Online access to facility equipment enables immediate savings

Optimizing energy usage

With a long background in Facility Management, Uniq Solutions offers services and systems to keep track of heating, lighting, ventilation and energy consumption. This enables their customers to optimize energy usage and material consumption and make substantial savings. But to make these optimizations, you need to know how your equipment is doing in the field and gather data over time. Uniq Solutions looked to find a company who could gather the live information and offer a cost-effective fit for their Facility Management software system. That is how they found HMS Industrial Networks and the Netbiter Remote Management Solution. “The aim was to offer a service where if a client has a sensor or system with an output of either analogue or digital signals, we would create the solution to deliver the information in a single system,“ explains Tony Verrall,” Managing Director at Uniq Solutions. “After the first meetings with HMS, it was apparent that Netbiter could offer what was required in a cost-effective, reliable way.”

How it works

When a facility owner comes to Uniq Solutions wanting to decrease maintenance costs, they together assess what they would like to monitor. It could be virtually anything from temperature, humidity, light (Lux), energy, vibration, or whatever their customers would like. Uniq solutions then install the suitable Netbiter gateways to each respective equipment. The gateways send data from the equipment either via Ethernet or the cellular network (using a multi network SIM-card supplied by Uniq Solutions). The data is presented in an intuitive web interface where users can see online gauges, thermometers, level indicators and also view graphs of performance over time. gateways send data from the equipment either via Ethernet or the cellular network (using a multi-network SIM-card supplied by Uniq Solutions). The data is presented in an intuitive web interface where users can see online gauges, thermometers, level indicators and also view graphs of performance over time.

Netbiter is simple, cost effective and, with a bit of knowledge, very powerful.

Tony Verrall, Managing Director, Uniq Solutions

Early alarms gives better maintenance

A much-appreciated feature of the solution is the Alarms function. Alarms enable users to identify an issue prior to becoming a major problem  — a simple feature which can save thousands of pounds. For example, it is possible to spot low fuel levels or high temperatures before these issues cause a machine to stop. “We are also now able to get the correct information to service providers to ensure they have the right parts when they go out to repair equipment. This again saves so much time and money,” says Tony Verrall.

Implementation

Uniq Solutions helps customers connecting the Netbiter gateways to the actual equipment and getting it online. They also cater for the support and maintenance of the gateways in the field making it a very hassle-free solution for the end user. “I spent some time with the HMS team in the first few months learning how to get up and running with various products. We did not enter this arena as controls specialists, as we are predominantly a Facility Management specialists who know and understand the customer problems. When we meet a new customer, we find out what they require and match them to the relevant Netbiter gateways which deliver what is required,” says Tony Verrall.

The Netbiter gateway (in this case, an EasyConnect 250) sends information from the remote equipment via Ethernet or a cellular connection. The data is displayed in an intuitive web dashboard showing all current values and performance over time.

The results

After using the Netbiter solution for some time, Tony Verrall has found Netbiter to be a strong business enabler: “We now look at HMS as our gateway partner. We know it is a tried and tested solution which works. The benefit of having the local HMS team in the UK to work with us as partners has been a great help and without their support we would not have been able to offer our customers the service we do.” Finally, what are your tips to users who are thinking of implementing remote management? 

“Don’t wait! A couple of service visits will cost more than implementing a simple remote management system so the return on investment is very quick. Netbiter is simple, cost effective and, with a bit of knowledge, very powerful.”