Software Development Support for Metasphere

The Client – Metasphere

Metasphere provides market-leading remote monitoring solutions that improve operational efficiency and reduce costs for clients in the Water, Environmental and Gas industries.

Usage examples in the water industry

Wastewater quality monitoring is a pressing issue motivated by the increasing environmental and societal need for cleaner water and to comply with legal requirements.

Metasphere’s solutions accurately monitor the various parameters that are critical to the water treatment process.

Water utilities use Metasphere’s products to monitor pressure and flow, detect leakages, monitor the effectiveness of operational changes, achieving a reduction in water consumption through pressure management, consumption billing, and data for hydraulic models.

The Challenge

Metasphere’s clients use battery and mains-powered remote telemetry units (RTUs) in a wide range of applications, using a variety of communication protocols.

Due to the diversity of usage and client requirements the RTU is continually evolving with software fixes, updates and extra features requested by key clients.

With many projects on the go at any one time Metasphere required additional software engineering support to investigate, complete and deploy the latest release for one such RTU on time.

Why choose Terzo

Having previously worked with Terzo and knowing they had the relevant experience and skills, Shaun Cairns, Director of Engineering at Metasphere, contacted Terzo’s co-founder, Mark Davison.

“Mark was the obvious software engineer to involve with this project, due to his Telemetry industry knowledge, OT (Operational Technology) and embedded programming expertise and an understanding of the RTU and our clients’ complex needs.”

Shaun Cairns, Director of Engineering at Metasphere

Working with Terzo

Mark Davison worked closely with Gavin Nottage, Senior Engineer at Metasphere throughout the project.

With his background knowledge and specialist expertise, Mark hit the ground running and immediately started investigations to determine the sources of reported issues.

“Much of the work was investigative, not knowing what you might find. This type of task can take longer than expected, but Mark would always keep me updated on progress.”

Gavin Nottage, Senior Engineer at Metasphere

As a result of his findings, Mark used structured development methodologies to find solutions to the problems made available as a beta release to allow for further testing. With further knowledge gained from this, additional work was completed to release the software, which was fully tested prior to delivery.

“If Mark came across a problem, he’d work through it quickly and efficiently to find a solution. We were in frequent contact, which maintained progress in the project.”

Gavin Nottage, Senior Engineer

Although the majority of the project was conducted and delivered remotely, some testing was undertaken at Metasphere’s office.

“To ensure the project was completed on time, Mark was more than happy to come to our office to support the testing, which was beyond the development remit.”

Shaun Cairns, Director of Engineering

Outcomes / Benefit

Metasphere was delighted that the new release was completed, and the clients received their development requests.

Due to the latest updates the business also benefitted from extra orders of this well-established product.

When teams are stretched and specialist skills and extra support is needed, it’s reassuring to know software engineers such as Mark Davison and Neil Tubman at Terzo can step in to help get the job done and complete the project in good time.