Many construction companies are struggling with controlling their large construction sites. Every year there are a high number of injuries, not to mention the large number of stolen equipment, slowing down projects and lowering revenues.
Infobric is a Swedish company providing systems making construction sites safer and more efficient by limiting access for unauthorized individuals and managing workers’ activity. With Infobric Ease, construction companies can make sure the right people are in the right place at the right time, using the right equipment. Infobric Ease also allows the construction company to control machines, heating and lightning on the sites. This requires connectivity.
The Infobric IoT solution
Infobric Ease is a service based on connectivity. Things need to talk to other things and systems (IoT). For instance, the card that workers swipe needs to talk to the emergency system and the machines need to talk to the control center. Using IoT, Infobric increases safety on site, saving costs and increasing efficiency.
As Infobric grew, managing thousands of construction sites in many different countries, they experienced some challenges in having 100% connectivity in all construction sites.
100% connectivity regardless of location wasn’t easy
Since construction projects are initiated in many different types of regions, from metropolitan areas of London to wind-mill parks in the very north of Sweden, the challenge was finding an IoT connectivity solution, ensuring reliable connectivity regardless of location.
“We really care about our customers and want to make sure that they always enjoy the best connectivity, easy installation and only pay for when they actually use our service” says Björn Svennefors, Chief Technical Officer, Infobric AB
As construction sites often are temporary, Infobric’s need of connectivity varies over time. It was crucial for them to find a partner with a business model that could fit that need.
The quest for a trusted IoT provider with a flexible pay-as-use connectivity plan, started in 2015. But it wasn’t until they met with Tele2 IoT in January 2016 that the search came to an end.
An unpredictable construction industry requires a flexible business model
Tele2 IoT presented a truly flexible rate plan, allowing Infobric to quickly enable and disable any deployments with a few clicks. A local roaming solution, also ensured that the Infobric devices always got the best connectivity regardless of locations.
Tele2 IoT’s 2CONTROL (Cisco IoT Control Center) is a connectivity platform that gives a holistic overview of all Infobric’s deployments in several countries. This allows Infobric to identify possible problems at the construction sites and resolve the issues on their own.
“Now we can manage troubleshooting ourselves in the Tele2 platform. Being able to resolve issues faster increases our value to our customers” – says Björn Svennefors, Chief Technical Officer, Infobric AB.
10 times increase in customer base
Since Infobric started to use Tele2 IoT connectivity, they have experienced an impressive 10 times increase in their customer base. Within 18 months they have managed to sell their solutions to more than 9,000 construction sites around the world. Sites that were not within reach before because of limitations in connectivity and too high costs.
A key factor behind the success is that all Infobric Ease devices have a preinstalled SIM, ensuring a hassle-free installation for the end customers. Or as the Infobric customers’ themselves explain it “securing construction sites have never been easier”.
Now the whole world lies at our feet
Looking ahead, Infobric plans to expand their operations across the world and deliver even more connected solutions, making sure more construction sites, building arenas, hospitals and factories all over the world will become a lot safer.
