The Telstra Wireless M2M Control Centre is an online portal managed in partnership with global platform provider Jasper Wireless. “It’s a powerful ‘remote control’ that can save a business time and money by not requiring people to be physically present to perform a wide range of tasks,” says Telstra Business Executive Director Cathy Aston.
The Wireless M2M Control Centre has been developed to provide businesses with “a more cost-efficient way to monitor and manage assets, making it that much easier to set up and deploy new and more sophisticated wireless telemetry and monitoring systems,” Aston says. “The zero-touch activation saves time and money when a customer needs to deploy devices quickly. An installer can turn on a monitor and have it connect instantly to the Telstra network – no phone calls or messages needed.”
The Australian M2M market is worth about $300m and analysts predict it will grow to $1b over the next four years.
“In the short term we expect to see further growth in healthcare monitoring, product tracking systems, vending machine automation and smart metering,” Aston continues. “If a system is using more data than anticipated, the Telstra Wireless M2M Control Centre can alert a customer or automatically message directly to a device installed in the vehicle.”
Aston claims the technology has now reached the stage where it is easy to use and affordable for small and medium-size businesses.
Prices start at $3 per month, depending on application data usage. The offering is structured with service level, group and SMS bundle plans.
“Some sectors have been quick to recognise the benefits, particularly those in natural resources, agriculture and transport logistics; making great use of remote cameras and tracking devices,” Aston says.
Telstra Wireless Business Applications Director Mike Chihra adds small business app developers have a vital role in the growth of M2M. “They are the people out there building a broad range of applications that rely on our networks for connectivity,” Chira explains.
The Telstra Wireless M2M Control Centre comes with a developer kit, troubleshooting resources and an avenue to enable to offer third-party solutions via Telstra’s sales channels.
“Be it vehicle tracking, transaction services or even fridge monitoring, apps using M2M will deliver businesses a significant improvement in their processes and a reduction of costs through the full life cycle of their solution,” Chira says.
“Aside from the ability to control and manage services from within the web-based Control Centre itself, we see a range of additional benefits for customers being able to control this functionality from within their own applications by integrating through a set of APIs.”
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