be careful in wet rooms. As indicated in the instructions, it will not hold up if liquids are poured directly onto it.

It is very easy to install. The downside of the installation is that Sonos has not developed an application for Windows phones. You will need a phone or a tablet with Android or an iOS operating system in order to install it.

The usability of the Sonos application could be a bit better. It does work, but it takes some effort to understand the logic how the application works. The targeted searches can also be confusing at times.

But when you access the system’s full potential, it’ll be a moment you never forget.

You can find any music you ever dreamed of from the Spotify and Deezer services. Hundreds of thousands of podcasts and thousands of radio stations will take your breath away. The pleasure does not stop here: you can get additional content from your own media server or music saved on your phone.

Unlike Bluetooth loudspeakers, Sonos does not need a separate player or source: it can play online music independently even if your mobile phone battery is running out or you took it in your pocket more than ten metres away. This is a good feature and I personally find this downside quite annoying in Bluetooth loudspeakers.

There is one nice detail worth mentioning about the radio stations. I live in a place where it is very difficult to capture radio signals. If I don't place the radio on the right place and point it in the right direction, the audio crackles and audio disturbances occur when there is movement near the radio. Sonos resolves this issue. I can find all Finnish online radios on the list and the audio quality is good. If national radios are not enough for you, you can search content from foreign stations as I already might have mentioned.

With Sonos, you can form a stereo pair out of several loudspeakers very easily. You can also group several loudspeakers and place them in different rooms to play the same music throughout the whole building. This is particularly useful for parties: there is no need to blast the volume in one room in order to hear the music in the adjacent rooms.

Sonos and Cozify Hub

Sonos is a great product all by itself, there’s no doubt about it. But we wanted to take loudspeakers to a whole new level.

First of all, Cozify's app works on Windows phones. No restrictions in that regard. Everyone, regardless of their preferred phone manufacturer, are able to control their Sonos speakers.

With Cozify's hub, it is easy create different combinations out of Sonos loudspeakers, lights, intelligent power sockets and motion sensors to improve your everyday routine and to add some luxury to your life.

I’m able to create a dawn simulator to wake me up 15 minutes before the actual wake-up time. At 6:30 am the radio channel or play list I choose kicks me out of my bed. If I want, I could also set a different play list for each morning and all devices and lights in the house are turned off automatically when I go to work.

During the day I get a notification if there is any movement at my home when it should be empty. At that moment bright lights turn on and Sonos activates a loud signal, which could be growling and barking sound if you like. It will certainly not replace a watchdog but it is better than silence!

The lights and the selected radio station or playlist turn on automatically when I come home from work.

My wife loves the romantic night theme which dims the lights to a pleasant warm light and plays Rod Steward's version of the song "I Only Have Eyes For You." I am able to turn on the romantic theme with a simple touch of my finger.

You can do all sort of useful things and have fun with modern wireless devices - your imagination is your only limit. It is extremely easy with Cozify's hub and app.

Find out more about Sonos loudspeakers and Cozify's hub at our online shop at http://shop.cozify.fi

- Tony / Cozify

Cozify now and tomorrow

Controlling home appliances and smart devices with smartphones and tablets is finally becoming mainstream. This development has been enabled by the decreasing price of connectivity and widespread utilization of the advanced features of smartphones. 

However, these are usually separate islands of functionality and therefore a link between them is needed.  

In this blog post we are going to take a peek into the great features of Cozify hub.

Cozify home automation is a new way to control the appliances and smart devices at home. You can automate things to happen based on time, movement, start or stop of an appliance or many other triggers.

We have paid special attention to the set-up process. You don’t have to hire an electrician for the installation, since everything is plug and play.

When you start the application for the first time, it searches for smart devices and connects them automatically. It also comes with pre-installed themes and rules that are typical for us all: home, night and away. It is very easy to add rules to the themes, or create new themes according to your preferences. 

BelowI've listed a few examples how you can improve your life using beautiful Cozify home automation.

Pleasant wake-up

Tired of being woken up abruptly with an unfriendly alarm? Just set the Cozify Hub to start gently raising the brightness of your smart lights in the bedroom. After a while the system can start playing your favorite music from Sonos loudspeakers. 

Worried about leaving the iron on?

Never mind, now you can check the status of all electric appliances that are connected to the smart wall plug even if you are not at home. If you want to automate this, you can set the maximum time a smart plug can stay on thus eliminating the danger of overheating of the iron or any other electric appliance. 

Welcome home 

Lights turn on and music start flowing when you come home. Your home welcomes you the way you want. 

Motion guard

You get notification when your child comes home from school. You can also set the system to notify you if it detects any movement when nobody should be at home.

Party or romantic moment?

You can set the color of lights, brightness and music to match your mood.

What next?

All of the above will be available at the time of launch. However, we have no intention to stay put. 

The first new area to be covered later this spring is home security. By adding window and door sensors, cameras and smoke sensors you can increase security significantly. A smart water valve can sense even a small leak and shut down the water supply in order to minimize damage while Cozify Hub sends a notification to you. 

Later on we’ll expand to energy efficiency and heating. Smart thermostats benefit from the information Cozify Hub can provide about the usage of the house and external conditions. 

All of this will be added to the existing system thus creating a truly silo-breaking solution. 

Supported devices 

Cozify has no intention to re-invent the wheel when it comes to smart devices. Quite the contrary – we support the best-of-breed products that you would be buying anyway. For the moment we have chosen to start with Sonos wireless speakers, Osram Lightify lights and bulbs, Belkin Wemo smart electricity plugs and Philips Hue lights. 

We have not limited the number of devices that can be connected to the system. If you already have connected devices, chances are they are already supported. 

In fact, the Cozify web shop is open, so hurry up and get a sample of our earlybird edition. 

Slush 2014, afterthoughts

Slush 2014 has ended. Conclusions have been made, business cards stacked in neat piles and stored into database. And next steps have been agreed.

Now the whole team is working with important tasks with huge excitement. Mood is great and positive, even better than before the event.

What is Slush?

Slush is a two-days event where startup and growth companies' owners and representatives meet investors, press and naturally each others. This year's Slush was bigger than ever. Over 13.000 visitors from 79 different countries. The number of visitors doubled compared to last year.

One notable part of the event are 300 exhibitors. Companies were selected by a group of influential and high profile professionals. 10% of all the applicants were selected. One of them was Cozify.

900 companies enrolled into 5 minutes pitching-competition. From this list, 100 got their chance to convince a group of investors. The winner was granted with 500.000 Euros investment. Enbrite.ly won this year's competition. We wish all the good for the winner.

So, what stuck into our minds this year?

Slush 2014 was our first public appearance for such a big audience. We put a lot effort into everything to make it matter. Materials, booth design, demo and sharpening our business idea took a lot of time from the whole team. Doing everything well and concentrating into details with great passion is a signal to booth visitors showing that we really care about what we do. Our hard work was well rewarded.

We had our own booth on Tuesday. Small four square meter area where we had to fit a table, tv, small shelf and three (not that small) Cozify advocates. Our booth area was fully packed.

The interest towards our service exceeded our wildest dreams. We presented our service and shared our thoughts with huge amount of visitors from various countries and different backgrounds. It was great to notice there was a real interest towards our service. Many of the booth visitors said they had noticed our service already before the event and wanted to meet us in person to discuss and share thoughts.

Kimmo and Antti had their time at spotlights and were pitching our idea to potential investors and partners in several meetings in order to make valuable connections.

We also got some nice attention from the media. For example one podcast spent some time to explain our service and business model.

Listen brief review from 01:01:01 onward:
Techxpatspodcast

Tuesday was a great day indeed!

On Wednesday we had time to get familiar with other companies' products and services, listen to speeches from inspiring people and meet old and new contacts. The whole event area was filled with a positive and encouraging atmosphere. The visitors were on good mood and the surroundings were amazing. The production exceeded the level of Eurovision contest, held in Helsinki in 2007. The exhibition area was simply put great.

A lot of the companies presenting came from different backgrounds. Biisafe, Optiwatti, Haltian, Nimble, Cosmethics and codementor are examples of interesing consepts and products.

A big part of the event were the inspiring speakers. Ilkka Paananen, Jorma Ollila, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Tiina Zilliacus, Marko Ahtisaari and Mikko Hyppönen inspired and gave people something to think about. Not to mention the speakers from the many other countries.

Once again on Wednesday both Kimmo and Antti were giving presentations about our services with great passion and full heart.

Slush has now grown from a baby event to at least to a teenager level. The number of visitors and companies participating the event is simply amazing. An event that has just in five years grows from 200 visitors to 13.000 is an achievement many don't ever reach.

What remains to be seen is, will the event outgrow from its own carcass. With this year's setup the event was extremely useful for startups like us. We will participate next year for sure. We also recommend the event to everyone and wish all the startups huge success and long life.

Read more about Slush from www.slush.org. Now we, the Cozify team, will land back to the ground level and continue our voyage towards our own dream. The launch date is getting nearer and there is a ton of things yet to be done.

Ps. We will select our next pilot program group soon. To be on the candidate list to become a participant in the next pilot, please fill in our preorder form at www.cozify.fi.

The sneak peek: Market research

Home automation has become commonplace very quickly. And everywhere!
Or has it? We asked ourselves the same question several times over the past year and a half.

To see if we were right about this, we commissioned a market research study in October this year. We asked people with different backgrounds from Finland, Germany and United States to answer questions related to home automation. A total of 4,000 people responded to the survey: 1,000 from Finland, 1,000 from Germany and 2,000 from the United States. In other words, the survey sample is comprehensive.

A brief note on the geographical differences

Home automation is prominently featured in the United States. New companies and products are popping up every week, and megalomaniacal acquisitions are attracting a lot of attention. For this reason, we expected that home automation had already found its way into many homes in the United States.

The findings, however, showed quite the contrary.

Based on our research, less than 20% of households in the United States have acquired home automation. In Finland, the figure is about 22% and in Germany, the locomotive of home automation, it is just under 25%. Finland and Germany did not surprise us, but the low relative figures in the United State certainly did. This includes products and systems related to the control of safety, energy efficiency, lighting and household appliances.

"The Internet of Things (IoT) is currently receiving a lot of coverage that can be attributed to its great power to revolutionise the operating practices. The results, of course, should always be treated with some degree of caution, but the industry is going through a major transition. Although more than 50% of Germans do not intend to buy home automation in the next two years, there are still 16 million households seriously considering it. In Finland, the corresponding figure is approximately 700,000 households. Hence, the Internet of Things will very soon affect the everyday behaviour of many of us at home.” Antti Vihavainen, Business Development & Sales, Cozify Oy

Antti Vihavainen
Business Development & Sales, Cozify Oy

Why is the penetration rate for home automation in the United States so low?

Although home automation in the product range of shops, operators and other service providers is represented more widely in the U.S. than it is, for example, in Finland, the products have not yet become mainstream.

The fanfare associated with the launch of the Internet of Thing (IoT) easily creates the impression that IoT and new generation home automation have already entered many homes. Particularly in the United States. In this context, it is worth mentioning that IoT is not the same as home automation. And vice-versa.

There is no right answer to this question, but the biggest reason is probably associated with building an image and creating hype. SmartThings, purchased by Samsung for about $200 million dollars, has predicted to be supplied less than 20,000 product packages. This was before the deal was announced this summer. At the beginning of the year, Forbes estimated that the Nest's smart thermostat was found in about 1% of U.S. homes. The numbers are still low. 

Age and home automation

The research reveals an interesting point related to age, particularly in Finland: 25% of people age 56 and older have already purchased products or services in some sector within the scope of home automation. Nearly half of the people have bought products to control lighting, entertainment or home appliances.

The interesting thing here is that exactly the opposite holds true when we check the responses from Germany and the United States. In Germany, by far the largest group to acquire home automation included 18-22-year-olds. In the United States, the differences even out a bit, but younger people there have also purchased more products and services related to home automation than older respondents.

What is the preferred method to acquire home automation

Now we get to a very interesting topic. If respondents were going to buy home automatic, what purchase model would they choose? Don't peek at the answer yet. I challenge you to choose the option below that in your opinion received the most answers:

Purchase model:

1. Equipment is purchased and paid in full, no monthly payment
2. A service fee, which covers the equipment starter pack and support for future technologies and equipment
3. A combination of the above, with a low initial payment to cover at least part of the equipment. The monthly service fee covers additional paid services and support for future technologies and equipment

Answer:

In each country, the result was the following: about half of the respondents would rather buy the whole package as a one-off purchase while the other half liked the model with no initial payment or a low initial payment and a monthly charge.

Young people preferred the one-time purchase option. A majority of respondents 36 and older liked the continuous service model.

What do you think of these results? Did they surprise you? Join the discussion in the comment section below or on our Facebook page and tell us what you would like to hear more about.

- Antti, Business Development, Cozify