Hara, the darling of the sustainability software world, has raised $45 million and garnered accolades in the press. But funding rounds and column inches aren't enough to sustain a business, and the average deal size and volume for sustainability software hasn't grown as quickly as expected over the past few years.

At the company's energy and sustainability event I attended last week, Hara made a number of announcements, including a new CEO, new software products and new service offerings.

The changes reflect Hara's shift toward the faster-growing energy management market, away from regulatory-driven carbon and sustainability segments.I see this as a smart decision, reflecting good strategic planning on the part of an already strong player in the competitive sustainability software marketplace.

Many other firms like C3, Enablon, IHS, and SAP are also recognizing a shift in customer demand, of course, but with a strong balance sheet, team and product, Hara remains an important vendor for large companies to evaluate for energy management and sustainability software and services.

The new CEO, Dan Leff, has 30 years of operating experience leading energy services companies, including leadership positions at Invensys and Enron Energy Services. After holding the COO position, Dan was selected to be chairman and CEO of Enron Energy Services by the creditor-appointed management team to lead the parent corporation following its 2001 bankruptcy filing.

His background in energy complements the enterprise software experience of the founding team and investors. The sales team is also being infused with individuals with experience with selling energy solutions, a contrast to other vendors which deploy traditional software sales reps.

The new product offerings add more detail to the energy piece of the puzzle for potential clients. Hara will continue to support existing carbon, water, and waste features in the base product, but additional features on these areas are a lower priority as the existing product has most of the sustainability features that companies currently need.

The company announced five modules for the base product (now known as the "Hara Energy and Sustainability System of Record") and these modules will be delivered over several quarters. Three modules were demonstrated at the conference:

• Insight: which provides energy spend analysis and reporting
• Modeling, Forecasting, Budgeting: provides energy budgeting and forecasting
• Efficiency Planning and Optimization: provides energy project planning and tracking

Pricing and availability for these modules have not yet been announced.

The software products are also supported by new professional service offerings for energy spend analysis, opportunity identification, submetering strategy development, key performance indicator (KPI) identification, capital planning and other energy management-related services. Hara will continue to partner with its existing set of partners for energy services and will undoubtedly continue to refine which services it offers and which ones its partners offer.

Hara's products and services are particularly apt for lighter energy use or Scope 2-centric firms in verticals like consumer packaged goods, high tech, pharmaceuticals, and municipalities where the primary energy spend is for indirect energy use. Companies looking for to manage and reduce energy use, particularly indirect energy use with a very strong set of capabilities for sustainability and carbon management, should consider Hara, along with C3, CA Technologies and SAP.

For very heavy industrial companies that need solutions to reduce energy for production facilities (like furnaces, cement, etc.), Hara will partner with other firms. Firms like EPS, ENBALA, Powerit, and Viridity Energy have focused solutions for heavy industrial users.

The company also announced new customers, including HP (which uses Hara internally and has non-exclusive relationship to use Hara in its services' business), eBay, Rackspace and Union Bank. These add to an existing roster of over 50 large companies.

In my view, this is a natural and pragmatic business move for Hara, as the prices for sustainability and carbon management software have plummeted in the past few years and are not high enough to support a large, venture-backed company. Hara is one of the more than 100 companies analyzed for Groom Energy's upcoming vendor landscape report on energy management software.