Improving profitability through ‘Discipline of Action’ leveraging IoT

The confluence of efficient wireless protocols, improved sensors, cheaper processors, and a bevy of startups and established companies developing the necessary management and application software has finally made the concept of the Internet of Things (IoT) mainstream. The telecom tower industry is growing extensively with the ever increasing customer base of operators across the world. This growing market has led to increase in number of towers and technologies used for spectrum – this in turn increases need for people and assets which need constant monitoring. The need of real-time tracking of passive infrastructure, including people, assets and energy, has created a demand for a comprehensive tower management tool which can help to synchronise this data monitoring.

TowerXchange: IoT is the new buzz in the market. How is Infozech utilising this concept in its products?

IoT applications use very little data, and traffic is generally not as time sensitive as voice, resulting in a margin-rich service opportunity that in effect can make use of excess network capacity and provide a recurring revenue stream for 5-10 years given the long life of many IoT assets in the field.

Globally customers have thought of Remote Monitoring Systems (RMS) as a magic wand to solve all their tracking challenges, and have deployed them widely. However, the results have left a lot to be desired. In the worst cases, RMS has not even delivered consistent and complete data to the server room. They are not complete stand-alone solutions and therefore need to be integrated with another product to get data from site in an appropriate manner.

Stand-alone solutions can be effective for day to day tracking of the equipment and site. However this data needs to be synchronised with other related data such as people, visits, fuel and grid supply and viewed as a whole to bring about financial gains and reduce operational expenses. This is the major problem which Infozech precisely addressing by implementing “Discipline of Action” with its iTower product suite.

TowerXchange: ‘Discipline of Action’ – what is this concept that Infozech has introduced in telecom tower industry and how does it benefit companies?

Infozech has been a leader in energy management and collects energy data worth US$830mn annually. While we believe RMS and other systems are an important and necessary part to build integrated intelligence, they alone are not sufficient to bring profitability. Maintaining 99.9% uptime of telecom towers plays a very important role in tower operations. Similarly building traceability of 99% of power and fuel expenses will bring about optimal profitability.

Lots of data, but predictability is the ultimate goal of the Internet of Things. We not only capture and analyse the data but also ensure the actions are taken by field staff at site which in turn enhances operational effectiveness. We also use data history for predictive analyses and can opt for preventive and corrective measures so that our site will be up all the time. This in all what we call as ‘Discipline of Action’ for telecom tower operators. For example we can identify the sites with high diesel consumption based on reports we get after data analysis and check its falling usage after future remedial actions have been taken.

Infozech brings in field expertise of implementing “Discipline of Action” through monitoring, tracking and analysing real time data at over 150,000 tower sites over the last five years. We have experts who have brought a change in field operations and energy management in tower industry. The iTower suite is a complete offering which takes the data from the server room and translates it to list of actions required on the ground level. This enhances the bottom line of tower operators on their balance sheet.

TowerXchange: What does the iTower suite consist of and how will it help customers to implement “Discipline of Action”?

iTower has nine core modules through which “Discipline of Action” can be implemented.

iROC (Infozech’s Remote Operating Centre): iTower has a comprehensive module to remotely monitor the tower operations, called iROC. It provides an end-to-end solution, from data fetching, tracking, monitoring to controlling and reporting. With the help of iROC, tower operators can manage day-today activities from a remote location and control critical events through real-time dashboards and reporting tools. iROC can integrate, aggregate and correlate alarms from different power or RMS vendors on a single platform. Thus, the user can save a lot of time and resources to track and monitor the site and improve uptime. All site alarms are tracked from generation to closure using this module. For some of our customers, iROC is the main operational dashboard for 24X7 monitoring of the sites for SLAs of uptime and help them to take actions on a real time basis.

iETS (Infozech’s Energy Tracking Service): The majority — about 30-40% of total operational cost— for running a tower’s operations is its energy costs. iETS helps passive infrastructure providers to get access to real time information about electricity usage and the movement of fuel. iETS offering is closely supported by experts that train and encourage the field staff to adhere to the company’s processes of fuel supply uptake and usage. Tower companies can further enhance their portfolio of carbon footprints with the help of iETS. Through this module, energy sources can be tracked effectively, thus extra money spent on managing energy resources can be saved.

One of our customers uses iETS to track daily variances in budgets (or P&F costs). iETS provides them with an executive dashboard, which the senior management team reviews with regional heads on a weekly basis to track past progress, and create a plan for the upcoming week – both the past deviances and the future plan can be seamlessly recorded and accessed in iETS. Over time, this culture of data based accountability helped our customer to win a prestigious recognition from a third party audit firm.

iMaintain (Infozech’s Maintenance Management): iTower always keeps a check on maintenance activities happening on the site through this module. iMaintain helps operators to address the asset maintenance issues effectively and efficiently by scheduling different maintenance (Preventive/Corrective/Predictive) activities and resolving critical events through the incidence and theft management feature. The user can manage the site and can opt for preventive maintenance rather going for corrective maintenance, thus reducing operational cost. Tracking the maintenance leads to a higher ROI on the assets on site. By maintaining the matrix for roles and responsibilities for maintenance, the efficiency of the operation is tracked and improved month by month.

iBill (Infozech’s Billing Module): To run a tower optimally, there are a high number of consumable items such as electricity, diesel and other energy sources. iTower has a module called iBill to ensure that all the consumption related data can be integrated for reliable billing. iBill helps tower operators to automate their billing process by integrating all vendors/ telecom operators thereby reducing billing conflicts. Tower operators can easily access the power and fuel consumption data from a centralised location along with the recovery of energy usage. Using iBill, tracking of fuel and energy consumption is easy and transparent, so that user gets billed only for exact amount of consumption. The user can manage billing for various operators in a single go.

One of our customers uses iBill to generate bills for all their tenants on time thus meeting the SLA to ensure service continuity, quality and timely output. Various types of agreements between towercos and operators are catered to e.g. fixed cost, pass through, retrospective and supplementary billing etc. Another customer generates bills based on data from varied sources (e.g. RMS, average data, and fuel bills) to then compare and analyse these before deciding which one should be sent to the operator. A workflow which allows customers to view and approve site level data of the bills ensures reduction in payment delays due to billing disputes.

iAnalytics Energy (Infozech’s Energy Analytics module): Passive infrastructure providers can now address their specific questions and improve their operational performance by taking the right decisions enabled by online analytical processing. The data captured across various automated modes can be easily correlated and aggregated into Infozech’s Analytics platform where it can be further processed for real-time action and delivery. Future analysis for various sites infrastructure and operations can be done using this module, and in doing so, the user can save both time and resources by planning events in advance.

iAnalytics Battery (Infozech’s Battery Analytics Module): This module helps in improving performance and life of a battery through continuous tracking, monitoring and control. It includes reporting and analysing various battery parameters which are crucial for the functioning of a battery. Based on the operating conditions, the remaining life of the battery can be predicted and recommendations can be made on controllable parameters like depth of discharge so that overall life of battery is increased.

iAsset (Infozech’s Asset Management): iAsset enables tower companies to understand the location and type of asset present at the site. With the integration of site assets into a master database, iAsset allows users to keep a check and audit the site. Asset movement activity can also be captured to keep a real-time tracking of assets. Health reports are generated to monitor the utilisation of remote assets.

iAccess (Infozech’s Access Management): Infozech’s belief in providing secure solutions for this industry has resulted in the development of the iAccess module. iAccess provides a platform for tower operators to securely access their sites and monitor the site accessibility as well as the performance of guards and field personnel. This module works seamlessly when integrated with access control devices for time/duration based access codes. This contributes to enhancing the life of different equipment located at the tower sites.

TowerXchange: Finally, please sum up the role of Infozech in improving the profitability of the international tower industry.

Infozech has played a major role in developing products and applications that are helping the Indian and International tower industry build a culture of data based accountability, leading to ‘Discipline of Action’. The tower industry faces huge challenges such as inefficient tracking of assets and resources, unavailability of relevant and integrated data, accuracy of the bills generated and the lag time between getting the billing data and generating the final bill. Moreover inability to make sense of collected data to take the right business decisions. iTower addresses all these challenges with its suite of products thus helping tower operators find the right ways to improve their bottom line.