Personal Development

INFRAVISTA - Get smart & unlock the potential of your infrastructure!

With Swisscom Kickbox, Swisscom employees can start and grow their innovative ideas at any time and very easily. They receive a starting balance of CHF 1,000, 20% of their working time for 2 months and a personal coach. Today Michael, Head of Swisscom Kickbox, talks to Chris Rüttimann about his idea to make antenna sites intelligent.

By Michael Hunkeler, Head of Intrapreneurship Swisscom Kickbox

Michael:

Hey Chris, nice to see you again. You started your idea "INFRABOX/INFRAVISTA" around 1.5 years ago. A lot has happened in that time and today you are reaching another milestone. What was the reason for your idea?

Chris:

Actually, it was purely for my own benefit. (laughs). I'm responsible for mobile operations at Swisscom and wanted to finally be able to remotely access the infrastructure devices and sensors at the mobile locations and accurately measure power consumption. I then developed a hardware component, the "INFRABOX", for this purpose.
During the pilot phase, I and my team integrated other useful interfaces. Examples include alarms, solar panels, temperature probes and weather stations. We then realised that the hardware is only part of the Resolution. The real magic lies in the software and analysing the data obtained. Today, everything comes together in our "INFRAVISTA" software. We have an overview of everything and can use the collected data to gain important insights into the situation and for further planning and optimisation (automation and cost reductions).

Michael:

That sounds incredibly exciting! What is the current status?

Chris:

The Infraboxes are already fully operational and in rollout. We want to have equipped 1000 Swisscom Mobile locations with them by the end of the year. The remaining locations will be equipped accordingly next year. Thanks to INFRAVISTA, the software, and the use of efficient ventilation & air conditioning systems, we have been able to reduce our energy consumption per location by around 6%. INFRAVISTA also helps us with automation issues and avoids unnecessary journeys by field technicians in the event of interference reports, among other things. Together, this helps our sustainability efforts and saves us millions every year.

There are many ideas for further application scenarios. For example, we are currently experimenting with the collection of weather data and supporting EMPA(opens in new tab) in modelling CO2 emissions in the context of the city of Zurich's Net Zero efforts.

Michael:

You've already achieved a lot with INFRAVISTA. What are your plans for the future?

Chris:

An initial goal is to complete the rollout in the field and provide targeted support for the topics of "Energy Saving", "Best Net" and "Sustainability" at Swisscom. At the same time, we are endeavouring to make INFRAVISTA known beyond the borders of Swisscom. There is already a great deal of interest from other TelCo's.

Michael:

It really is a tremendous benefit that you and the team have shown in recent months. With this setup and the aforementioned growth potential, it is a pleasure and an honour for me to award INFRAVISTA as a GoldBox! This puts you in the Olympus of Kickboxers who manage to validate, test and scale their idea! Congratulations on this!

Chris:

That makes me very happy. I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who believed in the idea, my team of specialists and my colleagues in the field who helped me turn my vision into reality.

From left to right: Urs Felber, Chris Rüttimann, Pirmin Egloff and Serge Hauri

Michael:

It really is a tremendous achievement that you and the team have shown over the last few months. With this setup and the aforementioned growth potential, it is a pleasure and an honour for me to award XRMeeting as a GoldBox! This puts you in the Olympus of kickboxers who manage to validate, test and scale their idea! Congratulations on this!

Mauro:

Huge thanks to everyone who took the plunge to be part of the journey with a VR headset, the teams who stuck with it throughout, the learning squad for their full commitment and Kickbox for believing in me!

About Swisscom Kickbox

Swisscom employees can easily start and grow their innovative idea at any time with Kickbox. The physical box contains 

a starting credit of CHF 1,000
20% of the working time for 2 months
a manual explaining the idea validation process and providing valuable tips 

In the multi-stage process, you will be accompanied by a coach to drive your idea forward, learn a lot and, in the best case, make your idea really big! 

You can find more information on the Kickbox Program here.

Michael Hunkeler

Michael Hunkeler

Head of Intrapreneurship Swisscom Kickbox

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