Real-time monitoring for smarter water management with Cumulocity

Internet of Things with sustainability built in

When people ask Stelios Trikoulis, Chief Commercial Officer, what his company does, he tells them to imagine “a little person” with a clicker, counting people passing through a turnstile. “That’s what we do. We put sensors into all kinds of places: sewers, rivers, pipes, railways, and so on to count and measure anything from temperature and humidity to flow, salinity, and much more.”

But all that measuring is just one part of the equation. Collecting multiple sources of data and getting it where it needs to be for useful, actionable insights is something else. “When we started it was so expensive even to set up a trial,” Trikoulis explains. “We had to build everything from the ground up before we could even start showing a customer what we could do for them.”

Kallipr realized it needed an out-of-the-box device management solution capable of handling multiple devices for multiple customers and offering the opportunity to buy and build, adding bespoke apps, APIs, and more to service specific customer use cases. Cumulocity delivered as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), fit the bill perfectly. Its low maintenance costs and high availability make it simple to deploy IoT solutions without significant upfront investment costs.

It’s been a real game changer,” says Trikoulis. “Starting right from the first contact with a potential customer. We can setup customers with our Cumulocity certified Captis devices in seconds, and the dashboard widgets can deliver actionable insights immediately.

Cumulocity is designed to help businesses achieve measurable business outcomes, fast. It can meet up to 80% of product requirements out of the box. For the remaining 20% it makes it simpler to develop the proprietary tools they need for market differentiation quickly and easily, with a strong partner ecosystem supporting third-party integrations, devices, and e2e solutions. In addition to allowing fast device connection, it enables companies to analyze data in less than 10 minutes and build bespoke solutions in under 90 days. With full multitenancy support, it is a highly scalable, highly flexible platform for IoT deployment now and in the future.

Use case 1: Real-time monitoring for business continuity

Trikoulis cites the example of Kallipr customer Aurizon, one of Australia’s biggest rail operators. Hot weather events can buckle tracks, leading to the costs and delays associated with derailment.

Historically railway companies have used weather data. But with weather stations only every few kilometers (and sometimes as much as 100km away from the railway), the data was nowhere near detailed enough. And with trains carrying as much as AUD150 million-worth of minerals at a time, any unnecessary delays caused by derailments or unexpected line closures were costly.

Every 15 minutes, Kallipr’s sensors provide Aurizon with the data and insights it needs to enable precise, localized speed restrictions where—and only where—necessary. As a result, the company reduced its delay minutes by 14,900. Multiply that across the entire network and the company is looking at potential savings of AUD 25M in operating costs in just five months.

And that is just the beginning, as Trikoulis explains. “Heavy rain is another weather event that can play havoc on the railways, so Aurizon wanted us to measure that too. We added rainfall sensors as an accessory to our existing solution, connected them to the platform—and the data was right there where it was needed. Five or ten years ago evolving a solution like this would have been a major job. But now we can have it across Australia in a matter of weeks.”

Use case 2: Real-time monitoring for business compliance

Another customer Kallipr works with is the Gold Coast theme park operator SeaWorld. The local government in the Queensland area places stringent regulations on water discharge from the park into local wastewater networks.

“Sewage pipes aren’t a friendly environment for anything, least of all people,” explains Trikoulis. “So, our ruggedized sensors fit the bill nicely. Instead of sending someone to measure sewage every day, our sensors sit right in the pipe, feeding accurate real-time data on multiple parameters to the park management to alert them in real time of any problems. That helps them avoid fines which can run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, as well as sending mandatory weekly reports automatically back to the town hall—there’s no little person involved at all!”

“It’s not just a platform. It’s a business accelerator.”

These are just two examples of how Kallipr’s experience with Cumulocity is transforming its business, making it easier than ever to sell value-adding, data-driven IoT services to its customers and to help them reap business rewards. But more than that, it has become Kallipr’s springboard for growth.

The Cumulocity ecosystem is huge and growing. There are more than 170 pre-certified devices, and a huge number of pre-integrated partner applications: “We are using Cumulocity’s white label capability and our Captis sensor range together to market and export a complete offering which gives high availability and scalability,” says Trikoulis. “With Cumulocity we can show customers proven technology on a carrier-grade platform. We can show them they can construct an IoT solution and get it live incredibly quickly, saving resources thanks to a rich array of features and the low code/no code development environment. Time to market really matters, and Cumulocity makes it happen. It’s a true business accelerator.”