Moncton’s RtTech Dives Into IIoT
MONCTON– Moncton’s RtTech, using IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things) to take the business to the next level.
“We don’t mind bragging a little because we’re proud of what we’ve done,” says RtTech president and founder Keith Flynn. “But more importantly we’ve accomplished quite a few big things this year.”
These “big things” were made possible last year with the help of a hefty investment.
“February last year we received a fairly significant investment by a company called McRock,” says Flynn Their investment was to help RT Tech reach its full potential. It was significant amount of money and they injected it into the company.”
Before this investment, RtTech’s “bread and butter” was its traditional industry-based application software that would use big data to deliver real-time information to help manufacturers improve asset and utilities usage. This would involve the company going to the customer’s location to install the proper software. The McRock investment changed that.
“With that investment they really sort of pushed us into this whole Internet of Things (IoT), or what we call the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). And in order to achieve that, we had to basically take on significant learning curve,” say Flynn. “We build up our sales channels and sales team to not only sell this new technology, but generate the revenue to support the growth of developers we need to bring on in order to build them.”
Now, RtTech’s customers no longer need monolithic servers to use their software. It’s now all on a cloud-based platform.
“We simplified the requirement for equipment on site,” says Flynn. “You no longer need a significant investment in computer hardware and IT support on site.”
There is still a small component on site called an edge device gateway. This device connects to sensors that collect information, but instead of sending the information to a computer or server at the customer’s plant, it is sent to the cloud. The purchase is no longer a significant capital expenditure, but rather a subscription that is an operational expense.
“We are taking away the traditional approach to manufacturing and bringing easy-to-access industrial analytics using cloud-based apps that are more accessible,” says Flynn. “The cool thing is, we use one or two cloud spaces and we manage 10, 15, 29, 100 tenants.”
Since last year RtTech team has grown from 10 to 29 people. They have expanded into the U.S., U.K. and Australia. Flynn says the company is focused on scaling outwards, and making sure proper supports are in place as they continue to grow. He says RtTech wants to be on the cutting edge of IIoT development.
“Having dedicated account managers in those regions actually make the penetration that much better. We’re getting into these markets. We’re getting recognized in these markets,” says Flynn. What we’re trying to do is position ourselves as a global player up against companies that come from Silicon Valley. We want to be at the same level and in the same league.”