queenschamber.org THIS IS QUEENSBOROUGH MAKE AND IMPLEMENT SMART SOLAR ENERGY DECISIONS USING AN OWNER’S REP BY STEPHEN OWEN Founder and President Sol Alliance There’s a major effort underway throughout NY State to replace oil-based and coal-based energy sources with solar and other renewable energy sources. This paradigm shift has gained a lot of practical momentum lately and cannot be stopped. Solar has been a big winner: Governor Cuomo has supported major solar programs (like NY-SUN) and an aggressive NY Clean Energy Standard. NYC’s Mayor de Blasio is leading by example with Solarize NYC, the NYC Solar Partnership, the Solar Property Tax Abatement, and other solar stimulus and advocacy programs. So, why don’t more buildings in NY with big, flat roofs have solar panels installed on them? While industry professionals 16 understand the obvious financial and societal benefits of solar energy solutions, they remain obscure to most people. Building owners have heard that large solar projects can be complex and require substantial investments of time and money, and they are largely unaware of the tremendous number of tools and resources available to them. Not surprisingly then, they are neither convinced nor compelled to make decisions to implement these solutions, even though it would be in their own best interests to do so. It is time for the solar industry to widely adopt the “owner’s rep” model, which has played such a prominent and important role in the general construction industry for a long time. Owner’s reps make it easier and more compelling for decision makers to implement sensible solutions by: 1) helping owners to evaluate different project options; 2) making clear and unbiased recommendations; 3) managing the competitive screening of products and services; 4) safeguarding quality control; and 5) handling most the administrative workload. Using a similar model, the solar industry can capitalize on the potential capacity that exists on commercial and industrial rooftops and more effectively scale the development of commercial solar projects. Qualified solar owner’s rep firms focus on the customer’s experience and are absolutely devoted to complete customer satisfaction. They guide building owners through the inherent challenges of deploying solar solutions and deliver bankable projects with guaranteed performance via investment grade insurance. They leverage their unique skillset and expertise on behalf of their customers, connect them to the state-of-the-art tools and resources in the marketplace and create more transparency, access, and confidence for all of the project’s stakeholders. Solar owner’s reps work with many different project development groups to design systems, select materials, and evaluate financial considerations. The owner’s rep serves to ensure all of these decisions are based on the needs and priorities of their customer. They are specifically focused on: • Reducing costs and maximizing energy production through early involvement during design and development; • Performing proper due diligence by collaborating with engineers and other service providers; • Identifying and employing the most qualified equipment vendors and installation contractors; • Evaluating and presenting the various financial services options for the project; and • Negotiating products, services, terms and conditions, and price. It is well known that people need to realize that a problem exists in order to go forward with a solution. In the case of solar, industry professionals need to do a better job educating building owners about their potential energy choices versus the costs of doing nothing. Building owners are much more likely to pull the trigger and act in their own best interests if they are armed with the necessary information, perform the proper due diligence, and follow an executable process that ensures the project’s goals will be met or exceeded. The solar industry has a tremendous opportunity to offer a lot of value to small business owners, real estate companies, non-profit and community organizations, municipalities and public entities, and everyone else under the sun. With the right approach, they should be able to deploy this value and hit the impressive NY State and NYC sustainable energy goals. Sol Alliance is an owner’s representative. As a solar expert, they provide project development services to business and property owners as well as other stakeholders. “We believe the smart decision is also the right decision, and with our model it’s easy to be smart.” SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS SUFFER FROM FALSE SENSE OF SECURITY BY JOHN H. KIM Co-Founder & Managing Director Reliance Star Payment Services According to Symantec’s 2016 Internet Security Threat Report, 43% of the cyber-attacks and security breach are targeted against small businesses. Forty-eight percent of data breaches are caused by acts of malicious intent such as credit card skimming, while the rest are due to non-compliant POS devices. Despite the rising media reports of data breach in large businesses, small business owner continue to ignore the warnings and the need to instituting protective measures to guard against data breach. HOW CAN YOU PROTECT YOUR BUSINESS? Although there are no magic bullet to remedy against threats but there are two simple measures business owner can do to protect their business. One is to upgrade point of sales or credit card acceptance terminal to an EMVenabled device. The second is to stay compliant to PCIDSS standards. WHAT IS EMV? EMV refers to a smart chip that is built into payment cards and made of fraud-reducing technology. Major credit card companies adopted EMV as the standard card technology in the U.S. in 2015. These cards are overcoming the older design providing that they are more secure and are made in two methods: Chip-and-Signature, in which consumers must sign for the transaction or Chip-and-Pin, in which consumers must enter a valid pin for the transaction. Both methods provide a higher level of security protection against fraud. WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF PCI COMPLIANCE? The goal of the PCI-DSS is to protect customers’ financial data throughout all stages of the credit card payment process both during physical credit card transactions and customer not-present (CNP) transactions, such as purchases made online or over the phone. The primary objectives of the PCIDSS are to help businesses to: • Build and maintain secure data networks • Protect customers’ credit card data • Manage vulnerabilities to prevent them from becoming major issues • Control access to the organization’s internal systems • Conduct ongoing monitoring and testing of security measures • Maintain an updated information security policy It is also important to note that PCI compliance is not a one-time thing. PCI is constantly evolving and updating their requirements to account for new threats in the data security industry. Businesses, too, must update their security measures in order to ensure that they continue to maintain compliance on an ongoing basis. Reliance Star Payment Services is a national electronic payment service provider that specializes in helping SMBs with innovative EMV and PCI compliant solutions, including POS systems and credit card processing. The firm can be reached at 516-321-9888 or www.RelianceStar.com, www. reliancestarcapital.com or www.paymentforcause.com.
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