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Local software company extends its reach to Africa

QMC’s Cloud-based tech targets utility consumption efficiency improvements
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Left to right: Mike Easton, vice-president of sales for Eastern Canada; James Easton, president and CEO; and David Saqui, warehouse lead, at QMC Submetering Solutions’ head office in Coquitlam | Chung Chow

A Vancouver-based firm has global ambitions for its software that keeps tabs on water meters and other utility gauges.

QMC Submetering Solutions, makers of MeterConnex monitoring software, is partnering with South Africa’s Apex Innovation to collect data for Apex’s heat and water metering systems.

For building owners and tenants in South Africa, conserving utility consumption is important because there are significant water restrictions and resources are limited.

Typically, in multi-tenant buildings like highrise condominiums or shopping malls, building owners have central utility meters that measure overall consumption, but not how much each tenant or building unit uses. Secondary meters, or sub-meters, are installed to measure individual consumption, allowing tenants to monitor their use and pay only for what they use.

According to a QMC fact sheet, “Tenants that are metered and monitored have shown to reduce their consumption by 15%-20%.”

However, with different submeters for each utility, it often becomes necessary for a building to have hundreds of submeters, which typically require a range of software to collect data. MeterConnex provides a single online platform for building owners to gather and organize metering data for billing and resource management.

“We’re using our expertise in utility data collection and dissemination,” said Dustin Ingram, QMC’s manager of business and development. “What we’re providing is a hosted cloud-based software service system, where we’re pulling data from metering systems in South Africa and hosting them on our servers, and supplying that data back to the systems integrator, which is Apex in South Africa.”

Apex Innovation managing director Brynn Williams said QMC’s software will allow the South African company to serve commercial and apartment property managers better in that country.

According to a QMC statement, the company has experienced 30% revenue growth year over year for the past three years, due to rising demand from commercial, multi-unit residential and institutional real estate markets.

The company’s submeters and software are being used at Metrotown, Telus Garden, Park Royal Shopping Centre, 725 Granville, Shannon Estates and Marine Gateway. •