Vinny Perumal is the Managing Director of Macrocomm, a telecoms and technology company that develops smart solutions through IOT.

Macrocomm is a telecommunications and technology focused company poised to become the leader in Smart Solutions in Southern Africa. Through its partner eco-system, Macrocomm has developed solutions to create a unique story for Smart City Management and, as an accredited reseller of mobile, data, networking and infrastructure-related products as stand-alone offerings (or as part of its Internet of Things (IOT) portfolio) Macrocomm provides turnkey solutions leveraging connectivity, devices and analytics. u|Chief spoke to Macrocomm’s MD, Vinny Perumal.

How have you disrupted? 

We are a smart solutions business that harnesses the power of the Internet of Things (IOT) combined with machine-to-machine (M2M) communications. We drive innovation through turnkey solutions that automate communications between central systems and remote devices, thereby eliminating the need for regular human intervention and as such, improving accuracy and reducing costs.

The best example of how we’ve disrupted is within the public and private utility space. Macrocomm is called on to provide solutions to help improve revenue collection for municipalities and enhance customer experience.

Unique applications of IOT in traditional industries such water, electricity and gas for instance include;

• Smart meters for accurate billing and collection,

• Energy usage stats to design energy management solutions to reduce peak demand, and

• Sensors for water management and leak detection.

These ultimately provide stability to the municipalities revenue collection system, and allow for integration across the technical, financial and management departments.

Our IOT solutions offer powerful tools for the utilities sector, enabling granular visibility into energy usage hour-by-hour. It also allows for remote management of network equipment and distribution automation, as well as predictive maintenance all through the analytics management software.

What has worked?

Our approach allows us to reduce complexities and it pushes us to think more smartly (out of the box). The outcome is most effective when we work with customers to identify challenges. More and more, IOT applications are connecting via cloud computing. This facilitates ease of scalability in distributed IOT deployments. It also provides access to inexpensive
big data analytics.

The trick is to reduce complexities, while making it easy for the customer to adopt new services and customise according to their requirements and experience. Customers should not be locked in, but given the opportunity to innovate and adapt solutions that best suits their environment and challenges.

How have you failed?

Because there are so many use cases for IOT applications, we’ve lost our way in and amongst the possibilities. We also experience failure to launch.

What are the secrets to disruption?

Create the need and create a market, don’t let others tell you that it’s impossible. Look at the problem from a unique perspective through disruption – avoid taking the usual approach and explore new ways to tackle the challenges.

Focus on getting the first idea out, create the market and then grow the market where the future opportunities are – a connected world of devices creates endless possibilities. Applications of M2M and IOT solutions is limited only by the imagination and creativity of their users.

• Vinny Perumal is the Managing Director of Macrocomm Telecommunications, a leader in Smart Solutions in Southern Africa. www.macrocomm.co.za