Remote metering system helps in monitoring and controlling water use

Koka Oy is an expert in water metering. The company boasts the largest selection of metering solutions in Finland, with focus on water metering and their related remote monitoring services. Their solutions help housing, maintenance, and water companies monitor and manage water consumption with efficiency and ease.

Koka serves water companies through their HYDRONET web service. The service makes remote water metering effortless with automatic updates of water consumption to an existing billing system. For housing companies, Koka offers their HYDROLINK Online service. For someone like a landlord, this service offers features such as real-time monitoring of water use and automatic consumption reports via email.

Trineria’s services have helped Koka develop their remote metering systems by adding features that enable easy system control as well as automatic data transfer from the cloud to a client’s own database. New technical innovations such as IoT have reformed water supply management and improved both efficiency and safety.

The client’s challenge and square one

Koka wanted to increase their water meter sales by providing more value to their customers. Lowering prices was not an option. Their customers were calling for more advanced remote reading solutions to enable people like landlords to better manage water use. The 2019 legislative reforms mandated remote water metering systems for certain types of residential buildings.

Solving the challenge

The solution was a remote-controlling cloud service for water metering. The service would automate both control and monitoring of water meters. Trineria refined Koka’s existing product by building a service around it and, by extension, providing Koka with a competitive advantage. The remote reading solution was built using a third-party interface (LoRa network). This enabled functionality that was previously unavailable.

Trineria started off with a crash course into Koka’s business. In order to make appropriate suggestions and even independent decisions on behalf of the client, it is vital to understand the client’s business operates. When starting a new project, a common tongue is essential. Both companies focus on their strengths. Trineria is used to asking enough questions so that technical aspects can be decided on with all relevant information available. This way, both parties are aware of each other’s doings and no effort is wasted on redundant work.

Benefit to the client

• New service product that can be offered to customers.
• Increased sales through new functionality of an existing service.
• Benefits extend to the end user as well: data (usage, billing) is collected automatically with no manual input required.
• Managing water use has a positive effect on the environment.
• A business partner who has deep knowledge of the client’s business and who is able to take development further independently.

Technical advances in water metering occur constantly and being able to ride the wave on these developments is critical.  People are increasingly aware of rising energy costs and how much water they use, and the EU’s energy efficiency directive paves the way for carbon neutrality. Koka is constantly developing their existing services through innovations in monitoring and by expanding their network of water meters. New internal tools for sales and adoption are also in the works.

“Working with Trineria has been seamless throughout. With technologies constantly advancing and new functionality needs arising, development never stops. Our customer engagement is high, and we get requests for new features all the time. Our years-long co-operation with Trineria has grown into firm mutual trust. They can make changes immediately and independently when they deem it necessary. Because all our services are developed under their roof, they know the lay of the land regarding our service infrastructure and physical devices as well.”

Ville Nieminen, Technical Manager, Koka Oy