MetraTech didn’t start out different. It did in 1995 what other BSS suppliers were doing, creating modules that could work together to form complete solutions. Scott Swartz, who founded the company and is currently CEO, got his development team together back then to answer the question: “Why can’t we duplicate the concept of the Internet protocols that allow anyone to connect to a Web site running on any operating system, any hardware, any middleware, and any Web server – anywhere in the world in order to create a unique and completely tailored user experience?”
The result was the Metered Services Information eXchange (MSIX) protocol from which the company somehow contrived its name: Metratech. The concept had much in common with XML and HTTP protocols on which the current Service Oriented Architecture is based. Long story short is that Metratech turned the Internet concepts of any OS, any Web server, etc, into a multi-vertical approach that allows it to serve any enterprise offering any service for which it needs to meter (mediate) and bill and collect revenue.
The company recently leveraged this characteristic, which it calls dynamic business modeling, to land Onstream, a smart-meter company that gives MetraTech its first foray into a market Swartz says he will go after aggressively.
In December 2009, the U.K. Department of Energy and Climate Change set a goal to have smart meters in every home by 2020. OnStream took up the challenge. And then it took up with Metratech. OnStream installs and manages domestic and non-domestic meters, with more than 4 million installed to date. In addition, OnStream provides gas meter reading services for both domestic and non-domestic customers.
Scott Swartz talks about why his company is poised for this opportunity:
“This is business as usual for our company in that we don’t have prior experience in the industry. We now have another customer who is a market leader trying to do something different in their industry. We get that a lot.
If you look at most of our customers, independent of market segment, they are typically rolling out new initiatives in completely different business models – and not just as a hobby – they need to find a way to monetize that and get their new line-of-business up and running. That’s the kind of customer we get.
The one thing they can be assured of is that change is constant, because they are at the pointy end of the stick as they lead their industry in new directions. That’s why those choose our product, to meet their rapid time-to-market requirements. They realize the market will shift significantly over the next two to four years as they get into it and they can’t afford to buy software that restricts them in any way.
