These kinds of solutions are
These kinds of solutions are going to be come VERY popular in coming years, even in highly industrialized nations. It's a great niche that's screaming for attention.
Sooner rather than later,
Sooner rather than later, this kind of energy efficiency planning/evaluation will even filter down into the market values for commercial real estate used for data centers. There's BIG savings at stake.
Oracle isn't the first major ISV to look at this issue. And it certainly won't be the last.
These are some good sales
These are some good sales tips for computer consulting firms trying to sell reluctant small business decision makers. However I'm not sure you're going to reach your intended audience on a portal like this.
Most non-technical small business decision makers rarely frequently IT portals like this. They're a lot more likely to identify with either their industry or their occupation.
We cover this in a lot more detail in Computer Consultant Marketing #901 (How to Market Your Computer Consultant Business without Breaking the Bank).
That said, I'd highly recommend that you take this article, format it nicely into a whitepaper, and place it behind a highly-completing opt-in form on your Web site. It could be a great lead generator for building a mailing list.
Let us know if you need help.
Many VARs are still doing
Many VARs are still doing very well by focusing on providing soup-to-nuts outsourced virtual IT services for local small businesses. It may not be as "sexy" as "managed services" or SAAS. But for small VARs ($250K-$1M), a monthly service agreement for taking on small business virtual IT manager/virtual CIO responsibilities still maintains VERY high margins and account control. The moment you start selling to a small business that doesn't need or value face-time, watch out for low-cost offshoring.
I think this will end up
I think this will end up being a good move both for Cisco and its smaller Linksys-focused partners. It's TOUGH trying to run a successful channel program for very small technology providers.
However if you're trying to reach non-technical small business owners without in-house IT, engaging with smaller partners is usually the most cost-effective way to get there.