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

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Jan 26, 2015, 08:30 ET

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.

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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.

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SOURCE Frost & Sullivan