Eutech's Agents of Change

Its intelligent agent software is testing new frontiers in energy and heathcare. With the right alliances, this homegrown software company is set to go places, reports KENNETH JAMES

Imagine software that tracks millions of medical records, tirelessly combing incoming patient data for patterns that indicate the onset of an epidemic; and when it detects one, automatically alerting the relevant personnel and activating the necessary processes.

Or picture a group of intelligent buildings collectively 'negotiating' with several energy companies, buying and even selling electricity according to which provider has the best offer at particular points in time - and all this without human intervention.

'Sounds like science fiction,' Eutech Cybernetics CEO Hari Gunasingham says cheerfully. But he knows it's closer to science fact because his Singapore software firm is developing precisely such systems, using homegrown technology initially designed to manage buildings and large installations intelligently. These new applications, supported by strategic alliances that give them a global market, could move Eutech into the big time in the near future, Dr Gunasingham believes.

What kind of strategic alliances? A telling indication is the recent joint venture between Singapore-based EggSystems, which manages intelligent buildings and institutions using Eutech's software, and global property consulting major Colliers Jardine.

The 50-50 venture, called Colliers International Asset Management Pte Ltd (CIAM), takes building management to a new level with the customised software, which can control and maintain building equipment remotely, via the Internet.

And CIAM director Keith Kithsiri of EggSystems notes that this will also enable the optimising of a building's usage of electricity and other other utilities. "We're now evaluating the utility usage of all of our customer base of about 150 buildings (in Singapore)," he told BizIT. Further gains could come from the planned deregulation of Singapore's electricity industry. The government plans to sell three power generating companies to the private sector in the first half of next year, and larger consumers will then be able to buy electricity in a competitive market.

"Opportunities might open up if clusters of buildings which collectively reach the minimum consumption requirement can bid in this market," Mr Kithsiri says. The software can monitor the individual buildings' energy needs even as it keeps scanning competing providers to get the best offer.

Towards this end, Eutech is spearheading a new consortium to implement an Intelligent Energy Network (IEN) in Singapore. The network will use Eutech's agent technology to keep track of events like power fluctuations, outages and changes in electricity price, and act accordingly to optimise energy usage and cost.

Members include French energy services company Elyo Systems; Parsons Brinckerhoff Consultants, a global consulting and engineering firm; Houston-based Capstone Global Energy; and EggSystems. IEN is expected to be ready by the first quarter of next year.

Dr. Gunasingham points out that while Singapore is an ideal test-bed for the software, Eutech's market is global. "We are aggressively working with a few energy companies in the US and with one in Canada," he says, adding that it is too early to name them. But he notes: "Electricity is a huge market. In the US alone, it is a US$160 billion-a-year business."

Not at all a bad target to shoot at for this former university lecturer, who is a major shareholder in Eutech which, in turn, has a 30 per cent stake in EggSystems.

Healthcare could be the other great frontier for the company's versatile software platform. The industry is not an unfamiliar one to Eutech; its software runs health information systems in health facilities like Changi General Hospital, National University Hospital and Kandang Kerbau Hospital in Singapore and Subang Jaya Medical Centre in Malaysia.

But he notes that these systems are 'more a passive tool'. The applications Eutech is now developing provide 'a dynamic version of passive medical records', using personal agent software which 'potentially could be managing the life cycle of the individual'. This would result in more personalised and effective treatment of patients by doctors. And that's only one part of the solution. 'The other area is to effectively bring millions of these agents together to do things like detecting epidemics. And that's the direction we are going.' The heart of its next-generation software offerings is a suite of tools and applications called iViva.works™ , which has cost over US$20 million to develop.

Eutech has over 600 installations of its applications worldwide. Installations and key partners include Siemens, NTT, Colliers International, US environmental cleaning group Ecolab and San Francisco-based Fremont Properties. In Singapore, installations include Capital Tower, Temasek Polytechnic and SingTel's Comcentre. It maintains offices in Sunnyvale, Pittsburgh and Dallas in the US, as well as in Kuala Lumpur, Colombo and Chennai. The company currently employs about 160 software engineers, and a measure of its ambition and confidence is its announced intention to raise the number to 500 by 2002.

Not at all bad for a company that started in 1990 as a provider of measuring instruments. It sold the hardware business in 1996 because, says Dr Gunasingham, "we didn't want hardware to hinder our goal, which was to provide the de facto operating system for buildings. We wanted to be the Microsoft of the industry." And now further frontiers beckon.

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