This year, technology company Yoga is building so-called sample intelligent offices in San Jose, Mumbai and Abu Dhabi. The former head of Hansabank, Indrek Neivelt, recently joined the reborn company.

Priit Vimberg (pictured above), a Member of the supervisory board of Yoga, scrolls his finger on the screen of his iPhone. Through the mobile, he can light the lamp in the office’s toilet and adjust it to his convenience. And quite easily, the toilets in India and Arabia, for example, would also be directly managed on the same phone screen if they were included in the Yoga Intelligent Building System. And not only the lavatories, but also any climate, illumination, security system, etc. in every home or office.

Yoga’s concept of total intelligent building is rising from the ashes. The company that practically went bankrupt in 2008 and was totally written off, got new owners – a business duo of Tartu, Mr Juhan Kolk and Urmas Past – and now it intends to extend to the markets of USA, India, and the United Arab Emirates this year. According to the vision, Yoga should be a world famous trademark in 2015, and the company’s turnover should reach one billion dollars!

Former CEO of Swedbank in Baltics believes in the potential of Yoga

Indrek Neivelt who has been a member of the supervisory board of the company since autumn of last year finds that the company has got a potential, but “it is too soon to call”. “The main focus should be on the sale and further development of the product,” he notes. “The hardest thing is making the buyers believe they can trust a brand that is not world famous. Because you have to compete with world famous companies out there.” That is why, 2010 has been announced as a big sales year at Yoga.

But let us take a few steps backwards. Before Mr Kolk and Mr Past came along, Yoga had been struggling with a lack of funding for years. The idea seemed to be good, but there were no finances to develop it. Yoga had been developing access systems well before the big trend – in the Estonian sense, it was stepping ahead of it, or even in front of it – concentrating more and more on the energy efficiency of buildings. “A senseless topic!” was what others said about it in Estonia in 2005 when the Yoga men started. Now, energy is the number one issue throughout entire Europe.

But the owners of the company got into conflict; the company was mocked by the technology front. As the equity capital no longer met requirements, a member of the supervisory board, Raivo Raestik , was forced to file a bankruptcy petition in 2008.

Tough entrepreneurs are in high value

“We were totally written off,” acknowledges Mr Vimberg who has been keeping the company afloat with Mr Raestik. “But we believed in what we were doing and we knew what the future trend would be.”

After the fading of the old company, a new company was formed on the basis of the former employees, which has overcome the troubles, moved from a cramped office in Ülemiste City to a spacious area in the Tammsaare Business Centre, and is making serious plans through the support of wealthy investors. Now, the Yoga guys have a serious advantage that is highly appreciated in the risk capital landscape of Silicon Valley, for example – they have toughened up.

“As a company, we have survived very hard times,” Vimberg says. There were two options: to sell the entire development, or to struggle on. Before the arrival of the new investors, they were developing their product at Yoga totally free of charge. They did not see a salary until the money started moving again.

But what is it that the Yoga men have learnt?

For example, the fact that you should not give personal surety to company loans. Raestik and Vimberg left several million kroons in the bankruptcy net of the old Yoga. It’s better to take risks and include investors.

Also, it is not advisable to loan money for the business from your family and friends – the potential for problems is very big.

The third lesson concerns the choice of staff – if you want to have a really progressive company, hire developing personnel who are really dedicated. When you see there is no sparkle in their eyes even after four months in the job, terminate the employment – nothing good will come out of it.

A full package for a villa costs more than a half a million EEK

But let us leave the past, as Yoga concentrates on the future. The current efforts must bring success in sales at last.

According to Vimberg, Yoga completed the initial version 2.0 of its IB (Intelligent Building Control System) last summer. With that they proved that the access, illumination, climate and security systems could be operated jointly, and they installed it to the key customer of the company at the Tammsaare Business Centre. The next, version 2.1, is already targeted for external markets and it can be installed in a much easier way. Version 2.2 will be issued in June.

Yoga IB is a symbiosis of software and hardware consisting of a so-called brain and as many modules as you happen to need. The system can be built from parts like Lego, but it is also sold as a package – e.g. a minimum package for a flat cost (depending on the number of bedrooms) 2,800-3,900 euros (43,800-61,000 kroons), 8,800 euros (137,700 kroons) for a villa. A full or so-called premium package for a flat, however, costs up to 15,600 euros (244,000 kroons), and 34,000 euros (532,000 kroons) for a villa.

The minimum package contains lots of exciting functions – it helps manage the illumination, accesses, security systems, and temperature. To reduce the temperature, for example, when no one is at home, or switch off the lamps with no one in the room. The building calculates the energy readings itself and, if necessary, forwards them to public utility undertakings which are manageable through a mobile phone (so far, only from the iPhone platform, but soon also from other smart phones) and the computer screen. “I, for example, do not fancy carrying the keys along, I open the door with the mobile phone,” Vimberg says.

The stiff priced premium package includes managing the audio, video and other home appliances, by touch screen. Besides the mobile and computer, you may use the TV-set to manage your home – heat the sauna in between watching the movie, or switch on the coffee machine. Also, a picture of the front door camera will appear on the TV screen – you may communicate with the guest who is ringing your doorbell without leaving the sofa.

Skype video calls now possible through the TV

A noteworthy opportunity, which is not available yet but was tested recently by the Yoga men in Abu Dhabi, is a video call on a TV-screen. Let us recall that it was an incubator company called Inkspin1 of the Ambient Sound Investments investment group of a founder of Skype that came up with the idea for a so-called TV videophone in 2008 – and that is the company with which Yoga is co-operating.

The objective of Inkspin1 is to make Skype video calls through a TV easy and comfortable for all home users by convincing the TV manufacturers to install the relevant software in the TV-set. Connecting the computer to a TV is not rocket science any longer, but could it be beyond the skills of an average home user due to its inconvenience and incompatibility. Yoga and Inkspin1 will create a symbiosis attractive for one another. And what is the most important – it works, video calls can really be made from a TV screen!

Who will install?

Today, an attractive product is the one you buy from a store and install it at home with little effort. Yoga sales could be set back by the fact that although the intelligent building system is meant for a home user just as much as for a big office customer, a person cannot install it on their own; you must call for an electricity specialist for that purpose.

According to Vimberg, that is the reason why Yoga is concentrating its sale on new and renovated buildings. In fact, in new urban regions and office complexes where there is many modules per building. In spite of the obstacles in installing the Yoga system, the arguments for the client or user will remain clear: simplicity, convenience, and safety.

In Abu Dhabi, where one of the three Yoga sample intelligent offices will be completed in the near future, the company co-operates with licensed installers. “We train and provide support; they install,” Vimberg says.

New investors have managed to start the engine of Yoga well. The blessed atmosphere favours outrageous technological ideas on how to manage the buildings and there, in fact, are no limits. Vimberg admits there are heaps of ideas. Everything at home is somehow operable.

Future: a person as an ID

The self-learning Yoga system that is based on the technology of neural network or the ability to make assumptions on the basis of the movement of people and provide feedback is already old news. That was spoken about years ago. Now there are fresher thoughts.

For example, you can give orders to manage the lamps on when to switch on and off. But they could be adjusted also; so that irrelevant of the fact how light it is outside, they keep the same illumination level inside.

At Yoga, they understood from the very beginning that inventing a separate remote control for managing the house would have been too much (there are too many remote controls at home anyway). This way, the application for a mobile phone was borne, which is at our disposal all the time. But in future, they would like to contribute to biometrics at Yoga – you are enough for identification! It means that you go home and the door opens. You leave and it closes. When you arrive behind the home gate, the house recognises you by your profile – switches on the lights, the teapot, and your favourite music. Says hello and asks whether you had a good day.

In biometrics, Yoga co-operates with a Swiss company for the home to be able to identify the person by his face, eyes, facial expression, voice, or other qualities.

While intelligent building needs thorough cabling at present, in the future a big step ahead will be with a wireless system. The only thing that will be operated by cable is the security system. “If scientists could come up with a device that is able to read people’s mind, we would make it compatible with the Yoga system right away,” says Vimberg with a smile.

Why those markets?

But why will Yoga establish subsidiaries and sample offices in Mumbai, Abu Dhabi, and San Jose already this spring? What about the European market where growth would be secured by the strict EU climate policy?

These places were selected thanks to personal contacts. “I convinced the investors to invest nearly a million kroons to take Yoga to the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi in January 2009. That would also open the doors to India in addition to Arabia,” Vimberg says.

The network has expanded even further in the meantime and now Yoga is also said to be welcome in China and elsewhere in the world. According to Vimberg, there are also contacts silently occurring in Europe, but that market is very fragmented. Besides, they are not building in Europe the same way as they do in the Middle East and Asia – that is almost an entire city at the same time.

Yoga focuses on large markets and wealthy clients, but you need a crowd to become big – meaning home users. The work must be done with both client groups.

“They ask for solutions in luxury villas which are irrational in a good sense,” Vimberg notes. “These include all you can think of up to car surveillance. The first installations should be completed and the money received by the summer!”

Pillars of the Yoga system

• Climate control – an opportunity to adjust or programme the temperature on the basis of the room and presence. For example, to reduce the temperature by a few degrees when no one is home, or in a conference room. If the temperature were reduced in the room by even a single degree, it would save total of three to eight per cent in thermal energy. In an empty room, also the ventilation does not have to work at full speed.
• Light control – an opportunity to adjust or programme the light on the basis of the room, or the person in it. In the office, switching off unnecessary lamps could save even up to 60 per cent of the energy.
• Motion control – a perfect control over the movement of people in the rooms and an opportunity to provide different access rights to different people for various periods.
• Security system – a remote-controlled complete system combining various sensors: for example, displacement transducers, gas detectors, glass breakage, or smoke detectors
• Distance meters – provides the users with thorough information on the consumption of electricity, water, gas, and other energy and, if necessary, automatically transmits the readings to the service provider.