6
B ULK D ISTRIBUTOR
Asset Management
January/February 2020
It’s not just the container, protecting the cargo matters, too
F
or more than 30 years, Anova has had a
proven track record in industrial asset
monitoring.
Specialising in the design, installation and
maintenance of systems that employ advanced
wireless hardware, software technologies and
cloud-based analytics, Anova has become a
leading provider of Industrial IoT (IIoT) solutions to
manage industrial assets remotely – including
cryogenic gases, LPG & propane, chemicals,
lubricants, fuels, and water.
Headquartered in New Providence, New Jersey,
USA, Anova has offices around the world,
including Portugal, Germany, Australia and
Malaysia. The company incorporates numerous
brands, such as DataOnline, Wikon, WESROC, ISA
and Silicon Controls (GASLOG), and with nearly
600,000 cellular, satellite and LPWAN devices
monitoring a variety of assets, Anova believes it is
connecting the industrial world for the better.
“We provide unmatched scale, service, and
innovation to service over 1,500 customers in 70-
plus countries,” says CEO Chet Reshamwala.
As one of the first brands in the Anova family,
WESROC’s background is anchored in liquefied
petroleum gas (LPG) distribution throughout
North America.
Reshamwala explains that many LPG customers
were looking to diversify into accompanying
chemicals and refined fuel segments and asked
the company to come along on that journey.
“We have a rock-solid LPG solution, and
understood the similar distribution challenges in
these other markets, so only needed to add the
best sensing devices in the industry. This makes us
a more valuable partner for our customers’ end-
to-end distribution needs,” he says.
Over the years, the company has steadily
extended its reach to cover numerous industrial
assets, including ISO tanks containers. Lots of
companies now offer remote tracking on such
mobile assets, but Reshamwala maintains that
what makes Anova’s offering stand out from the
others is managing not just the asset but also the
cargo it contains.
“Fleet management organisations that have a
track record in location monitoring may not have
experience with secondary instruments,” he
comments. “At Anova, we fully understand the
importance of understanding not just geographic
location, but the physical properties of cargo for
safety and spoilage prevention. And more
importantly, we have 30 years of experience of
monitoring multiple parameters in environments
that lack traditional power sources.
This year, we’re rolling out new tools to help our
Anova’s offering stands out for managing not just the asset but also
the cargo it contains
customers make better real-time use of that data.
Tools to help embed data-driven decisions,
delivering a variety of cost-saving benefits and
ensuring that data isn’t just informing customers’
business, it’s driving it.”
Currently, Anova’s remote monitoring solutions
protect over 600,000 assets around the world,
including both cryogenic and non-cryogenic ISO
tanks, rail cars, road tankers, tube trailers, and
various smaller mobile assets.
“And on all those, we monitor at least one other
parameter besides location – including pressure,
level, temperature, to name a few,” adds Richard
Adams, Anova’s mobile asset product specialist.
“On more complex ISO tanks, we monitor up to
eight different parameters.”
As the penetration of remote monitoring
increases, it is going to become that much more
important for companies to digitise their
operations to remain competitive. “That means
getting IoT up and running today - not down the
road, not next year, now!” says Reshamwala.
“IoT is at the core of the future of remote
mobile asset management. The data and insight it
provides will drive greater automation, better
decision-making, more efficient responses, and
seamless workflows,” Reshamwala continues.
“For this reason, nearly 75 percent of remote
monitoring customers are making significant IoT
investments - and half believe it will be the most
important cost-cutting technology for their
business.”
Anova sees ISO tanks as a significant opportunity
for those operating in IIoT. “It requires a specific
solution, and we embrace the key challenges it
brings,” says Adams - and that stationary and
non-stackable tanks do not.
“We’re building solutions that cover the critical
requirements – now and in the future – that we
see in our markets and at key industry events like
last year’s ITCO conference,” he explains.
These include providing a sensing device that
was able to monitor a wide variety of cryogenic
liquids, chemicals, oils, lubes and fuels - already a
key market vertical at Anova; as well as sensing
devices with a low profile that are not intrusive to
the stackable capacity of the tank.
Adams goes on: “(Clients also want) the ability
to have global access to GPS locations of their ISO
tanks, all within one application environment. Our
engineers and developers worked tirelessly to
develop an industry-leading IoT solution and as a
result, we’re proud to support ISO logistic
companies as they have been fantastic partners in
helping the ISO tank market innovate and
evolve.”
In recent years, Anova has struck agreements
with various other niche suppliers to the market
to roll out a genuinely comprehensive range of
products and services.
Most recently that meant a merger with Silicon
Controls; in particular, Silicon’s GASLOG
equipment and services brand. “Silicon Controls
has grown significantly in the past five years, a
general trend in the adoption rate of tank
monitoring in propane,” says Robert Battye, VP
and COO of GASLOG. “Sales, support and
transformation services were primarily based out
of its HQ in Sydney, Australia, requiring long
overseas stints by the leadership team to maintain
customer satisfaction and progress strategy.
“To build on its growth, Silicon recognised an
urgent need for a global organisation to build the
key capabilities their customers deserved, such as
‘follow the sun 24/7 support’, in-country sales and
marketing, access to extended application
engineering teams, and, of course, added depth
in leadership.”
Anova participated at last year’s Tank Container Village at transport
logistic
IoT is at the core of the future of remote mobile asset management
By merging with Anova, this otherwise
significant investment in time and resources was
resolved without risk to Silicon’s customers, Battye
explains. “While any merger takes time to realise,
self-evidently the agility of both companies is
rapidly bringing tangible benefits to our
customers, suppliers and our teams. This
inevitably will impact the growth rates and
expansion of Anova, while simultaneously
increasing our relevance to customers in its
primary market segments - LPG/propane,
chemicals, oils, lubricants, fuels and cryogenic
gases,” he says.
It also means that Silicon’s Australia-based HQ
brings top-end sales, support, and technical teams
to Anova’s customers in Asia-Pacific, as well as
win-win benefits to both organisations for
industry experience, thought leadership, and
product development.
Last year also saw the acquisition of Portugal-
based Intelligent Sensing Anywhere (ISA). ISA’s
product lines diversified Anova’s offerings and
expanded its global footprint to serve customers
better.
“The results to date have been undeniably
positive for Anova and its customers,” says
Reshamwala. “We have an increased presence in
Europe, Latin America, Middle East and Canada, a
more global customer support team with multi-
language capabilities, and a powerful IIoT
software platform with a scalable cloud-based
architecture.”
www.anova.com