Infozech has developed an IoT product suite called iTower to help telecom tower operators improve profitability through implementing a concept called "Discipline of Action". iTower integrates data from various sources like RMS, energy usage, site visits and assets to provide insights and actions. This helps optimize operations through features like remote monitoring, predictive maintenance, automated billing and analytics. Infozech has deployed this solution at over 150,000 sites, helping customers increase uptime, reduce expenses, and strengthen data-driven decision making.

1. Improving profitability through
‘Discipline of Action’ leveraging IoT
Why stand-alone RMS often disappoints, and why ‘integrated intelligence’ is critical
TowerXchange: IoT is the new buzz in the
market. How is Infozech utilising this concept in
its products?
Ankur Lal, CEO, Infozech: IoT applications use
very little data, and traffic is generally not as time
sensitive as voice, resulting in a margin-rich service
opportunity that in effect can make use of excess
network capacity and provide a recurring revenue
stream for 5-10 years given the long life of many IoT
assets in the field.
Globally customers have thought of Remote
Monitoring Systems (RMS) as a magic wand to solve
all their tracking challenges, and have deployed
them widely. However, the results have left a lot to
be desired. In the worst cases, RMS has not even
delivered consistent and complete data to the server
room. They are not complete stand-alone solutions
and therefore need to be integrated with another
product to get data from site in an appropriate
manner.
Stand-alone solutions can be effective for day to day
tracking of the equipment and site. However this
data needs to be synchronised with other related
data such as people, visits, fuel and grid supply and
viewed as a whole to bring about financial gains
and reduce operational expenses. This is the major
problem which Infozech precisely addressing by
implementing “Discipline of Action” with its iTower
product suite.
TowerXchange: ‘Discipline of Action’ – what is
this concept that Infozech has introduced in
Read this article to learn:
< How ‘Discipline of Action’ enables MNOs and towercos to synchronise RMS with other critical
data enabling financial gains and reduced opex
< How Infozech enables the creation of a Remote Operating Centre (iROC)
< Capabilities in energy tracking, billing, battery, access, maintenance and asset management
< Online analytical processing: an automated analytics platform
The confluence of efficient wireless protocols,
improved sensors, cheaper processors, and a bevy of
startups and established companies developing the
necessary management and application software has
finally made the concept of the Internet of Things (IoT)
mainstream. The telecom tower industry is growing
extensively with the ever increasing customer base of
operators across the world. This growing market has
led to increase in number of towers and technologies
used for spectrum – this in turn increases need for
people and assets which need constant monitoring. The
need of real-time tracking of passive infrastructure,
including people, assets and energy, has created a
demand for a comprehensive tower management tool
which can help to synchronise this data monitoring.
Keywords: Access Control, Asset Lifecycle Platform, Asset Register, Batteries, Infozech, KPIs, Monitoring
& Management, Operational Excellence, RMS, Site Management System, Site Visits, Who’s Who
Infozech CEO Ankur Lal (Centre) receiving an Economic
Times award for Innovative Managed Services
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2. telecom tower industry and how does it benefit
companies?
Ankur Lal, CEO, Infozech: Infozech has been a
leader in energy management and collects energy
data worth US$830mn annually. While we believe
RMS and other systems are an important and
necessary part to build integrated intelligence,
they alone are not sufficient to bring profitability.
Maintaining 99.9% uptime of telecom towers plays
a very important role in tower operations. Similarly
building traceability of 99% of power and fuel
expenses will bring about optimal profitability.
Lots of data, but predictability is the ultimate goal
of the Internet of Things. We not only capture and
analyse the data but also ensure the actions are
taken by field staff at site which in turn enhances
operational effectiveness. We also use data history
for predictive analyses and can opt for preventive
and corrective measures so that our site will be up
all the time. This in all what we call as ‘Discipline of
Action’ for telecom tower operators. For example we
can identify the sites with high diesel consumption
based on reports we get after data analysis and
check its falling usage after future remedial actions
have been taken.
Infozech brings in field expertise of implementing
“Discipline of Action” through monitoring, tracking
and analysing real time data at over 150,000 tower
sites over the last five years. We have experts who
have brought a change in field operations and
energy management in tower industry. The iTower
suite is a complete offering which takes the data
from the server room and translates it to list of
actions required on the ground level. This enhances
the bottom line of tower operators on their balance
sheet.
TowerXchange: What does the iTower suite
consist of and how will it help customers to
implement “Discipline of Action”?
Ankur Lal, CEO, Infozech: iTower has nine core
modules through which “Discipline of Action” can
be implemented.
“
“
Maintaining 99.9% uptime
of telecom towers plays a
very important role in tower
operations. Similarly building
a traceability of 99% of power
and fuel expenses will bring
about optimal profitability
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3. iROC (Infozech’s Remote Operating Centre):
iTower has a comprehensive module to remotely
monitor the tower operations, called iROC. It
provides an end-to-end solution, from data fetching,
tracking, monitoring to controlling and reporting.
With the help of iROC, tower operators can manage
day-today activities from a remote location and
control critical events through real-time dashboards
and reporting tools. iROC can integrate, aggregate
and correlate alarms from different power or
RMS vendors on a single platform. Thus, the user
can save a lot of time and resources to track and
monitor the site and improve uptime. All site alarms
are tracked from generation to closure using this
module. For some of our customers, iROC is the
main operational dashboard for 24X7 monitoring of
the sites for SLAs of uptime and help them to take
actions on a real time basis.
iETS (Infozech’s Energy Tracking Service): The
majority — about 30-40% of total operational
cost— for running a tower’s operations is its
energy costs. iETS helps passive infrastructure
providers to get access to real time information
about electricity usage and the movement of fuel.
iETS offering is closely supported by experts that
train and encourage the field staff to adhere to the
company’s processes of fuel supply uptake and
usage. Tower companies can further enhance their
portfolio of carbon footprints with the help of iETS.
Through this module, energy sources can be tracked
effectively, thus extra money spent on managing
energy resources can be saved.
One of our customers uses iETS to track daily
variances in budgets (or P&F costs). iETS provides
them with an executive dashboard, which the
senior management team reviews with regional
heads on a weekly basis to track past progress, and
create a plan for the upcoming week – both the past
deviances and the future plan can be seamlessly
recorded and accessed in iETS. Over time, this
culture of data based accountability helped our
customer to win a prestigious recognition from a
third party audit firm.
iMaintain (Infozech’s Maintenance
Management): iTower always keeps a check on
maintenance activities happening on the site
through this module. iMaintain helps operators to
address the asset maintenance issues effectively
and efficiently by scheduling different maintenance
(Preventive/Corrective/Predictive) activities and
resolving critical events through the incidence and
theft management feature. The user can manage the
site and can opt for preventive maintenance rather
going for corrective maintenance, thus reducing
operational cost. Tracking the maintenance leads to
a higher ROI on the assets on site. By maintaining
the matrix for roles and responsibilities for
maintenance, the efficiency of the operation is
tracked and improved month by month.
iBill (Infozech’s Billing Module): To run a tower
optimally, there are a high number of consumable
items such as electricity, diesel and other energy
sources. iTower has a module called iBill to ensure
that all the consumption related data can be
integrated for reliable billing. iBill helps tower
operators to automate their billing process by
integrating all vendors/ telecom operators thereby
reducing billing conflicts. Tower operators can
easily access the power and fuel consumption data
from a centralised location along with the recovery
of energy usage. Using iBill, tracking of fuel and
energy consumption is easy and transparent,
so that user gets billed only for exact amount of
consumption. The user can manage billing for
various operators in a single go.
“ “Over time, this culture of data based accountability helped our
customer to win a prestigious recognition from a third party
audit firm
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4. One of our customers uses iBill to generate bills for
all their tenants on time thus meeting the SLA to
ensure service continuity, quality and timely output.
Various types of agreements between towercos
and operators are catered to e.g. fixed cost, pass
through, retrospective and supplementary billing
etc. Another customer generates bills based on data
from varied sources (e.g. RMS, average data, and
fuel bills) to then compare and analyse these before
deciding which one should be sent to the operator.
A workflow which allows customers to view and
approve site level data of the bills ensures reduction
in payment delays due to billing disputes.
iAnalytics Energy (Infozech’s Energy Analytics
module): Passive infrastructure providers can
now address their specific questions and improve
their operational performance by taking the right
decisions enabled by online analytical processing.
The data captured across various automated
modes can be easily correlated and aggregated
into Infozech’s Analytics platform where it can be
further processed for real-time action and delivery.
Future analysis for various sites infrastructure and
operations can be done using this module, and in
doing so, the user can save both time and resources
by planning events in advance.
iAnalytics Battery (Infozech’s Battery Analytics
Module): This module helps in improving
performance and life of a battery through
continuous tracking, monitoring and control. It
includes reporting and analysing various battery
parameters which are crucial for the functioning
of a battery. Based on the operating conditions, the
remaining life of the battery can be predicted and
recommendations can be made on controllable
parameters like depth of discharge so that overall
life of battery is increased.
iAsset (Infozech’s Asset Management): iAsset
enables tower companies to understand the location
and type of asset present at the site. With the
integration of site assets into a master database,
iAsset allows users to keep a check and audit the
site. Asset movement activity can also be captured
to keep a real-time tracking of assets. Health reports
are generated to monitor the utilisation of remote
assets.
iAccess (Infozech’s Access Management):
Infozech’s belief in providing secure solutions for
this industry has resulted in the development of
the iAccess module. iAccess provides a platform
for tower operators to securely access their sites
and monitor the site accessibility as well as the
performance of guards and field personnel. This
module works seamlessly when integrated with
access control devices for time/duration based
access codes. This contributes to enhancing the life
of different equipment located at the tower sites.
TowerXchange: Finally, please sum up the role
of Infozech in improving the profitability of the
international tower industry.
Ankur Lal, CEO, Infozech: Infozech has played a
major role in developing products and applications
that are helping the Indian and International
tower industry build a culture of data based
accountability, leading to ‘Discipline of Action’.
The tower industry faces huge challenges such
as inefficient tracking of assets and resources,
unavailability of relevant and integrated data,
accuracy of the bills generated and the lag time
between getting the billing data and generating
the final bill. Moreover inability to make sense of
collected data to take the right business decisions.
iTower addresses all these challenges with its suite
of products thus helping tower operators find the
right ways to improve their bottom line
“ “Infozech brings in field expertise of implementing IoT based
‘Discipline of Action’ at over 150,000 tower sites for over five years
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