MAYNILAD WATER SERVICES , INC .

The product itself was not at fault – it just hadn ’ t been implemented properly .

IT / OT convergence Revamping the core IT was a major task , and it delivered great results in increased efficiency throughout the organisation . There was however another side to the coin . There is a huge amount of information available from the sensors , equipment and plants belonging to a sprawling water utility , much of it ‘ locked in ’ and hard to access . These monitor water flows , pressure , chemicals , pollution , acidity and many other things besides . Most companies run their IT and OT ( operational technology ) functions as separate departments , so it was a radical step in 2014 when OT was placed under Castillo . It established Maynilad as a leader in the much talked about

field of IT / OT convergence . Now he has another OT team of 15 people , larger because these functions have not been outsourced . “ By uniting the two , data can be taken straight from the plant into the IT system and you can see online how production is doing , what issues you have with your equipment , and how you need to schedule maintenance .”

To facilitate this , he has implemented the FIELD MOUS ( Field Monitoring User System ). It ’ s a set of software modules designed for plantwide monitoring and analysis . It also comprises a system data archive that handles the collection , storage , and retrieval of data and also acts as a data repository for all applications . Ultimately it allows management to understand where the business stands operationally at any given moment in time . FieldMOUS is Maynilad ’ s IoT platform , enabling sensor data to be

36 January 2017