Intelligent solutions Smart in/INTROL Group

InTELLIGEnT soLuTIons

Smart in, a company from Katowice, a part of the INTROL Group – one of the largest Polish engineering holding companies – is Poland’s leading provider of the IT services, auditing and consulting in the fields of Smart City, Smart Region and IoT. Dariusz Balcerzyk talks to CEO Michal Swoboda to find out more about the company’s unique competencies.

Although Smart in is a young company, founded in 2016, it is already making an impact. Mr Swoboda begins: “At Smart in we strongly believe that state-of-the-art technology can bring unprecedented efficiency to industry and improve our cities’ liveability and safety. We implement intelligent monitoring and analytics, particularly comprehensive solutions for video monitoring and decision-making support for municipal services and public safety forces. We carry out projects with an emphasis on thorough needs analysis, smart architecture design, and optimisation of individual clients’ business and their future development. The word ‘optimisation’ is crucial for us.”

As mentioned, Smart in is a part of the Introl Group, a well-known Polish engineering holding company. The group provides comprehensive engineering services; it implements investments in the field of system projects, power units, cogeneration systems, process automation, industrial measurements, telecom systems in smart buildings, air-conditioning and ventilation systems, environmental protection systems and production of advanced automation equipment. The group comprises

14 companies (including Smart in) from the energy, environmental protection and industrial automation sectors. Its turnover in 2016 is estimated as almost PLN 400 million (almost €100 million); it has thousands of customers around the world and employs 1600 people.

“We are proud to be able to combine the group’s over 25 years of experience in industrial measurements, automation and engineering with innovative technologies in the areas of analysis, data processing and data correlation,” says Mr Swoboda.

Smart in employs 70 people, including more than 30 first-class engineers. The strength of the company lies in its strong network of partners; it creates solutions based on the latest technologies of such renowned companies as HP, IBM, Cisco, Oracle, Lenovo, Dell and Rockwell Automation. Recently, Smart in was awarded the title of the IBM best partner in Europe. making life better

“Every device is a source of a lot of data, from which you can draw conclusions that help to optimise all processes; that is, to make life around us better. Our customers come from various sectors, including municipalities, local districts, sport facilities (for example, we have optimised management processes at the newly refurbished Silesian Stadium in Chorzow, Poland), companies with stable production processes, energy companies, distribution companies, as well as public and government institutions,” says Mr Swoboda.

Smart in is a good example of a company operating in the field of Industry 4.0, which is based on automation and data exchange in manufacturing technologies. The company specialises in implementing complex solutions by providing full care post-implementation, warranty and post-warranty; supply of equipment and software; solu-

Ceo michal Swoboda

tions based on cloud computing; technical support and services; and services installation and configuration.

“Our knowledge in the field of technology allows us to choose the best solution for our customer. This is particularly the case in projects in which the sensors are responsible for the collection of data, and our device is responsible for its transfer,” says Mr Swoboda.

Smart city

One of the main areas of interest for the company moving forward is the so-called ‘smart city’. This describes an urban area that uses different types of electronic data collection sensors to supply information, which is used to manage assets and resources efficiently. Data collected from such different data resources as city inhabitants, or municipal devices and assets, is processed and analysed to monitor and manage various areas of city life, such as transportation systems, waste management, water supply, information systems, power plants, traffic, law enforcement, schools, hospitals, libraries and other community services.

“For me a smart city is a way of data processing enabling the city’s inhabitants to enjoy a good quality of life. Thanks to the optimisation processes, the city functions in a better way, is economically managed and safe. You just want to live in such a place. We are fully confident that the smart city approach is the perfect solution for both the private and public sectors, as a response to the growing global interest in urban, cultural and everyday living zones development,” explains Mr Swoboda.

Smart in’s leading product is an intelligent operations centre, based on IBM Solutions, which helps to effectively manage incidents in a city, improving its security and liveability. Intelligent monitoring is not

only an effectively placed camera, but an effective way to supervise the monitoring infrastructure, regardless of its size.

The company supported the Polish city of Gdynia in the process of obtaining the ISO 37120:2014 standard. This defines and establishes methodologies for a set of indicators to steer and measure the performance of city services and improve quality of life. Gdynia is one of only two Polish cities (the other is Kielce), and one of 70 in the whole of Europe, to have obtained this certification.

“Smart city is not only a vision of a distant future. This is a new reality that we are entering, creating a safer environment for future generations and improving the quality of life right now, with every implemented technology,” says Mr Swoboda. Internet of Things

Smart in’s other area of interest is the Internet of Things (IoT). “Internet of Things is not just a network of devices and systems connected to the internet. It can be used in any field, e.g. environmental control, energy management and infrastructure, automation, healthcare, medical systems, and more. The goal is to make computers work with people in a natural way, in many applications and processes, understanding their questions and providing answers that they will be able to understand and evaluate,” explains Mr Swoboda. n