Smart Connectivity for Access Controls

Commercial water treatment controllers are getting smarter and smarter. Controllers can detect and eliminate microbial contamination and prevent scaling, corrosion, and mineral deposits for many industries such as steel, oil, and government. Water treatment operators can set the desired parameters and allow the equipment to maintain tolerances within those set parameters.

The margin for error is very low, and this is why the major manufacturers of water treatment equipment continue to invest in making their equipment more intelligent and user friendly. This includes investing in smart connectivity to keep their equipment running.

Access Controls and IoT

Manufacturing and shipping smart equipment are where the challenge begins. How do you securely and reliably present the intelligence built into the equipment and critical data to operators, managers, and owners? Taking it one step further, how easy is it to make it available at their fingertips? Many manufactures of water treatment equipment have seen the benefits of providing this intelligence and data online and therefore are incorporating IoT into their devices.

A key benefit of connecting controllers to the internet is being able to push notifications when a parameter is out of range, or there is an upset process going on. Having a controller online allows companies to swiftly intervene and remedy the issue before there are costly damages to the infrastructure.

Another benefit is that controllers that are online will be able to upload all of their data logging capabilities to the cloud. Having this data in the cloud allows service providers to generate detailed reports with useful information that they can provide to their customers to value and sell their services and ensure that the service provider is keeping them up to date and under control.

Controllers connected to the internet allow operators to save time and money because they are able to view live data readings and alarms, activate relays remotely and change settings and configurations remotely.

How OptConnect Helps

At OptConnect, we are the connectivity partner for our clients with a broad range of cellular routers, including an embedded cellular modem, that all come with our managed cellular services. OptConnect provides reliable, secure, plug-and-play, managed cellular connectivity. We take responsibility and accountability for both hardware (router, antenna, ethernet cable, and power supply) and connectivity with the carriers.

Our customers have one place to call to resolve connectivity issues if there is ever a problem. Our equipment is activated with the preferred carrier in a given area and tested the same day we ship, so our customers know when it arrives, it will work right out of the box. We also provide a low, predictable monthly cost for data usage. Among the many managed services we provide here are a few that are popular with the water treatment industry:

• Access to Summit, our web-based device management platform, includes:
  • Real-time monitoring of cellular connectivity for each device
  • Location identification services
  • Asset management
  • Alerts
  • Data analytics
  • Summit API integration with your dashboard solution
  • Data usage
• 24x7x365 customer support via phone and email
• Auto-recovery to the cell tower, self-healing technology
• On the carrier’s secure private network
• Lifetime hardware warranty on Opex plan

Are you looking for a connectivity partner who will get your devices connected and keep them connected reliably? Our fully managed solution removes the delays, complexities and frustrations of typical cellular deployments. We also provide a faster path to market for companies who are trying to take advantage of the many benefits of connecting their devices to the internet and are having trouble with simple, reliable, secure connectivity.

We can also help if you have several 3G devices that need to be replaced with 4G LTE or 5G devices. With 3G sunsetting soon by the carriers, we have a 3G to 4G migration plan that can help, including in many cases, purchasing your 3G devices.

For more information on OptConnect, please visit www.optconnect.com.