ASAsoft

ASAsoft develops cutting-edge solutions for electricity transmission and distribution that reduces power outages by up to 70%, reduces line maintenance cost by 50%, reduces solid and liquid waste to 1%, and costs half of the traditional technologies that are currently being used.

Finalist for:
Scale-Up of the Year

Interviewee: Rajkumar Padmawar

What’s your company’s story?

ASAsoft Consultants Co (proprietary company) developed the innovative medium-to-high voltage 1.0 Lightweight Insulator technologies and introduced it to South Asia resulting in stunning success. This led to the creation of ASAsoft (Canada) Inc; in 2013 as a privately held company that raised successful seed & angel round from overseas. We teamed up with best in class partner companies Kortick Manufacturing (established in 1898) in San Francisco, USA and Aditya Birla Insulators, a subsidiary $59.5 billion Aditya Birla Group – a global conglomerate and in the League of Fortune 500 for go-to-market and manufacturing respectively.

With its ultra-new “Green” 2.0 Lightweight Insulator products, ASAsoft plans to reproduce its success in the North American market. This previously demonstrated commercial success, would bring jobs and benefits to British Columbia. These products are certified with the latest CSA and ANSI standards and are Smart grid ready with manufacturing geared towards Industry 4.0 best practices.

Who do you work with? What are some interesting projects you’re involved in?

We work with major Power utilities in North America. Our Lightweight Insulators are approved by Power utilities in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Washington and California.
We are working on this collaborative research NSERC CRD (Natural Science and Engineering Research Council Collaborative Research and Development Grant) with the University of Victoria. This exciting but challenging project is aimed at improving crew safety & efficiency and enhancing product life in critical atmospheric conditions. This will be called the 3.0 Lightweight Insulator once developed.

What are you most proud of in the work that you do?

Constantly raising that bar in Lightweight Insulators where our clients need the lights to be on 24/7 on the ageing infrastructure with constrained budgets

There exists a strong market pull for a superior insulator with a lower failure rate than the existing products. The insulators themselves are not expensive items. However, the installation and replacement of failed insulators can be extremely costly; it costs up to 50% of the complete Infrastructure to replace insulators. Therefore, a more reliable and durable insulator will easily save utility companies hundreds of millions of dollars in maintenance costs. The primary target market for our products is the distribution portion of the power utilities and the Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) that supply to them.

If your team had a theme song, what would it be and why?

We firmly believe and support the 3 Ps: People; Planet and Profit and going beyond the legislation and regulations to “get things right”.
Under “people” we support our social responsibility; under “Planet” we are committed to the environment; and under “profits” we set ourselves a high bar of ethical behavior and business practices.

ASAsoft has a global footprint and with Globalization we understand and bear the responsibility for striving towards excellence in Corporate Citizenship.
ASA has set itself a high water mark, with a firm grounding into its corporate values.
We will independently measure progress against clearly defined goals.

What are some hopes and dreams for your company?

ASAsoft’s strategy strives towards expanding its global footprint and reinforcing itself as a market leader in the field of Composite Insulators. It aims at delivering high quality products to its clients and at achieving operational excellence. It aspires to keep up with the changing needs of its clients through continuous in-house research and product development.

Over the next 20 years, the distribution infrastructure of the North American electricity grid will require $582 billion in upgrades and maintenance according to a 2014 Harris Williams white paper. Electricity transmission and distribution spending have more than doubled in recent years, as 4% of Powerline infrastructure is at its end-of-life, and 41% is nearing its end. We wish to make significant contribution into this space

Why is Victoria a great spot for your organization?

Victoria is evolving hub for Research & Development and manufacturing of niche products in the mainstream markets. Victoria’s coastal line with hottest August and Rainiest October is the great ground to field test our products and push boundaries.

Victoria fulfills the basic needs like public commute, safe bike lanes and smaller distances to the wants like housing, schools and perennial outdoors though out the year and the cost of doing business is very low when compared to cities like Vancouver and San Francisco.

University of Victoria, Camosun College and VIATEC provide great resources for new product development. Victoria attracts talent pool with its excellent environment of growing technology companies.

It just feels like home the moment that plane hits the run way to land, the ease at the airport with efficiency and friendliness, even for someone who never visited Victoria before. It just feels you belong here.