Otodata’s unique monitoring software that accompanies the hardware, allows users to monitor their tanks remotely, providing insightful, real-time data to drive asset and labour productivity in their business.
In December last year, CIBC Innovation closed a $7.5m growth capital financing with Otodata. It was announced at the time this capital will be used to support the company’s product diversification and growth across North America.
Now, checking back in with the company, gasworld brings you an exclusive interview with Eric Wise, Vice-President of Industrial Gas Solutions, for the next instalment of The 12 Days of Content.
gasworld (GW): Thank you for taking the time to talk to us today, Eric. Back in April Otodata acquired Wise Telemetry. Can you tell us more about this transaction and why it is so significant for the company?
Eric Wise (EW): Otodata’s scale combined with Wise Telemetry’s industrial gas experience is creating unprecedented advances for telemetry. With over one million monitors across the globe, we can now offer monitoring for any industrial gas asset at a price that makes sense. For the first time, we are seeing customers put telemetry on entire fleets of CO2 tanks, manifolds, and more. Mass adoption is now the trend for industrial gas telemetry.
GW: Can you tell us about some other standout moments for Ototdata from the past year?
EW: At this year’s annual GAWDA convention, we announced a new partnership with Ratermann Manufacturing. While customers can still order directly from us, they can now also order our telemetry units through Ratermann. This is extremely helpful for customers who are buying new assets and want them to arrive with telemetry pre-installed. We’re very excited about this partnership and have already seen early successes from it.
GW: What are some challenges has the company had to face throughout the year? How did you overcome these?
EW: Supply chain has been a challenge for everyone this year, especially companies that use electronic components. However, we have been able to work with our vendors to avoid major shortages. We also placed large inventory orders in Q4 2020 when the first signs of a looming supply chain crisis emerged. This was key to keeping our assembly lines moving.
GW: What trends do you expect to see in the market next year?
EW: We’ve recently started to see distributors use telemetry on their entire fleets. For example, we are seeing liquid CO2 distributors put their entire CO2 fleets on telemetry. In other cases, we are seeing distributors start programs to monitor all of their manifolded customers. Distributors are realising that they get the best ROI when they monitor every asset in a given asset class. Of course, this level of adoption needs an extremely affordable solution, which we provide. We expect this trend to rapidly accelerate in 2022.
GW: What is your biggest goal for 2022?
EW: In 2022, we will be opening a 12,000 square foot facility in Pittsburgh to support our growth. This facility will house our Pittsburgh based sales team, customer service group, and final assembly/shipping. We will be shipping 10,000s of monitors per month from this facility starting in March.
GW: Finally, in the spirit of the time of year and theme of the series, if you could make one Christmas wish for the industrial gases industry, what would it be and why?
EW: From talking with our customers coast to coast, one of their biggest challenges is finding enough delivery drivers and technicians to serve their end users. Solving the labor shortage would be a huge benefit to everyone in the industry. Hopefully this wish starts to come true soon in 2022!