A legacy platform with no exit strategy
The client had built their monitoring infrastructure on a third-party data logger platform that had served them well years earlier, but was now overpriced relative to market alternatives and had not kept pace with platform capability improvements. At $45 per device per month across 71 sites, the annual spend was over $38,000 — just on data collection. The platform offered no API access, no custom alerting, and no path to integrating billing automation.
Assessing the upgrade path
Conexie's initial assessment confirmed that the existing metering hardware at each site was sound — the data loggers were the problem, not the meters. Rather than a full hardware replacement, the approach was to replace only the communications and data collection layer. Conexie's hardware was compatible with the existing meter connections at each site, which made the site-by-site swap straightforward and minimised the need for licensed electrical work at most locations.
Rollout across 71 sites
The rollout was phased over eight weeks to allow the client's operations team to manage site access without disruption. Conexie provided pre-configured replacement loggers and step-by-step swap guides that the client's own staff could follow at smaller sites, reserving Conexie's installation team for the more complex locations. Each completed site was brought online to the Conexie platform within hours of the hardware swap, with no gap in monitoring continuity.
Platform capability beyond cost reduction
The hardware upgrade was the catalyst, but the platform migration delivered additional value that wasn't in the original brief. The client gained real-time dashboards for every site, configurable threshold alerts, and a centralised view of consumption trends across the entire fleet. Several sites that had been flagged as 'high usage' on the old platform were identified as having scheduling issues — HVAC systems running outside business hours — that the new alert system caught within the first billing cycle.
Return on investment
At $11 per device per month on the Conexie platform, the client's monthly outlay dropped from $3,195 to $781 — a saving of $2,414 per month. The hardware cost for 71 replacement loggers was recovered in just under eight months. Beyond the direct cost saving, the client now has a platform that can support billing automation, tenant-level reporting, and multi-utility monitoring as their portfolio grows — capabilities that weren't available to them at any price on their previous platform.