BlueCats turns proximity data into digital awareness with Twilio IoT

With Twilio Super SIM, BlueCats delivers safer and smarter workplaces.

Covid-19 accelerated a significant business trend - the need for extremely accurate asset tracking. Whether it’s tracing the location of workers inside buildings for safety and social distancing or tracking assets across work zones, real-time asset tracking is increasingly becoming a critical part of business. In fact, Real-Time Location Systems are predicted to grow at nearly 20% CAGR through 2025, with the global asset tracking market estimated to reach $36.3B by 2025. But as the importance of the asset information increased, so did the complexity to deliver extremely accurate information, accessible in real time, and at scale.

Delivering real time digital awareness

That’s exactly where BlueCats steps in to deliver digital awareness. By leveraging real time metrics on tagged personnel and assets at worksites, warehouses, and industrial environment, BlueCats’s Real Time Location Systems (RTLS) can identify assets’ zonal location at a high level or deliver real time, live locations down to centimeter-level precision. With their RTLS, they help customers increase the safety, efficiency and productivity of their businesses and assets - from cattle and forklifts to NFL players and front-line employees during the Covid-19 pandemic. BlueCats collects data from wearable devices - called SafetyTags™- and then delivers all of that information to their Loop Cloud for visualization and analysis.

"We were unable to see usage or billing details until we got the invoice. You can’t run a business with surprises like that."
KURT NEHRENZ, CTO, BLUECATS

Cellular costs disrupt business model

Rapidly expanding into international markets was a key part of BlueCats’ initial go-to-market plan. In order to achieve widespread coverage, their only option was to contract multiple carriers. “We wasted so many hours -- even personal hours -- talking and comparing quotes from so many different carriers across regions,” said Kurt Nehrenz, CTO, BlueCats. “It had become a massive logistical headache and a total distraction from what we were trying to accomplish.” BlueCats needed a simple, scalable solution that would work anywhere in the world.

Adding to the complexity of multiple carriers was the lack of billing transparency, which led to skyrocketing costs. BlueCats needed to be able to distribute the data and split the cost across customers. But instead they were left in the dark. “We started out by using a traditional connectivity provider and were shocked when our bills went up 1000% without warning,” added Kurt. “We were unable to see usage or billing details until we got the invoice. You can’t run a business with surprises like that.”

And when it came time to roll out new solutions - like their contact tracing solution - they found that the lack of direct customer support impacted their time to market. “You can imagine how time consuming it is to create and test new offerings across multiple carriers,” noted Kurt. “But imagine how much harder it is when you are always several degrees removed from anyone who can actually help.”

Twilio delivers global connectivity

Twilio Super SIM powers the connectivity essential for BlueCats. Their customers rely on access to real time data via the BlueCats Loop Cloud software platform for current or historical analysis. Twilio Super SIM provides all of the cellular connectivity to power this service, along with global visibility into connectivity consumption via the Twilio Console.

Trusted solutions, everywhere

With Twilio, BlueCats now can offer truly global coverage with transparent costs all on one SIM, enabling them to deploy anywhere. “Customers come to BlueCats to help because they want to protect their people and their assets,” added Kurt. “To keep that trust, our solutions have to work everywhere, everytime. Having one SIM with global coverage enables us to deliver that level of service and expand our service to over 100 countries.”

With Twilio Super SIM and Twilio Console, BlueCats now have predictable costs with the ability to control and see the costs in real time. Before, BlueCats struggled with the variability in their pricing from carriers, making it difficult to build predictable pricing and profit models. “We all feared the bills every month from our dozen plus global carriers,” said Kurt. ‘We practically started cheering when we found we could manage the data AND get predictable pricing. We’ve lowered our cellular costs significantly by moving to Twilio.”

As BlueCats looked to roll-out new services - particularly in response to Covid - the developer-focused approach from Twilio helped them dramatically speed their time to market. “Knowing we can rely on Twilio’s support and expert advice gave us added confidence to quickly pivot our existing solutions to address Covid requirements,” added Kurt.