Engineering from Johannesburg. Installation by the people already on your site.
Every addanode project outside South Africa runs the same way, and it is worth explaining properly rather than in fragments. The short version: the thinking travels, the hardware ships pre-configured, and the hands on the tools are yours or your contractor's — working live with our engineers rather than waiting for a visit. It is not the only model that works, but it is the one that puts a system on a site in weeks instead of quarters, and it is why a plant in Lusaka gets the same engineering as one in Johannesburg.
What actually happens, and what each step asks of you.
- Remote assessment. A call, your plant or scheme layout, photographs of panels, nameplates, meters and controllers, and a short conversation about what you already read electronically. What it costs you: about an hour, plus someone walking round with a phone camera. Most sites discover in this step that more signal is available than they expected.
- Written scope and cost band — before anything is ordered. A document separating what will be read from equipment you already own from what needs a new instrument, with the cost band and the payback logic in writing. What it costs you: nothing, and you can take it to another supplier.
- Hardware pre-configured in Johannesburg. Gateways, sensors and nodes arrive built for your site — addressed, tagged, tested and with your dashboards already provisioned. Why it matters: it converts the on-site work from configuration into installation, which is the difference between a specialist visit and a morning's work by a competent electrician.
- Installation by your technicians or a local partner, under live remote guidance. Video, photographs and a call with our engineers while the work happens, in your time zone. What it costs you: your electrician's day, or your contractor's rate. What you get: the people who will live with the system have their hands on it from the start.
- Commissioning and handover. Verification against the scope, dashboards set up around the decisions people actually make, alert thresholds set from the site's own baseline rather than from defaults, and a walk-through with the people who will use it. What it costs you: a couple of hours of the right person's attention, which is the step most worth protecting.
- Remote support and iteration. WhatsApp and email in your working hours, remote diagnostics, over-the-air updates, and changes to reports and alerts as the site's questions change. Why in-house matters here: when you need something the platform does not yet do, it is a development task rather than a ticket in another company's queue.
A first deployment is typically live within two to six weeks of the assessment call, most of which is shipping and scheduling rather than engineering.
Three things it gets right.
Your team owns it from day one
A system installed by a visiting crew is a system nobody on site understands. When your own electrician mounts the sensors and your own supervisor sets the first alert thresholds, the knowledge stays when the project ends.
No waiting for a window
Scheduling a specialist visit across a border means aligning flights, visas and a shutdown. Pre-configured hardware and live remote guidance remove the coordination problem, which is usually the longest item in the plan.
Support does not depend on travel
Diagnostics, firmware updates and configuration changes happen remotely. The site visit is reserved for the small number of problems that genuinely need hands, rather than being the default response to every question.
The model has edges, and they are predictable.
Worth knowing before you plan around it, because these are scheduling facts rather than surprises:
- Sites with no competent electrical resource of their own. The model assumes someone on site or on contract can mount an instrument and pull a cable properly. Where that does not exist, a local partner has to be brought in, and finding the right one adds time to the front of the project rather than the back.
- Markets with heavy import friction. Where clearing goods is slow or a letter of credit is required, shipping is the long pole. We scope that into the timeline at the first call rather than discovering it in month three — Ethiopia is the clearest example, and we say so on the Ethiopia page.
- Very large single-site rollouts commissioned all at once. Instrumenting several hundred points in one campaign is better done with people on the ground for a sustained period. Most sites are better served starting with one line or one system anyway, but if the requirement is genuinely a simultaneous rollout, say so early and we will plan differently.
In South Africa the model is different, because the engineering team is local — see addanode.co.za.
How delivery works — common questions
How long does a first deployment take?
Typically two to six weeks from the assessment call to live data, with most of that being shipping and scheduling rather than engineering. Configuration happens in Johannesburg before dispatch, so the on-site work is installation and commissioning rather than setup. Markets with slower customs clearance sit at the longer end, and we build that into the timeline at the first call.
Who installs the hardware?
Your own electricians or maintenance technicians, or a local contractor you already use, working live with our engineers over video and phone during your working hours. The equipment arrives pre-configured, so the site work is mounting, wiring and verification. Where you do not have suitable people available, we help identify a local partner — that step is best started early, because it is usually the longest lead item in the plan.
What time zone is support in?
Our engineering team works from Johannesburg, which is within an hour or two of every market we serve on this site — the same working day as Nairobi, Lagos, Lusaka, Kampala, Harare, Accra and Luanda. Support runs on WhatsApp and email during working hours, with escalation for anything affecting live production.
Do we need to buy the hardware, or is it a subscription?
We quote a written cost band after the assessment, covering hardware, configuration, commissioning support and the platform. The structure is discussed in that conversation, because it depends on how many points, how much is read from your existing equipment, and how you prefer to treat the spend. What we do not do is quote a per-point price before seeing what your equipment can already produce — that number changes the answer more than anything else.
What happens if something fails after commissioning?
Most faults are diagnosed remotely, because the platform, firmware and hardware are all ours and the gateway reports its own health. Firmware and configuration issues are fixed over the air. Where a physical replacement is needed, spares ship pre-configured and are swapped by your own technician under guidance, which is faster than waiting for a visit.
Can you work with our existing automation contractor?
Routinely, and it usually produces the better result. They know your plant, your panels and your process; we bring the instruments, the integration and the platform. A common split is that they handle panel work and any control changes while we handle measurement, gateways and software.
Start with the assessment. It costs an hour.
Tell an engineer what you run and what you can already read. You'll get a written scope and cost band before anything is ordered.