In an era where digital transformation is pivotal for industrial growth, Ascent Intellimation has emerged as a key player in the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) landscape. Founded by a team passionate about marrying automation with advanced technology, the company has evolved from its roots in IT to become a leading provider of innovative IIoT solutions. In this interview, Sujata Tilak, Managing Director shares the journey of Ascent Intellimation, the vision behind its flagship PlantConnect platform, and the company's commitment to empowering industries toward sustainable success.

What inspired you to establish Ascent Intellimation, and how has your vision for the company evolved since its founding?

We started Ascent as an IT firm focused on Industrial Automation Software Sector. It was called Ascent Informatics then. We worked with various customers from Germany, USA, UK and India. The projects were niche and challenging, but we wanted to create our own IP. We started promoting the idea of ‘remote monitoring of industrial assets’ on various platforms. This was amalgamation of exposure to such systems in Europe and understanding of both automation and IT. We built pre-cursor to our IIoT platform PlantConnect around 2006. But we were too early in the market. When the term ‘Internet of Things’ started appearing in media around 2011, we realized that what we have built is indeed an IoT platform! In 2015, we pivoted to being an IIoT products company and rechristened as Ascent Intellimation. Our vision is to design, develop, deliver and support relevant high tech IoT solutions to facilitate digital transformation in enterprises.

Can you elaborate on the products based on PlantConnect platform and how they address the diverse needs of different industrial sectors?

PlantConnect is an Edge-to-Cloud platform. Following products are currently offered on PlantConnect platform to address specific business needs. These products are successfully deployed in 1500+ installations across India and abroad.

• PlantConnect SFactory – Smart factory / Industry 4.0 solution. Provides real time data and analytics for all aspects of production and maintenance and helps manufacturers to improve operations. Feature rich product that is highly configurable to fit any manufacturing process.
• EnviroConnect – Environment data monitoring solution for stacks emissions, ETP/STP output and ambient air. We are proud to play
• our part in India’s crusade to keep industrial pollution in control.
• PlantConnect Insights – Historian and reporting solution for process plants. Ready solution for dairies
• PlantConnect RAMS – Remote asset management solution for OEMs
• PlantConnect@C – A cloud-based subscription platform for monitoring industrial and consumer assets and processes. This is suitable for monitoring of distributed assets in utilities, auxiliary assets in process plants, energy monitoring, consumer white goods etc. Both private and shared instance are offered.
• DATCon – Edge Gateway.

All these solutions enable data driven manufacturing and help organizations recognize and embrace diverse ways in which technology and data can be beneficially used to become efficient, sustainable and competitive.

How does the PlantConnect® platform integrate with existing manufacturing systems to facilitate Industry 4.0 initiatives?

PlantConnect is architected for horizontal and vertical integration within manufacturing ecosystem. It supports various options for integration with other enterprise systems that include using API, file sharing, S3 buckets, MQTT among others. PlantConnect has a JSON API for data ingestion from 3rd party systems and also for sharing data with 3rd party system. PlantConnect is integrated with ERP, CMMS, Production Planning Systems and others. This allows customers to fully utilize manufacturing data and insights generated by PlantConnect in business decisions.

How does Ascent Intellimation ensure the security and confidentiality of data within its IoT solutions?

In PlantConnect we use standard security frameworks to ensure full security and confidentiality of data on the edge, during transmission and in cloud. The product adheres to guidelines of ISA/IEC 62443 standard and has undergone stringent VAPT

What are some of the significant challenges you've faced in converging IT and OT, and how have you addressed them?

There are some technological challenges in IT-OT convergence due to vast variety in automation systems. But these are manageable with experience and skills. Significant challenges arise due to

• Insufficient clarity on business objectives
• Insufficient visibility on ROI
• Choosing point solutions which can’t integrate with other systems and are not scalable horizontally and/or vertically
• Lack of skilled manpower internally to drive and sustain the initiatives

With proper planning and involvement of key stakeholders, industries can successfully rollout Industry 4.0 initiatives. Few mantras for success

• Build a roadmap for Industry4 aligned to company’s vision and mission
• Create a cross functional team to drive Industry 4 initiatives. Business users should be involved from concept to deployment
• Focus on business goals and not technology
• Take a long-term and holistic approach when calculating ROI.
• Utilize digital infrastructure investments for multiple applications
• Choose a solution that is scalable horizontally and vertically. Don’t go for point solutions
• It may sound cliché, but IIoT is a journey. Be prepared to work with your partner every step of the way
• Train internal ‘Digital Champions’ to take ownership of the system and drive continuous improvements. This is extremely crucial for success

How do you support customers in the adoption of digital transformation initiatives beyond just providing products and solutions? AIPL becomes a partner throughout the Industry 4.0 journey of customers. Our engagement starts from identifying use cases, creating specs, mapping requirements, setting right expectations of users. We train Digital Champions on the product during implementation. Post implementation, the engagement continues to ensure they get expected benefits from the system and there is continuous improvement.

Going beyond our customers, me and our CEO Arvind, have been evangelizing on various platforms as speakers and authors about Industry 4 opportunities, challenges and way to succeed. I also conduct sessions in engineering colleges to educate students and faculty in this area. We do sessions with corporates on digital strategy, roadmap and related topics. We do workshops for ‘Digital Champions’.

I am a volunteer leader of International Society of Automation (www.isa.org), a professional association for industrial automation. I co-founded Smart Manufacturing and IIoT division in ISA and thru that we are doing several initiatives.  

Can you discuss the role of your team’s industrial automation and OT expertise in delivering optimal solutions to clients?

Connectivity to OT assets is a critical step in IIoT implementation. It is crucial to have familiarity with wide variety of PLCs, controllers, sensors and other automation hardware. Our implementation team has good knowledge of this. They design optimum connectivity solutions using their knowledge and deliver them via our edge gateway software RTDAS. RTDAS has connectivity drivers for many PLCs and we are constantly adding more. Another important role played by our team is to support customers for creating digital infrastructure.   

What are your future goals for Ascent Intellimation, and how do you plan to drive growth and innovation in the IoT and digital transformation space?

Our journey so far has been challenging, but very satisfying. We want to continue providing value to our customers and employees. Technology is evolving every day and so are our products. We want to focus on customer requirements and how we can fulfil them optimally. I don’t believe in running after technology if it does not bring additional benefits to customers. We are working on addressing sustainability aspects in PlantConnect SFactory. We are also releasing standard solutions specific to various sectors that are cost effective and quick to rollout. These will be helpful for MSMEs.

Our goal and passion is to help industries embark on Industry 4.0 journey in a consistent and sustainable fashion so that they can achieve continuous improvement in their operations.