COMPANY, COOPERATION, EVENTS

Asta Mobile Lab at Mobile Congress

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On February 27th-March 2nd Asta Labs presented its IoT (Internet of Things) solutions at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2016. The congress was held in Barcelona, Spain, the Mobile World Capital since 2011. The MWC is the main event of the mobile industry and related industries, organised by the GSM Association (GSMA). The annual gathering, combining a world-class exhibition and an award-winning conference programme, the MWC is a “must-be” for everyone who is part of the mobile industry. In Barcelona, Asta Labs, a software partner of Sigfox in Poland, demonstrated live innovative IoT network inventory solutions and their integration with Sigfox technology in the network of Cellnex Telecom, Spain, the largest IoT network provider in Europe.

COMPANY, COOPERATION, EVENTS

Asta IoT at Smart City Expo

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On November 17-19th Asta Labs partnered Sigfox at Smart City Expo World Congress 2015 in Barcelona, Spain. The congress is the main event dedicated to the development of the smart city vision and the major forum for presenting how the smart city concept is being implemented with IoT (Internet of Things) technologies.

Asta Labs’ commitment to the idea of smart city dates back to when its innovative Asta Smart City product was released. In Barcelona, Sigfox presented an entire portfolio of working smart city solutions based on miscellaneous types of sensor-based IoT devices connected to the IoT network. And demonstrated how the configuration and state of IoT devices can be effectively managed in real time with Asta Inventory of Things — another innovative solution from Asta Labs being a new-generation resource inventory system. The solutions and their integration were demonstrated live in the network of Cellnex Telecom, Spain, which is the largest IoT network in Europe, comprising 1.3k base stations with the capacity of 1M devices each. The network is built using the LPWA technology from Sigfox, which is a major 4L (Low Power-Long Range-Low Traffic-Low Cost) IoT network technology.

CORPORATE, OPERATIONS, SOLUTIONS

Inventory of Things

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Recent advances in digital and radio technologies enable practically every kind of device to be connected to the Internet. The ability to communicate — gather data and send commands — with household appliances, vehicles and other means of transport, measurement and diagnostic devices as well as with manufacturing and distribution control equipment brings about innovative solutions and services in such areas as digital healthcare, smart energy production and distribution, logistics and transportation, mobile workforce management, personal and property security, connected home and smart city. In a few years the Internet of Things (IoT) is expected to cover 50 billion devices, eventually changing the technical and business models of offering services. That however, will make service providers dependent on IoT solutions face a unique challenge of managing hundreds of thousands of connected devices.

Solution

Asta Labs’ answer to the challenges of IoT is Asta Inventory of Things — Asta IoT — a resource inventory solution that provides for managing the IoT equipment and infrastructure. Asta IoT enables defining the models of IoT resources and managing the configuration and state of IoT devices in real time, as well as managing the processes of IoT resource deployment and maintenance. Rich multimedia information in the form of photos, videos, documents, figures, floor plans, etc., can be presented using road and satellite maps and 3D visualisations, both on mobile devices and on interactive multimedia large-screen panels. Asta IoT is a new generation inventory solution — a communitized system, with real time notifications, instant messaging, on-line content uploading and tagging, etc.

Technology

Asta IoT is a mobile cloud computing system that supports a true SaaS model. System services are deployed on-line on scalable and secure public and private platforms from Microsoft — Windows Azure-based clouds and Windows Server-based infrastructures. User applications for smartphones, tablets and workstations, and large-screen panels are downloaded on-demand from the app store. The system uses Microsoft’s Bing Maps technology for geographical mapping as well as Asta Surveys and Asta Workflow-Workforce technologies for process management. By default, Asta IoT offers interfaces to IoT devices connected to the Internet by means of the LPWA technology developed by Sigfox — cost-effective and secure 4L (Low Power-Long Range-Low Traffic-Low Cost) technology with which, e.g., the largest IoT network in Europe has been built — the network of Cellnex Telecom has 1.3k base stations, each with the capacity of 1M devices.

(in Polish)

Rozwój technologii cyfrowych i radiowych pozwala obecnie na dołączenie do sieci Internet urządzeń praktycznie każdego rodzaju. Możliwość komunikacji – pobierania danych i wysyłania komend – z urządzeniami powszechnego użytku, pomiarowymi i diagnostycznymi, sterującymi produkcją i dystrybucją, ze środkami transportu przynosi nowatorskie rozwiązania i usługi w takich obszarach jak ochrona zdrowia, produkcja i dystrybucja energii, logistyka i transport, zarządzanie zasobami ludzkimi, ochrona mienia, inteligentne miasto czy dom. W perspektywie kilku lat Internet Rzeczy (IoT) ma objąć 50 miliardów urządzeń, ostatecznie zmieniając techniczne, ale też biznesowe, modele świadczenia usług. Usługodawcy korzystający z rozwiązań IoT staną jednak przed unikalnym wyzwaniem, jak zarządzać setkami tysięcy komunikujących się urządzeń.

Rozwiązanie

Odpowiedzią Asta Labs na wyzwania IoT jest Inventory of Things – system inwentaryzacji urządzeń i infrastruktury IoT. Pozwala on na definiowanie modeli oraz zarządzanie w czasie rzeczywistym konfiguracją i stanem zasobów IoT, jak również zarządzanie procesami instalacji i utrzymania. Bogata multimedialna informacja w postaci zdjęć, filmów, dokumentów, rysunków, schematów, jest prezentowana na urządzeniach mobilnych, ale i interaktywnych multimedialnych panelach ściennych, przy użyciu map topograficznych i satelitarnych czy wizualizacji 3D. Asta IoT jest systemem nowej generacji – systemem typu społecznościowego, z powiadomieniami, natychmiastową komunikacją, ładowaniem i tagowaniem treści, itp.

Technologia

Asta IoT jest systemem ’mobile cloud computing’ w modelu SaaS. Usługi systemu są wdrażane na żądanie na bezpiecznej i wydajnej platformie Microsoft Windows Azure. Aplikacje użytkowników na smartfony, tablety i stacje z platformą Windows 10 są ściągane wprost ze sklepu Windows Store. System korzysta m.in. z Microsoft Bing Maps oraz Asta Surveys i Asta Workflow-Workforce. Asta IoT standardowo oferuje styki m.in. do urządzeń IoT dołączonych do sieci przy użyciu technologii LPWA firmy Sigfox, efektywnej, bezpiecznej technologii 4L (’Low Power-Long Range-Low Traffic-Low Cost’) sprawdzonej m.in. w największej sieci IoT Cellnex Telecom, obejmującej 1.3k stacji bazowych o wydajności 1M urządzeń każda.

COMPANY, COOPERATION, EVENTS

Asta Labs at European Utility Week

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On November 3rd-5th solutions of Asta Labs were presented at the European Utility Week 2015 conference in Vienna, Austria. The conference gathered over 10,000 smart energy professionals from around the world trying to answer the question of how the energy sector can move forward by utilising the tremendous potential of the smart energy industry, in particular in the areas of Big Data and Internet of Things (IoT).

At the booth of Sigfox a live demo presented the integration of the Asta Inventory of Things — Asta IoT — product with the IoT network based on the LPWA technology from Sigfox. A proven cost-effective and secure 4L (Low Power-Long Range-Low Traffic-Low Cost) IoT network technology, the technology from Sigfox enables building large IoT networks with hundreds of thousands of connected devices. EED (Every European Digital), Asta Labs’ partner and the partner of Sigfox in Poland, demonstrated how Asta IoT can answer the challenges of managing such vast numbers of IoT devices equipped with miscellaneous types of sensors. Asta Inventory of Things is an innovative resource inventory solution that enables managing the configuration and state of IoT devices in real time as well as managing deployment and maintenance processes of the IoT network.

CORPORATE, OPERATIONS, SOLUTIONS

New-Gen Resource Inventory

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Asta Labs has released Asta Resources — a unique, new generation resource inventory solution. It enables managing information on resource configuration and processes of resource deployment and maintenance within diverse, in particular networking, environments of telecommunications networks, power grids, communications and transport infrastructures, and others. Information on both physical and logical resources can be managed – infrastructure sites and infrastructure connections, equipment and its hardware and software modules, logical connections, and much more. The information can have the rich multimedia form of photos, videos, documents, figures, floor plans, etc., and be presented using road and satellite maps and 3D visualisations. Asta Resources allows for resource management in a multi-party environment, when the resources are owned by different companies, which can describe their owned resources as planned or installed, designate as public or private, share them and lease, etc.

Asta Resources is an advanced and modern system but at the same time it is lightweight and simple. It is a mobile cloud computing system that supports a true SaaS model. A company can obtain its dedicated instance of Asta Resources in a matter of minutes with on-line registration of the company’s account, in real time activation of the company’s services in the cloud, and immediate, on-demand download of smartphone and tablet applications from the app store by the company’s employees. Implemented on Asta Architecture, Asta Resources is a highly scalable system that can be hosted in the Microsoft’s public Windows Azure cloud as well as in the company’s private cloud organised with Windows Server-based infrastructure.

Asta Resources realises the idea of the communitised business and operations support system. Its simple, intuitive and attractive smartphone and tablet applications, resembling social networks apps, are so much different than heavy, complex, overloaded applications of legacy, traditional resource inventory systems, which are installed on a limited numer of workstations and are only operated by a few highly skilled individuals. With simplification being one of primary system design objectives, Asta Resources provides for creating a large community of system users who can access resource-related information no matter who they are and where they are, using their everyday experience with instant messaging, uploading multimedia content or information tagging of social networks. In that way, Asta Resources promotes ubiquitous use of rich, multimedia resource-related information throughout all the divisions of the company, making the information more up-to-date, more consistent, and thus more valuable, allowing, in particular, for data crowdsourcing, etc.

Asta Resources is both flexible and future safe. Domain-specific models of resources that are downloaded at system deployment can then be customised and extended at system runtime — using object-oriented modelling concepts, system administrators can freely define new classes (kinds) of resources, like a new kind of equipment with specific functionality, and new resource types, i.e., specific types of resources of a given kind, like a new model of equipment of a given kind from a given manufacturer. Exploiting advanced capabilities and customisation features of the Asta Surveys technology arbitrary technical surveys can be defined to support resource management processes. And due to advanced workflow and workforce capabilities of Asta Platform those business processes can be tailored to the company’s profile, structure, maturity, and specific needs.

CORPORATE, SALES, SOLUTIONS

Now Asta Marketing

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Asta Marketing is another new mobile cloud computing system from Asta Labs, which enables organising and managing marketing campaigns — running market surveys and distributing marketing information — using mobile devices. Implemented on Asta Architecture, Asta Marketing is offered as a service, hosted in the Microsoft’s Windows Azure cloud.

Exploiting advanced capabilities and customisation features of the Asta Surveys technology, marketing managers of all types of companies can define arbitrary marketing surveys composed of freely defined queries with closed and open answers. Then, they can define marketing targets, which can be people, companies and arbitrary objects identified either directly or by means of addresses, characteristics, etc. Finally, supported by workflow and workforce capabilites of Asta Platform, they can define and manage teams of surveyors — mobile marketers — who are responsible for conducting surveys by interrogating their assigned marketing targets within assigned time periods. With mobile marketers filling in survey questionnaires and gathering textual and multimedia information using tablets and smartphones, the managers can review completed surveys in real time on their mobile devices, analysing the gathered information and the efficiency of marketer groups and individual surveyors.

CORPORATE, OPERATIONS, SOLUTIONS

Asta Investments Goes into Portfolio

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Asta Labs has included a new mobile cloud computing system into its product portfolio. Asta Investments allows both investors and contractors to manage all kinds of investment projects. Using mobile devices, the representatives of all involved parties can collaborate in controlling projects, subprojects, their phases and tasks. Smartphone and tablet applications provide for managing most current information on status, schedule and all involved parties, and for handling descriptions, documents, maps and pictures pertaining to every project-related activity. The state of each activity can be reviewed and analysed using advanced capabilities and customisation features of the Asta Surveys technology. Based on Asta Architecture, Asta Investments is offered as a service, hosted in the Microsoft’s Windows Azure cloud.

COMPANY, EVENTS

Asta Labs at Microsoft Partner Strategy Conference

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On October 15-16th Asta Labs took part in the Microsoft Partner Strategy Conference 2014, held in Serock near Warsaw. An annual event, this year the conference promoted Microsoft’s motto ‘mobile first, cloud first’, concentrating on the issues of cloud computing, mobility, social media, security, and Big Data. The conference gathered more than 130 prominant Microsoft Partner companies from the Polish IT sector.

Regarded by Microsoft in Poland as one of the most promising partners in the area of advanced software solutions, Asta Labs has been among just several software vendors directly invited by the organizers. Using such an excellent opportunity, Asta Labs demonstrated the entire portfolio of its innovative mobile cloud solutions for both corporate and private users, presenting an exact answer to the challenge that results from the conference’s motto.