Viom to offer energy monitoring technology to banks, power firms

What started as an internal experiment to track energy efficiency has emerged a huge business opportunity for independent telecom tower firm Viom Networks.

The company is ready with solutions that can be used to remotely monitor power usage at wind mills (for energy firms), toll gates (road companies), ATMs (banks), power firms and mining and metals companies among others. These sectors can use the solution to monitor “operational efficiencies”.

The idea cropped up after the company developed a technology to remotely monitor the power usage of its total 42,000 telecom towers on a real-time basis. Viom Networks uses the cloud-based technology to measure diesel usage power consumption or outage and signal strengths of these towers from a centralised control room.

“We are developing platforms where we will be the neutral technology service provider for any industry, even outside telecom. For example, we can monitor windmills set up by an energy firm anywhere in the world,” Viom Networks Chief Executive Officer Syed Safawi told BusinessLine .

“We are calling it Technology-as-a-Service (TaaS) and I think this is a big opportunity,” he added.

TaaS is using proprietary technology and software to offer services that are software-enabled, on-demand and customisable to business contexts. Mostly, remote locales are connected over the internet, with firms outsourcing these services to their clients.

Viom Networks has already started conducting “serious pilots” with some companies that are setting up wind mills, and will sell this as a service. The company is readying for a commercial launch in India by early next year, while it is keen to provide the solutions to global firms.

This would be done as a separate business under its Emerging Business Unit (EBU) and Viom Networks expects EBU and use of technology to contribute 20 per cent in the next five years.

The company will place a small remote technology unit (RTU), which it has co-developed with another firm, at the site to monitor the location remotely. The RTU can also access closed-circuit television cameras installed at these remote locations.

“We already have a tower operating centre, where we can isolate terminals and sell them as a service to these firms. We don’t need a lot for personnel for that, but we need a lot of business intelligence (BI) tools such as data analytics,” Safawi said. The company is in the process of developing a BI engine with external partners.

“In the case of energy solutions, we can monitor these locations and provide services that would enable companies to monitor use of energy, reduce the power provided if needed. These platforms are scalable too,” he added.

The technology could also be exported to other countries even as American Tower Corporation has picked a majority stake in Viom.

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