Platform-based weather tech, services for businesses soon to rise in PH

Thet Mesias | Feb. 23, 2018

In a bid to fill in the massive gap in the delivery of weather services in the country specific for businesses, the newly-established Weather Solutions, Inc. (Weather Solutions) of the Aboitiz Group recently signed a partnership with the world’s largest private weather service company, Weathernews, Inc. (WNI).

As the first weather-centric social enterprise in the country, Weather Solutions offers available historical and real-time weather data, forecasting, and consultancy to organizations across various industries. It will also support the Aboitiz Group’s weather-oriented foundation, WeatherPhilippines Foundation, Inc. (WPF).

While WPF seeks to help people understand and appreciate weather’s impact on people’s everyday lives through its #WeatherWiser campaign, Weather Solutions will provide a weather platform that will serve as a springboard for data analytics, Artificial Intelligence, and Internet of Things, primarily targeted for commercial customers.

Through its various engagements, including with WPF and WNI, Weather Solutions is able to create a robust and reliable data-as-a-service (DaaS) solution for its customers. This model offers a hub for rich and customizable weather datasets that firms and people can use for decision-making.

“This partnership with Weather Solutions is a very big step in moving forward. We understand that the company has already installed around 800 automated weather stations (AWS), and this is a very good thing. We appreciate what you have done and we feel very honored to be a partner.”

-Hirokazu Koro,General Manager, Manila SSB & WN Weatherstreet Philippine Branch

Under the MOU, potential areas of collaboration include education through meteorologists’ training, new tools such as real-time camera feed for installed AWS,and consumer services.

Japan-based WNI brings more than 30 years of expertise, cutting-edge technology, and operating systems that can help local businesses interpret how weather data can be used to mitigate operational risks and/or drive industry-specific solutions to boost performance.

Weather Solutions president Jojo Z. Marasigan said WNI would help make sense of its available weather data, regardless of which industry the business is in.

“For instance in retail, WNI’s data analysis can predict which specific products are supposedly sellable for a particular time of the year,” he explained. “We are excited to take this journey with WNI, possibly creating breakthrough platforms that will change the way businesses operate, especially around the communities that they support. In incorporating use of weather data for business, we are seeing growth in our prospective partners’ gains,” added Marasigan.

With new insights about enterprise and consumer behavior affected by weather, and in the advent of integrated dashboards and systems, Weather Solutions’ hyperlocal weather information can be useful and strategic for companies and individuals alike.