Italian gas distributor Italgas is now monitoring over 8 million connected smart meters across the country follow a deployment of Infovista’s Ativa automated assurance technology.

The Ativa solution provides Italgas with real-time visibility and control over its IoT network. This enhances service reliability, reduces costs, and enables Italgas to adhere to contracted SLAs with ARERA, the Italian Regulatory Authority for Energy, Networks, and Environment.

Ativa is supporting Italgas’ digital transformation, with the company expecting to achieve more than 90% cost reduction through operational efficiencies. These include minimising field visits, improved visibility of the network quality Italgas receives from CSPs and adherence to contracted SLAs, and subsequently higher compliance to their SLA requirements mandated by ARERA.

The automated assurance of Italgas’ 8 million IoT devices enables the company to quickly identify the root-cause of any issues and monitor the reliability of the three CSP networks connecting its nationwide network of smart meters. Ativa, which is a cloud-native and open platform by design, allows Italgas to integrate with its own cloud-based Business Intelligence systems for maximum operational efficiency.

Ativa’s multi-tenancy capabilities enable the expansion of the existing system to other international markets in which Italgas operates.

“The challenge of managing a network of over 8 million IoT devices is significant – but even more so when you add the regulatory requirement for every one of these devices to be connected and providing daily meter readings,” explained Diego Vola, Telecommunications Project Manager, Italgas. “The ability to quickly identify and resolve the root-cause of a problem is critical to both the customer experience we deliver and the SLAs to which we are accountable. The cost savings from deploying Ativa are expected to be over 90%, and we are excited to be working with Infovista to look at extending these operational efficiencies to all our markets.”

“The increasing deployment of IoT devices in industrial and enterprise environments is creating assurance challenges such as monitoring and troubleshooting which are new for businesses for whom connectivity is not their core focus,” said Franco Messori, Chief Strategic Officer, Infovista. “Italgas is a perfect example – they have a nationwide network of millions of smart meters connected to their central system via public CSP networks. The assurance of optimal performance can only be achieved by having the right observability and control to ensure the efficient operation of their expansive IoT network. We’re delighted to be working with this pioneering utility to support them with their digital transformation towards assuring an uninterrupted and reliable IoT network across Italy and beyond.”