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PlantConnect®, product of Ascent Informatics
was selected at NASSCOM product conclave 2014. The product was selected for national level
entry among 100+ entries at state level. NASSCOM correspondent interviewed our
CEO Mrs. Sujata Tilak. See below the details and we congratulate our team for
their efforts and building a class product.
Like many other product companies, Ascent
Informatics (India)
Pvt. Ltd began its journey as a captive unit, delivering services to a
Germany-based Controllers and HMI manufacturing company. The seed for Ascent's
product platform was sown when the company worked on a remote monitoring
solution for its German customer in the mid-2000s, a time when the term
‘Internet of Things' had not even entered popular parlance.
Business base
The business premise of Ascent's flagship PlantConnect® platform is
that "shop floor data captured in real time and topped with analytics can
and should be used effectively for business decisions, and will be a valuable
asset if leveraged properly", according to Sujata Tilak, Ascent's CEO
& CTO. The control room was traditionally isolated, disconnected from the
office world and top management and this was the gap that Ascent decided to
bridge with its PlantConnect offering. PlantConnect is a generic, web-based
platform that allows for real-time, remote monitoring and control of industrial
devices. Ascent build the platform first, with the intention of creating
specific apps down the line.
From Concept to Reality
A SaaS-based solution, PlantConnect acts as an aggregator platform that allows
users to integrate multiple devices and machines. At the time of the product's
launch in 2006, communication infrastructure within large industrial units was
not very robust, with the result that the business traction remained slow in
the initial years. The bigger issue however was getting customers to believe in
the product, points out Tilak. Large industrial units were unsure of the new
technology platform and had reservations related to data security and the
company knew they had to speak to these concerns. "We evangelised about
the benefits of convergence of IT and industrial automation. Through pilot
installations, we demonstrated robustness, security and data integrity and
slowly won trust", says Tilak.
While the company was clear that it needed to
get into the apps space, providing solutions alongside technology, it took a
while to identify a solution that offered both good market potential and was a
fit with the PlantConnect platform. This happened in 2011 in answer to an air
quality monitoring requirement. Ascent commenced building their very first app,
was PlantConnect AQMS, a pollution monitoring system which has as its end users
industrial plants emitting pollutants. To get customers on board, the company
employed a partnership model, reaching out to analyser manufacturers and the
pollution control board, where PlantConnect AQMS met with immediate acceptance.
With regulators backing the product, manufacturers came on board. Ascent is now
entering the water quality management space with its WQMS app. The company also
has an app, PlantConnect MIS, that monitors the real time reporting from
on-going production in the field as well as the newly developed, OEM-focused
PlantConnect RAM that provides access to equipment in the field, checks the
health of the machines and engages in remote diagnostics.
Getting the word out
The strategy, says Tilak, has been to work with large companies who take the
turnkey contract and use Ascent's solution to provide the monitoring facility,
thereby "increasing market reach exponentially, since by ourselves we
would not able to gain such traction. We will be continuing our partnerships
with capital goods manufacturers and analyser manufacturers, and are developing
partner channels with system integrators. The roadmap is to build more specific
apps based on requirements." The company is now developing partner
channels with system integrators and large companies, as well as looking into
private branding the product.
From just one client in 2006, Ascent today has
over 40 clients in various domains and four apps in the market. The company has
already spread its wings abroad. PlantConnect is now deployed in Europe for
plastic domain and in the Middle East for air
quality.
In many cases, Ascent has enjoyed first mover
advantage. Scalability also comes from the fact that the environment monitoring
space has global scope. To leverage that advantage, Ascent has chalked up plans
to further expand overseas to markets through partnerships in the UK and Middle East.
The company also participated in the 1st
edition of the NASSCOM product enclave held in Pune earlier this month, and was
one of the five companies chosen by the jury for the company showcase, for its
PlantConnect platform. Speaking about the experience, Tilak says they were
unsure how the product would be received, since it has a very different end
user base - "ours is a more brick and mortar product aimed at the shop
floor, whereas these days it's mostly virtual products that are coming in".
It has been a long road, but Tilak believes
that Ascent is now set to live up to its name. "What we had envisaged in
2005-2006 is actually happening now and it's an exciting time for us," she
points out. Certainly, the company's patience and perseverance has paid off.
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