News

CABA Integrates Internet Home Alliance Operations (3/7/2006)

The Continental Automated Buildings Association announced today that it has integrated the operations of the Internet Home Alliance.

The Internet Home Alliance is a cross-industry network of leading companies conducting collaborative research to advance the connected home market. Founded in 2000, the Alliance provides its members with the real-world testing opportunities required to bring their home technology products and services to market more quickly, successfully and cost-effectively.

Under the new arrangement, IHA's collaborative research program will continue under the CABA umbrella. CABA will establish the Internet Home Alliance Research Council, consisting of IHA and CABA members, which will oversee a wide array of consumer research studies and real-world pilots.

The collaborative research projects will enable participating companies to gain important insights into the connected home space and leverage those insights into viable new business opportunities. The new Research Council will also undertake a wider range of research projects encompassing larger commercial projects and multi-dwelling unit environments.

Key members from the Alliance that will form the new IHA Research Council include AT&T, Cisco Systems, Inc., Direct Energy, General Motors, Hewlett-Packard Company, Microsoft Corporation, Panasonic of North America, SupportSoft Inc., Visonic Inc., and Whirlpool Corporation.

"CABA and IHA both have a critical role to play to help grow the home networking sector," said Ronald J. Zimmer, CABA President & CEO. "The integration of IHA's research program will allow CABA to expand and improve research offerings to our industry. We plan to add IHA's research reports to our library to create the largest collection of integrated systems research focused on the home and building industry."

The IHA Council's research will continue to view the connected home as a series of three distinct, but related ecosystems: family, career and entertainment. The family ecosystem is the domain of family care; the career ecosystem is the domain of work productivity away from the office; and the entertainment ecosystem is the domain of purposeful leisure.

"Both associations view this integration as complementary, creating efficiencies that will strengthen our ability to promote this exciting and growing industry segment," stated Jonathan Cowper, Associate Director of Customer Knowledge at AT&T and former President of the Internet Home Alliance.

As part of the new arrangement, Cowper has joined the CABA Board of Directors and chairs the new IHA Research Council. The Council will announce several new research initiatives in the near future and will participate at CABA's upcoming Connected@Home event.

www.caba.org