Manufacturing managers are finally beginning to get a handle on mesh networking. CIOs and CFOs have come to understand a few key points about a sensor-based wireless infrastructure: it can be installed at a fraction of the cost of a hard-wired network; it can extract data from the darkest corners of the plant; and it can produce ROI in months, not years.

What management doesn't always comprehend, however, is that deployment of a sensor-based wireless mesh network requires a lot of on-site engineering -- a cost that can turn a good deal bad.

Enter Sensicast Systems Inc. (Needham, MA). This spunky start-up has taken the guesswork out of the piecemeal, labor-intensive approach to deploying mesh networks by offering a complete, turnkey product. Sensicast's system pre-integrates the sensors, software, and interfaces, and works out of the box with no investment required to engineer the system.

"This is important in this market because industrial customers are not technology buyers," says Sensicast CEO Gary Ambrosino. "They buy results."

A few years ago, Sensicast was just one of the many VC-backed, sensor-based networking companies to emerge on the industrial scene. Each was trying to solve an important but unique problem for manufacturers. And each, including Sensicast, was forced to use proprietary technology because no clear standards had emerged in mesh networking.

Sensicast competitor Ember Corp. (Boston) -- a Managing Automation Company to Watch last year -- is focused exclusively on mesh networking chip technology. Dust Networks Inc. (Hayward, CA), on the other hand, targets its sensor nodes and gateways to OEMs rather than end-users. Millennial Net (Burlington, MA) offers the hardware and software for setting up a self-organizing wireless network, minus the actual applications.

Sensicast's bundled approach goes further. "It's not rocket science, but [it] makes good sense," says Harry Forbes, senior analyst at ARC Advisory Group (Dedham, MA). "They are harmonizing the back end and the front end of the measurement piece to make more of a solution."

The Sensicast technology features the company's patented SensiNet network, a series of building block components that can be deployed in flexible configurations: the SensiNet Sensor Node is a wireless sensor that collects a variety of data; the SensiNet Mesh Node is a network repeater that allows operation over a wide area; and the SensiNet Gateway Bridge Node connects the network to the SensiNet Gateway Software.

Earlier this year, the company rolled out three applications: temperature monitoring, predictive maintenance, and energy monitoring. Last month, the company unveiled the SensiNet Services Gateway, a data-monitoring subsystem with Web browser-based interfaces that is deployed on demand. In addition, Sensicast has introduced an application services model that allows a company to use Sensicast's data center in an ASP framework.

"A traditional system might [cost] $150,000 to $200,000, and the payback is 25 to 35 months," Ambrosino says. "We are seeing payback on our system in the three-to-six month range."