Independent troubleshooting and time savings with Intoto

Introduction 

Kvinesdal in southern Norway is characterized by its elongated mountain-to-coast landscape and narrow valleys with scattered small villages, making it prone to massive floods. The year 2015 brought devastating floods to the area, prompting the founders of Intoto, who are all Kvinesdal residents, to realize the need for a proactive, data-driven approach to real-time water level monitoring to prevent future disasters. 

Network reliability & operational scalability

Intoto initially equipped devices with SIMs from a well-known MNO, but during the latter stages of their R&D phase, the SIMs failed to overcome the coverage discrepancies in parts of remote Norway. The implementation of Onomondo SIMs, which offer non-steered connectivity, enabled Intoto to overcome these challenges, significantly improving its network reliability and operational scalability. Co-founder and CTO, Scott Basgaard, explains, “This connectivity issue coincided with Onomondo reaching out to us with their unique solution that allows devices to switch to the strongest network, irrespective of carrier lock-ins.” He further adds, “Transitioning to Onomondo’s SIMs enabled us to not only resolve our immediate connectivity challenges but also to scale our deployment confidently.” Since partnering with Onomondo, the team has successfully scaled their fleet within Norway by approximately 200%.

With Onomondo SIMs in their toolkit, plans to expand to Sweden and North America also seem less of an obstacle, thanks to reliable global non-steered connectivity and robust network redundancy. 

Quick and simple troubleshooting.

One of the biggest impacts of Onomondo’s solution was the significant reduction in time spent debugging and troubleshooting. Prior to Onomondo, Intoto faced considerable delays when they needed to resolve connectivity issues, with an average resolution time of 1-2 weeks. These delays were largely due to the lack of network transparency, making it difficult to pinpoint and address problems efficiently. Traditionally, in the telecom industry, users are required to contact support to gain insight into network performance and data flow, complicating the process and ultimately leading to longer processing periods.

Independent debugging

Onomondo has helped revolutionize the troubleshooting aspect of Intoto’s operations by enabling real-time monitoring of data flow and network performance using on-demand Insight Tools. One of these tools is Traffic Monitor, a Wireshark-like feature that has helped bring down Intoto’s device downtime by allowing the team to view device logs on demand and identify potential issues at an early stage, allowing them to avoid frequent trips to inspect the actual devices.

The partnership with Onomondo simplifies the debugging process by removing several steps requiring external assistance, cutting down on resources spent on troubleshooting and debugging. Now the team solves the majority of their issues without reaching out to support, and the overall time spent on single cases has gone from weeks to mere hours. The reduction in support activities also brings a substantial decrease in the team’s reliance on external assistance, enabling them to resolve most issues independently, further boosting efficiency and visibility across their entire value chain.

The Onomondo Insight tools have helped the team achieve:

• Independent debugging work flow: Using Insight Tools, approximately 80% of the team’s connectivity issues are solved without involving external support. 
• Time savings: The on-demand insight tools provide accessibility and transparency, resulting in an estimated 86% decrease in time-to-resolution. 

A trusted tool during R&D 

The value of these insight tools became evident when the Intoto team experienced a race condition in a microcontroller that caused data loss and had the risk of affecting their overall system performance. Co-founder and hardware lead, Morten Hauan, recalls, “(Insight Tools) allowed us to monitor data packets live, revealing the empty payloads, enabling us to pinpoint the problem without having to travel to the locations where it occurred or make any changes to our servers.”

Intoto is currently working on a new generation of devices in-house, which has also prompted the development of a new binary communication protocol between their hardware and server. To ensure and verify the integrity of data sent to and from their hardware, the team once again turns to Insight Tools. “They (Insight Tools) are always the first tool we turn to for diagnosing and addressing operational issues,”  Morten reflects. 

Wrapping up 

This synergy between reduced debugging time and enhanced data transparency has effectively helped improve Intoto’s operational efficiency and reliability. It has also propelled the team to focus on the most important part of the mission, advancing access to river data by providing guidance, and making it easier for people to make sustainable and informed choices through transformative infrastructure.

For more information about Intoto, visit their website.