A cloud software platform for data collection and remote control of electronic devices and automatic machines

Annotation

An Italian startup has developed a cloud software platform for data collection and remote control of any kind of electronic device. It helps users to control the device in real time it thanks to a remote interface. The startup is looking for a partner that distributes the product to its customers and help the team to find new markets and new needs that the device could satisfy.

Offer description

An Italian startup, born as spinoff of an important University and involved in many research projects in the field of computer engineering, has developed and prototyped a cloud software platform that allows users to connect any kind of electronic device to the internet in a very easy way. The proposed solution represents an improvement of what is already on the market, being more flexible and allowing for different actions. Any user just has to: - sign up on the website - add the device/s that he wants to remotely monitor or control - setup the device with a software library provided by the startup. The platform could be integrated to a weather station that collects environmental data: by doing so, the user could remotely monitor those data and even control the station changing its behaviour according to specific conditions (i.e. the station could start reading data more frequently or collecting more information when a sensor reaches specific values). The platform targets both industrial and consumer markets. Industrial players can monitor devices they sold to their customers, while consumers can use the platform to control their homemade and DIY (Do it yourself) systems. The platform is composed by the following three elements: - web and mobile interfaces where the customer can sign up, add the devices that he wants to monitor, display the acquired data, display statistics and send commands. - Communication infrastructure: it's the "hidden" system that allows to receive a large amount of messages from a large number of devices and store them (for consultation or post-analysis) or forward data to other recipients (machine-to-machine communication). - Client application: it's a software that must be installed on a board or on a PC that is physically connected to the sensors of the system/machine thanks to an internet connection (SIM card, wired or wireless connection) and allows for sending/receiving data to/from the platform. The platform is provided as a cloud service. Dedicated servers are configured to host the platform in data centers located in different geographical areas. This allows the platform's performances to easily scale along the usage, and does not require the customers to have specific internal skills. The proposed solution will be marketed as a service under a usage based fee, quantified according to the amount of resources sent and requested by the user and the features (i.e.: plugins) enabled. The basic unit of cost is represented by the amount of data that is sent to the platform; the sum of the data sent will generate of a monthly fee. The customer can add a set of plugins, which presents different tiers of use, generating an additional cost to the monthly fee previously calculated. The service will offer a personalized plan for customers that request a dedicated cloud instance of the service or want to install the service on-premise. They are planning to provide a free plan with limited resources to promote the platform and let customers try the service before switching to paid plans. Plugins and the Data Marketplace represent additional lines of revenue for the company. Third party plugin developers will define the cost of each tier of features and the company will withhold a percentage of this fee; similarly the data marketplace will let the provider set a price for his data and the startup will also withhold a percentage fee on the purchase. The startup is looking for a company that acts as commercial or industrial partner and should bootstrap the product in its market, add the product among its services or distribute it to its customers.

Innovations and advantages

Many of the features adopted by the proposed platform aren't currently available on the market, such as the following: - a bidirectional channel, therefore offering both the monitoring of the devices and the control. - a data marketplace to share the acquired data between customers alongside their platform. - cutting edge technologies in the Internet of Things field, allowing to build a scalable architecture that enables to follow the user base's growth while maintaining high performances and high reliability.

Market application codes

02006004 Data processing, analysis and input services
02007005 Communications/networking
02007011 Manufacturing/industrial software
08002001 Energy management
09007005 Facility management companies

Profile date

16.03.2019