Frost & Sullivan Recognizes Itron with 2014 North American Smart City Company of the Year Award
Award honors Itron's ability to adapt and thrive in a tough competitive environment
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Jan. 26, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Based on its recent analysis of the Smart City market, Frost & Sullivan recognizes Itron, Inc. with the 2014 North American Frost & Sullivan Award for Company of the Year. Itron has consistently diversified its offerings to address emerging market needs and has exhibited market expansion, year-over-year growth in customer wins and repeat business.
Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150126/171207
Since its inception more than 35 years ago, the company has transformed from being a provider of handheld computers, meters, communication technologies, software and managed services, to now applying those solutions for smart cities and the Internet of Things. Today, Itron's portfolio consists of an advanced meter infrastructure, managed cloud services, meter to cash, asset management, and edge intelligence.
"In a market characterized by high-volume commodity technologies, Itron stands out by focusing on superior products and services," said Frost & Sullivan Principle Consultant Farah Saeed. "It recognizes the importance of a transformative approach that is based on innovation and collaboration with technology partners."
For instance, Itron partnered with Cisco to develop a highly secure, open standards communication network based on IPV6. An extension of this is the Itron Riva, an edge intelligence platform that enables analytics and decision-making to take place at the edge of the network. Recently, Itron Riva was introduced with smart load control that can be applied to communicate with household appliances, including heating ventilation air conditioning (HVAC) systems, hot water heaters, pool pumps, and thermostats.
Itron is also pooling resources with Microsoft on the CityNext Initiative and has developed the Itron Insights application based on Windows 8 and Windows RT. This cloud-based application allows city officials to track expenditures and usage of water, gas, and electricity. In addition, Itron developed the Itron City App, a mobile application based on Android and iOS, which will report issues in the city.
Significantly, the company has deployed approximately 132 million communication modules worldwide and has 8,000 customers in more than 100 countries. This has led to early involvement in key smart city projects in places such as Smart Detroit; Smart City Malta; Tianjin, China; Envision Charlotte, Kalgoorlie, Australia; and Glendale, California.
In Malta, Itron helped automate the water infrastructure so that the island could use improve operational efficiency, increase system reliability and enable residents to track and manage their consumption activity. In the Glendale Water and Power project, Itron deployed communication systems for both water and power. Additionally, the project features in-home displays, electric vehicle charging, demand response, and distribution automation.
In 2013, Itron completed a smart meter deployment for 25,000 households in Tianjin Eco City and installed a unified platform that managed water, heat, and gas on a single system. Itron engaged in a smart city demonstration project with Detroit to showcase how smart technologies can help cities and utilities be more efficient while empowering citizens to better manage their energy use. They demonstrated tools such as intelligent street lights, water leak detection, smart metering and analytics, educational kiosks, unmanned aerial vehicles, and smart vehicle charging stations.
"Itron's core strength is in its technology and its ability to transform itself through products that promote open standards and protective measures," noted Saeed. "Its emphasis on product support has further differentiated it from the competition and positioned it for future growth."
Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents this award to the company that has demonstrated excellence in terms of growth strategy and implementation. The award recognizes a high degree of innovation with products and technologies, and the resulting leadership in terms of customer value and market penetration.
Frost & Sullivan's Best Practices Awards recognize companies in a variety of regional and global markets for outstanding achievement in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service, and product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis, and extensive secondary research.
About Frost & Sullivan
Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, works in collaboration with clients to leverage visionary innovation that addresses the global challenges and related growth opportunities that will make or break today's market participants.
Our "Growth Partnership" supports clients by addressing these opportunities and incorporating two key elements driving visionary innovation: The Integrated Value Proposition and The Partnership Infrastructure.
- The Integrated Value Proposition provides support to our clients throughout all phases of their journey to visionary innovation including: research, analysis, strategy, vision, innovation and implementation.
- The Partnership Infrastructure is entirely unique as it constructs the foundation upon which visionary innovation becomes possible. This includes our 360 degree research, comprehensive industry coverage, career best practices as well as our global footprint of more than 40 offices.
For more than 50 years, we have been developing growth strategies for the global 1000, emerging businesses, the public sector and the investment community. Is your organization prepared for the next profound wave of industry convergence, disruptive technologies, increasing competitive intensity, Mega Trends, breakthrough best practices, changing customer dynamics and emerging economies?
Contact Us: Start the discussion
Subscribe: Newsletter on "the next big thing"
Register: Gain access to visionary innovation
Contact:
Mireya Espinoza
P: 210. 247.3870
F: 210.348.1003
E: [email protected]
SOURCE Frost & Sullivan
Share this article