Smarkia utilizes a rapid, cloud-native implementation strategy designed to minimize deployment time and complexity by leveraging existing client hardware and multi-protocol integration capabilities.
Platform Architecture: The software is deployed as a cloud-native SaaS solution on Microsoft Azure, eliminating the need for local server installation or configuration by the client.
Hardware Requirement: The system works with existing telemetry equipment and protocols, often eliminating the need to purchase and install additional, costly monitoring hardware.
Data Connectivity: Employs a multi-protocol and IoT Ready technology to ensure straightforward connectivity and integration with diverse data sources, reducing initial integration time.
Project Scoping: Implementation begins with a clear definition of consumption points to be monitored and an assessment of existing equipment to ensure project size is accurate.
Time Efficiency: The architecture is specifically optimized to reduce both the costs and the time associated with the typical deployment of an energy management system.
Customisation
The platform is built on a Modular Service Toolkit (MST) framework, offering high flexibility to adapt its functionalities—including its Artificial Intelligence (AI)—to the specific requirements of any sector or activity.
Modular Service Toolkit: Customers can select and combine only the necessary services, such as data acquisition, remote control, and predictive intelligence, to tailor the platform usage.
Sector Adaptability: The solution is highly adaptable for use across various sectors including Industrial and Commercial (I&C), Utilities, Retail, ESCOs, and Renewable energy operations.
AI Customization: Advanced features, like the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) agents, can be customized and fine-tuned to create specific predictive models and automated workflows for unique business needs.
User Interface Flexibility: Users can build personalized dashboards and select specific gadgets to monitor Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) most relevant to their operational or financial goals.
Development Agility: The provider maintains an agile development team that can quickly adapt and customize the platform’s core features to meet specific, negotiated customer demands.
Additional Costs
Costs are typically structured around a SaaS subscription model, which bundles maintenance and infrastructure, with initial setup costs kept low due to minimal hardware requirements.
Setup/Installation Costs: Initial costs are significantly reduced because the platform integrates with existing metering infrastructure, avoiding major expenditures on proprietary hardware.
Licensing Model: The core cost is based on a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) subscription, usually tiered based on the volume of data processed or the number of metering points managed.
Maintenance & Upgrades: Platform maintenance, technical development, and system upgrades are fully covered within the subscription fee, eliminating unexpected capital expenditures.
Support Inclusion: Standard customer support and access to technical assistance are integrated into the monthly or annual subscription cost.
Operational Savings: The highly efficient cloud operation and lack of proprietary on-site infrastructure keep the client's long-term operational and IT management costs low.
Training
Smarkia provides a comprehensive support structure that includes expert onboarding, dedicated mobile applications for field use, and integrated tools for real-time task and alert management.
Expert Onboarding: A dedicated team of experts provides initial training and demonstrations to ensure customers can apply the software effectively to their specific energy optimization strategies.
Integrated Task Management: The system functions as an energy operations center by offering integrated task management tools to simplify troubleshooting, maintenance control, and team collaboration.
Mobile Application Access: A complementary mobile application (for iOS and Android) allows users to access main energy data, track alerts, and manage tasks remotely.
Real-Time Alerts: Support is proactive, with the platform generating immediate alarms for consumption deviations, communication issues, and cost overruns, ensuring timely intervention.
Dedicated Support Channels: Technical and operational support is available through defined channels (typically email and phone), with response times outlined in a Service Level Agreement (SLA).
Security Measures
Data security is robust, leveraging enterprise-level cloud security and adhering to recognized international standards for information security management.
ISO 27001 Certification: The platform is certified under ISO 27001, demonstrating adherence to strict international standards for Information Security Management Systems.
Cloud Security Center: Security protocols are enhanced by utilizing Microsoft Azure Security Center, a high-level enterprise security service.
Encryption Standards: Data is protected both in transit and at rest using strong encryption methods (e.g., 168-bit encryption).
Granular Access Control: Security features allow administrators to assign precise roles and permissions, restricting data and functionality access based on user profiles.
Continuous Monitoring: The system incorporates active cybersecurity features and protocols to continuously monitor for and manage potential threats.
Updates
As a SaaS product, Smarkia manages all updates centrally, ensuring seamless access to new features, security fixes, and technical improvements without any effort or downtime required from the user.
Automatic Deployment: All software updates, bug fixes, and minor functional improvements are deployed automatically to the cloud platform without requiring any action or installation by the customer.
Security-Driven Updates: Critical security corrections and patches are applied immediately and proactively managed to ensure the platform remains secure against new vulnerabilities.
Regular Releases: Updates are released on a frequent, iterative schedule, characteristic of a cloud-based service focused on constant technical development.
Centralized Management: The provider handles all testing, staging, and deployment of new software versions, ensuring reliability and compatibility for all users.
Feature Documentation: Documentation is updated alongside new releases to inform customers of new capabilities and performance enhancements.
Data Ownership and Portability
The policy is generally customer-centric, ensuring clients retain ownership of their proprietary energy data while adhering strictly to European data protection regulations for personal data.
Customer Data Ownership: The client retains full ownership rights over the energy consumption data, operational logs, and any resulting AI models trained on their unique data.
Data Portability Rights: Compliance with GDPR ensures clients have the right to data portability, meaning their data can be exported and transferred easily, typically via API or structured reports.
GDPR Compliance: The platform operates in adherence to the General Data Protection Regulation, providing users with the right to access, rectify, and request the deletion of their personal data.
Data Transfer Restrictions: Client data is protected and not transferred to third parties unless a legal obligation explicitly requires such disclosure.
Contractual Return: Service agreements stipulate terms for the secure return or certified destruction of all customer data upon the termination or cancellation of the contract.
Scaling Up / Down
The platform is inherently scalable and flexible, built on cloud infrastructure that allows for virtually unlimited expansion to support customer growth from single facilities to multinational enterprise use.
Cloud Elasticity: Unlimited scalability is ensured by the platform's deployment in a public cloud environment (Microsoft Azure), which can rapidly allocate resources based on demand.
Multi-Site Capability: The architecture is designed to manage large, multi-site environments and multisite organizations spread across different continents without performance degradation.
Subscription Flexibility: Scaling services up (e.g., adding more metering points, new modules, or AI services) is managed contractually by updating the subscription package.
Reduced Scaling Cost: The ability to scale vertically (more processing power) and horizontally (more metering points) without requiring new hardware keeps scaling costs predictable.
Growth Support: Supports rapid expansion, evidenced by its current management of hundreds of customers and hundreds of thousands of metering points across numerous productive sectors.
The terms & conditions for contract renewal and cancellation
Contractual terms for renewal and termination are based on standard SaaS Service Level Agreements (SLAs) or Master Service Agreements (MSAs), requiring defined notice periods and mechanisms for data off-boarding.
Contract Duration: Service is typically provided under a fixed-term contract (e.g., 12, 24, or 36 months), with clear start and end dates defined in the agreement.
Notice of Non-Renewal: The contract mandates that either party must provide written notice (commonly 60 to 90 days) before the end of the term to prevent automatic renewal.
Renewal Review: Renewal often involves a periodic review of service performance metrics against the agreed-upon SLA to ensure continued value before a new term is executed.
Termination Rights: Specific clauses are included to allow for immediate termination in cases of material breach of contract, such as non-payment or persistent, unrectified failure to meet SLA performance targets.
Data Retrieval: Conditions of cancellation guarantee the customer a period of time post-termination to retrieve all their operational data before it is securely purged from the platform.
Compliance
The company focuses on compliance with crucial standards related to data security and energy management, critical for operating in regulated markets.
ISO 27001 Certified: Confirms adherence to the international security standard, providing assurance of robust information security management practices.
ISO 50001 Support: The Smarkia platform is designed to actively support organizations in implementing and maintaining an Energy Management System compliant with ISO 50001.
GDPR Compliance: The handling of personal and client contact data strictly follows the legal framework set by the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation.
Market Regulatory Adherence: The reporting and monitoring capabilities are designed to assist businesses in meeting their mandatory local and international regulatory requirements for energy consumption and carbon emissions.
Auditable System: Provides features such as detailed reporting, data validation, and energy balance calculations that support external auditing and compliance checks.
