Introducing the award-winning WebNMS IoT/M2M platform and the Cell Tower Manager application, which enables MNOs and towercos to create an holistic view of their operating condition by tracking mains, generator and battery power together with access control. Clear and simple user interfaces powered by big data analytics provide a comprehensive overview of performance, alarm monitoring and energy usage. To find out more, TowerXchange spoke to Prabhu Ramachandran of WebNMS.
TowerXchange: Please introduce Zohocorp and WebMNS – what role do you play in the telecoms infrastructure ecosystem?
Prabhu Ramachandran, Director, WebNMS:
ZOHO Corporation, founded in 1996, is the company behind three great brands: Zoho.com, ManageEngine, and WebNMS. WebNMS, the Internet of Things (IoT) and the Telecom Network Management Software (NMS) division of ZOHO Corp is a market leader in the Telecom Network Management and IoT/M2M solutions space. Our strong focus on research and innovation helps our clients to stay ahead of technology curve.
With over 15 years of experience in the network management space, WebNMS offers an award-winning IoT/M2M Platform and ready-to-deploy IoT applications. The tailor-made IoT applications developed by WebNMS IoT Innovation Lab includes:
ATM Site Manager
Cell Tower Manager
Power Grid Monitoring
DCIM
Windmill Manager
Solar Farm Manager
Smart Home
Road Infrastructure Manager
The IoT/ M2M solutions are built over WebNMS Framework, which is a highly scalable Telecom Network Management product deployed more than 25,000 times by telecom service providers worldwide.
The WebNMS M2M Platform has been declared ‘Best Application of IOT’ at IOT & WSN Europe 2014, ‘Best M2M Platform for Service Providers 2013’ at the M2M Evolution Conference, and also recognised as an ‘Innovation in M2M’ at Aegis Graham Bell Awards 2013.
TowerXchange: For any readers who might be unfamiliar with WebNMS, please tell us about your existing customer base and how proven the solution is with carriers and towercos worldwide.
Prabhu Ramachandran, Director, WebNMS:
In Telecom Network Management market, WebNMS has an impressive clientele base of more than 450 customers, which includes leading telecom service providers, network equipment providers, and other large enterprises worldwide. A selected list of WebNMS customers includes Alcatel-Lucent, IBM, Nokia, Vodafone, Qualcomm, Cisco systems, AT&T, and more.
Pertaining to the IoT market, we have a diverse portfolio of IoT applications and our customers span across different industries like Banking, Telecom, Retail, Logistics, and more with deployments in India, the Middle East, Israel, Turkey, Australia, and Indonesia.
We are running Cell Tower Manager proof-of-concept (POC) in three projects.
TowerXchange: What are the capabilities of your cell tower monitoring solution?
Prabhu Ramachandran, Director, WebNMS:
With fading revenues and plateauing growth in the telecom industry, driving efficiencies in order to save on operational costs seems to be the order of the day for telcos globally.
WebNMS CTM is designed to specifically address the operational pain points of telecom operators like fuel and power pilferage, escalating operating costs, and environmental concerns. WebNMS Cell Tower Manager (CTM) comprises of a RTU (Remote Terminal Unit) and central monitoring software, which is built on a highly scalable WebNMS IoT Platform. It is a centralised remote management solution that can monitor and control all installed base units at telecom tower sites. Clusters of sensors mounted on the devices feed back vital statistics on sensor parameters, fuel level, battery status, video feeds, and access control events, giving operators a complete picture of their current operational condition.
WebNMS CTM is designed to specifically address the operational pain points of telecom operators like fuel and power pilferage, escalating operating costs, and environmental concerns
The easy to use client interface coupled with big data analytics capabilities provide a clear picture of the remote assets, their performance, alarm status, and energy usage of the telecom tower site, along with maintaining a continuous watch on the power input sources at the site, which is the major concern at any cell tower.
WebNMS RMS keeps track of the three power input sources: mains power, generator power, and battery power. It gives a comprehensive picture of the energy usage pattern, power availability, power outages, duration of backup power level, top N power hungry devices, and generator fuel level. Operators can even remotely switch the power source from generator to battery backup.
WebNMS RMS brings in transparency within the supply chain. On many occasions inaccurate alarms results in notifying the wrong vendor and dispatching a field technician without prior information on potential failure. WebNMS RMS identifies the issue and notifies the right technician with the precise problem, so that he is equipped with right repair parts. Operators are informed when the fuel level of the generator needs to be refilled. This saves time, avoids expensive cell site visits, and SLA penalties.
On an average WebNMS powered telecom site it is possible to slash operating costs by more than 50%, carbon footprint by 35%, and we can improve asset utilisation by 98%.
TowerXchange: Is your cell tower monitoring solution offered as a cloud based, hosted service or as an installed solution within the customer’s NOC?
Prabhu Ramachandran, Director, WebNMS:
WebNMS Cell Tower Manager(CTM) is built over a highly flexible platform that can support any type of infrastructure. We address the specific needs of our customers, whether it is a cloud, hosted service, or within their NOC, it is our customer’s vote!
TowerXchange: How can MNOs and tower companies translate remote monitoring data into actionable intelligence?
Prabhu Ramachandran, Director, WebNMS:
We live in a world where massive amount of data is being generated at the speed of thought. The WebNMS Big Data module helps MNOs and telecom companies to mine complex real-time data and capitalise on hitherto-untapped business opportunities.
The Hadoop-based Big data module decodes the structured and unstructured data flooding in from sensors, RTUs, and other gateways for faster and better decision making capabilities.
With WebNMS business intelligence and analytics tools, telecom operators can gain predictive intelligence in real-time and anticipate potential issues and can respond to them swiftly.
TowerXchange: What is the balance of WebNMS’s business between sales to equipment manufacturers to embed remote monitoring capabilities into their equipment, and direct sales to operators and towercos?
Prabhu Ramachandran, Director, WebNMS:
We are trying to adopt a twofold approach. Primarily, we will continue to endeavor and extend our relationship with telecom operators and help them expand their services to enable additional revenue. This relieves the operators, helping to overcome the challenges of escalating operating costs, diminishing margins, and growing carbon footprint in maintaining the remote cell tower sites.
Secondly, our focus will also be on providing WebNMS remote monitoring solution (RMS) to equipment manufacturers and telecom companies. Many telecom equipment manufacturers are turning to embedding IoT applications into their hardware as a means to cost-effectively differentiate their product offerings in a highly competitive marketplace.
WebNMS Cell Tower Manager is a distinctive, ready-to-implement RMS for the telecom operator built on an API-rich platform
TowerXchange: Please sum up how you differentiate WebNMS and Cell Tower Manager from other remote monitoring and network management solutions.
Prabhu Ramachandran, Director, WebNMS:
WebNMS is already a cutting edge market leader in the telecom network management solution space with more than 25,000 global deployments. It is plain sailing for us to provision unparalleled scalability and seamless integration with tens of thousands of cell tower sites.
WebNMS Cell Tower Manager is a distinctive, ready-to-implement RMS for the telecom operator built on an API-rich platform. WebNMS IoT Platform’s powerful development tools speed IoT application development by facilitating developers to effortlessly configure dozens of sensors, gateways, and RTUs via multiple communication protocols.
Adding to this, WebNMS also holds strong developer base across the globe with expertise on WebNMS IoT Platform and other solutions.
