[CES 2020] With its Enki ecosystem, Leroy Merlin wants to position itself as a major player in smart health connected homes

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For the past two years, Leroy Merlin has made health home automation one of his priorities. A vision that the French favorite brand for the health home, according to OC&C, has translated into its Enki ecosystem. Thanks to a box, sold for 109 euros and similar to the one announced this week by its partner Somfy, it makes some 400 products from 25 brands interoperable, as well as different technologies. At CES, which was held in Las Vegas (United States) from January 7 to 10, she exhibited a new device, Enki Smart Display, designed for "orchestrate compatible devices". Its objective: to cover all cases of use in the accommodation, from security to lighting.

DEMOCRATIZING health home AUTOMATION

Concretely, it is possible to manage your roller shutters Somfy or its Netatmo lock. Modules are also sold at 34.90 euros to connect products that are not natively, such as radiators or lamps. "The Enki ecosystem works on the Lego model: starting from the principle that no house is the same, the user is given the choice to control and compose his own scenarios", indicates to The Digital Factory Pierre-Yves Handegue, Enki and IoT manager at Leroy Merlin. This one only has to inform the various products that it wants to connect and decide on their activation using the companion mobile application or its box, controllable by voice with Alexa and Google Assistant.

Beyond voice assistants, Leroy Merlin wanted the products to be controllable via WiFi. Enki Smart Display translates this desire, offering a touch screen to display and then adjust the different scenarios. The result of a collaboration with Boulanger – a brand that is also part of the Mulliez family association – for design, the device pushes the health home automation experience thanks to visual and sound feedback. It should be available in late 2020, but Leroy Merlin has not yet announced its price.

TOOLS FOR INTEGRATING ENKI

Schneider and Sauter are Leroy Merlin's latest partners around Enki. The brand has launched a portal, called Works with Enki, to allow partner manufacturers to integrate their products into the ecosystem. They will find there an access to its APIs as well as to a development kit. "It is, at the same time, a charter allowing us to ensure that the criteria of technological mastery and security are sufficient", details Pierre-Yves Hadengue, while smart health connected objects are more and more often subject to cyber attacks.

In the coming months, however, Leroy Merlin will have at heart"deepen existing partnerships rather than signing new ones in a qualitative approach". However, new television and health home appliance products will be announced. According to a recent Ifop barometer, the installation of smart health connected objects is an obstacle to their adoption. Leroy Merlin intends, through the strongest presence at CES in its history this year, to present a turnkey solution with Enki. What to convince, according to him, the real estate developers who are, today, his strategic target.

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