Can you hear me now? (sidebar)

Aug. 1, 2003
M2M adds competitive advantage

Nokia and Opto 22 are broadly touting the positive impact on one company that made this giant leap. BioLab, a Georgia-based subsidiary of Great Lakes Chemical Corp., distributes water treatment products and equipment for recreational water facilities of all types. To distinguish itself in what is basically a commodity business, the company set up a wireless M2M system at its customers’ pools and water parks to gather real-time data on water quality by measuring pH balance, oxidation reduction potential values, chemical levels and water temperatures.

That information is fed back into a Network Operations Center run by nPhase, where the data is aggregated, analyzed and made available to customers, suppliers and BioLab employees through a secure Web portal.

The immediate benefit is that BioLab can schedule service calls and chemical deliveries on a more timely and efficient basis to control its costs. Perhaps more importantly, however, it is providing a new service to its pool customers, since they have round-the-clock access to information on the performance data of critical equipment and the status of water quality.

See the story that goes with this sidebar: Can you hear me now?

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