Remote monitoring is fast becoming a new way for companies to not only get accurate information but save money. There are a lot of solutions out there in the market place that cover a lot of different bases.
One product that has been around for a while is the cloud-based Netbiter. But only recently has local distributor Global M2M decided to take the product to the next level.
“We’ve had this product portfolio for the best part of five years and now is a really good time to launch it along with a range of other new products,” said Global M2M managing director, John Thomson. “When we first got the distributorship we thought that it was a bit ahead of its time and we were waiting for other features to become available. For example, when we first took it on there was only 2G technology available. We think that the timing is right to invest in the product and that is why we are going to put a lot of energy into it. I think that the marketplace is ready for it.”
Global M2M specialises in industrial Fieldbus gateway products, whether that be to the cloud or to different protocols. Netbiter remote management is no exception. It is designed specifically for any industry where a piece of equipment needs to be monitored, alarmed or reported and can include anything from trucks to compressors. Industries it is suitable for include wastewater, mining and irrigation – instances where remote monitoring is sometimes a necessity. Thomson points out that Netbiter is not an app you simply download to a portable device. It is a lot more in-depth than that.
“This particular product is not like downloading an app on your phone and just start playing with it,” he said. “There are basic skills that are required in terms of using it. However, the good thing about it is that, because it is cloud based, it’s easy for our support people to jump in and act as a guide. The configuration is all web-based so it’s quite intuitive once the people get past all the navigation. It’s not automation technology, it is IT technology. The template is different from the one we would use in an automation process. The template terminology in the Netbiter system is in the I/O list so it can talk to the devices, whereas in an automation HMI screen you would probably have a template where the layout is a graph. I think it is just a matter of getting used to the terminology. Then it is very straightforward.”
A question that is often asked about these types of product is, how secure is it? And being cloud based, doesn’t that mean it could be vulnerable to servers crashing? What happens to the data then? Thomson says both issues are addressed and users needn’t worry.
“The host servers are very secure,” said Thomson. “We have redundant servers here in Australia for Australian and New Zealand customers. If they fail, there are redundant servers in Singapore all away across the Americas and through Europe. As for the actual security of the system, it has two-step verification if customers want to log in. It’s got the same level of security as internet banking.”
Thomson says the company is targeting several industries over the next 12 months including telecommunications, renewables and the growing building automation sector. A question that he has come up against is how well does it integrate with other systems? It’s a fair point. Customers are looking for devices that complement existing set-ups, as opposed to starting from scratch. Thomson said that the ability to integrate into processes that already exist is a key attribute of Netbiter.
“It’s an integration product that you can’t just sell out of the box,” he said. “It needs to be sold to the right people to be integrated into their own system.
“It has what we call API connectivity or commands that can come from a person’s third-party applications and poll their own Netbiters to get data out of them.
“We tendered for the Fire Rating Danger signs up in Sydney for the Regional Fire Service (RFS). We got some trials through one of our integrators. They used Netbiter, which monitored the RSS feed for the RFS website based on the conditions in the specific location. Then the signs were moved automatically based on the information it was getting from websites. That has been running in a trial in NSW for some time now.”
And more importantly, the data was collected remotely, which is essential for an institution like the rural fire service, where budgets and manpower are important to its bottom line.
Thomson said that the company is also looking at the food industry, especially refrigeration as an ideal target market for Netbiter. This is because it has the ability to monitor multiple sensors at once.
“For example, look at a typical supermarket where you would have up to 20 fridges,” he said. “If those fridges all have temperature controllers and they all have an RS485 port, there is no reason why you couldn’t connect them to the single Netbiter device and monitor them all.
“When they start running their alarms, the alarms can be regenerating in Netbiter then into the cloud. You get reports and can also email the users and say ‘we’ve got a problem; you might want to get down there’. It’s also about preventative and predictive maintenance.”
Another question a lot of procurement managers ask is, ‘what about the return on investment (ROI)?’ Thomson doesn’t mean to be coy, but it’s not really a question he can answer fully because it depends on what the user is going to do with Netbiter. Also, how do you quantify the ROI?
“If you’re using it to its full capabilities, then you can include predictive maintenance as part of your ROI,” said Thomson. “You can put it into remote access mode and save yourself a site visit. Now, if the site visit is in the country or interstate, then ROI is very quickly achieved by one visit. It’s about being able to do things remotely that you don’t have to be onsite for. If you are on a mine site, you don’t have to visit it to do something and you can save yourself a considerable amount of cost. Even if we’re looking at a figure of $1,000, the ROI is half a visit onsite. The ROI is about travel and travelling to sites, or there’s preventative maintenance that can save you money that way.”