Argos.APP Meter AI
Argos.APP Meter AI is a German field-service mobile app whose artificial intelligence reads meter numbers, readings, OBIS codes and utility type straight from a photograph in under a second, built for grid and metering operators.
What is Argos.APP Meter AI?
Argos.APP — also called the BK App on the same product page — is the mobile field application of Bittner+Krull Softwaresysteme GmbH, a Munich software house that has been building systems for energy and water utilities since the late nineteen-eighties. Meter AI is the artificial intelligence built into that application. It reads a meter from a photograph, extracting the meter number, the current reading, the OBIS code and the utility type — electricity, gas, water or district heating — and checks those values automatically in about one second.
The problem it addresses is specific and well documented by the publisher. Meters sit in badly lit cellars, in narrow shafts and in industrial halls; glass covers reflect, lenses are dusty, photographs are taken at an angle. Conventional optical character recognition reaches its limits there and forces technicians to shoot the same device several times. Meter AI was trained for exactly those conditions and is claimed to return correct values even when an image is too bright, too dark, blurred, pixelated or skewed. A second variant, Meter AI plus, goes further: it identifies the relevant work order from the photographed meter number and assigns the captured data on its own, removing the manual search and keystrokes. Two processing scenarios are described — recognition tied to an existing order, and free capture with automatic assignment or creation of a standalone order.
Around that AI sits a complete field application. It works offline through an encrypted cache and resynchronises automatically; it carries flexible forms for measurements, documents, photos, sketches, signatures, barcodes and working times; it offers an order pool from which technicians pick jobs; it embeds maps and GIS data for navigation; and it performs electronic and radio meter reading through more than three hundred device drivers. A lighter variant, the BK Service App, gives external contractors time-limited access to a pool of released jobs through a QR code or a link, without a user account.
The application runs on Android, iOS and Windows, and forms the mobile part of the publisher's wider metering platform. Meter AI itself was developed in cooperation with Springboard GmbH. The one published performance figure comes from Mainova ServiceDienste GmbH in Frankfurt: 96% correct readings, processed in one second.
What it does
- Read a meter number and its current reading from a single photograph in under a second
- Verify the OBIS code and detect the utility type: electricity, gas, water or district heating
- Recognise the matching work order from the photographed meter number and fill it in automatically
- Capture measurements, checklists, documents, photos, sketches, signatures, barcodes and working times on a form
- Read meters electronically or by radio using more than three hundred device drivers
- Keep working offline in an encrypted cache and resynchronise automatically once back online
- Raise a new order on site for a damaged asset or an extra device, triggering follow-up actions in the back office
When to use Argos.APP Meter AI / When not to
A quick filter to help you decide if Argos.APP Meter AI is the right fit.
When to use Argos.APP Meter AI
- Meter technicians reading devices in dark cellars, cramped shafts or dusty industrial halls, where conventional OCR fails
- Grid and metering point operators in electricity, gas, water and district heating across the German-speaking market
- Field teams working without reliable mobile coverage, thanks to the encrypted offline cache and automatic re-synchronisation
- Utilities running SAP ERP or S/4HANA that want field results posted back without modifying the SAP standard
- Operators who need to hand short, standardised jobs to occasional external contractors without creating user accounts
When not to use Argos.APP Meter AI
- Anyone hoping to sign up online: there is no self-service purchase, no published price and no trial, only a quotation
- Consumers and sole traders, since the terms of business apply strictly to companies and public-law bodies
- Developers looking for a documented public API, as no API reference, endpoint or developer subdomain could be found
- Non-German-speaking teams, because the website, the documentation and the support desk are German only
- Anyone wanting to install the app independently, as the stores only carry client-specific builds commissioned by a utility
How to use Argos.APP Meter AI
A typical end-to-end flow, from setup to results.
- Contact the vendor by form, e-mail or telephone: there is no online sign-up and no published price list
- Agree the scope in a quotation, since the terms of business set prices only in the offer or order confirmation
- Choose the delivery model: monthly rental as software as a service in a private cloud, or an on-premise installation
- Have the upstream systems connected — the B+K Process Engine for non-SAP systems, the Argos Suite add-on for SAP ERP and S/4HANA, exchanging data over web services
- Go through the formal acceptance procedure, with ten working days to examine the delivered system
- Deploy the client-specific build of the application to the technicians' Android, iOS or Windows devices
- Hand occasional external contractors the lighter BK Service App through a time-limited QR code or link, with no account to create
- In the field, photograph the meter, confirm the recognised information, then close the job
- Train the teams through the Argos.Academy, which offers more than a hundred short how-to videos
- Raise issues through the EasyRedmine ticket system or the support desk, open Monday to Friday from 7am to 5pm
Pros & Cons
Pros
- A published, named customer result: 96% correct readings and one-second processing at Mainova ServiceDienste
- Designed for the degraded conditions where conventional OCR fails, a point the customer states in his own words
- Full offline operation, which matters in cellars and service shafts where coverage is absent
- One application for all utility divisions and processes, and for Android, iOS and Windows alike
- More than three hundred meter drivers, so electronic reading covers devices from any manufacturer
- Standardised SAP integration in a dedicated namespace, without modifying the SAP standard
- German data centre hosting with a stated 99.9% availability, individually negotiated service levels, and a choice between cloud and on-premise
Cons
- No price is published anywhere: no pricing page, no figure, everything goes through a quotation
- No free plan and no trial; the free demonstration is an appointment requested through the contact form
- Website, documentation and support desk are available in German only
- No generic app listing exists in either store, so the software cannot be installed without a commissioning utility
- No public API documentation, although the publisher advertises an API-first architecture and web service data exchange
- No security certificate in the publisher's own name: the ISO standards quoted belong to the hosting provider
- The site never states whether customer data may be used to train the models, and publishes no product-level subprocessor list
Pricing & Plans
There is no free plan and no published price. The product page states that the application can be obtained either as a monthly rental under a software as a service model or as an on-premise installation, and invites prospects to contact the vendor for entry-level offers, without naming a figure. The terms of business confirm the arrangement: the prices that apply are those stated in the offer or in the order confirmation, net of statutory value added tax, with invoices payable within fourteen days. No pricing page exists on the site and none appears in its sitemap, so no entry-level amount can be reported.
- monthly rental of the application in a private cloud
- price set by quotation
- licence acquisition and operation on the customer's own infrastructure
- price set by quotation
- lighter variant for external contractors
- no separate price published
Data, GDPR & hosting
A consolidated view of how Argos.APP Meter AI handles your data.
GDPR overview
The publisher is established in Germany, applies German law and names Munich as the place of jurisdiction, so the GDPR applies directly and no Article 27 representative is required. Concrete mentions are present: a structured privacy notice organised by legal basis under Article 6, an explicitly named external data protection officer (Franz Obermayer, complimant AG, Kirchweidach) with full contact details, a reminder of the rights of access, rectification, restriction and erasure, and a reservation in the terms of business for processing agreements under Article 28. The software as a service page states that the publisher, together with its hosting provider, ensures compliance with the EU GDPR and the revised German Federal Data Protection Act, with the private cloud operated in a German data centre. No compliance certificate is issued in the publisher's own name.
Who owns the data?
The published terms of business say nothing that claims ownership of a customer's measurement data. They grant the customer a simple, non-exclusive and non-transferable right to use the software, conditional on full payment, and reserve source code for a separate agreement. Clause 12 expressly leaves the rules on processing on behalf of a controller under Article 28 GDPR untouched, which places Bittner+Krull in the role of processor when the software is consumed as a service. Mutual confidentiality survives the end of the contract. The controller named on the website is Bittner+Krull Softwaresysteme GmbH in Munich, assisted by an external data protection officer at complimant AG.
Reuse rights
The vendor publishes no clause allowing it to reuse a customer's operational data for its own purposes, and none allowing the customer to reuse the software beyond the agreed scope. Copying is permitted only where it is necessary for contractual use, for instance installation or backup; copyright notices may not be removed; decompilation is limited to what the law compels. Group companies and appointed service providers may use the software where the contract requires it, with the customer remaining responsible for them. The privacy notice covers the website rather than the product, and describes only website data: contact forms, technical connection data, self-hosted Matomo analytics with immediate IP anonymisation, a cookie consent tool, a newsletter service and embedded video loaded after consent. Nothing on the site states, in either direction, whether customer data may be used to train the artificial intelligence.
Data retention & training
Hosting summary
Two arrangements exist, and they lead to different answers. Under the software as a service model the application runs in a private cloud that the publisher says is operated in one of Germany's most modern data centres, monitored around the clock by specialists, with redundant architecture, encrypted transmission and a stated availability of 99.9%. Service levels are agreed individually in each contract. The jurisdiction is therefore German, and the publisher states that it ensures compliance with the EU GDPR and the revised German Federal Data Protection Act together with that provider. Under the alternative on-premise model the system runs on the customer's own infrastructure and hosting is entirely the customer's responsibility; the publisher says customers can move between the two models. The corporate website itself is served from Germany, by a hosting company in Hamburg, and the self-hosted analytics run on that same provider's servers with IP addresses anonymised immediately. No hosting region beyond Germany is named anywhere on the site.
Things to keep in mind
Risks and trade-offs to weigh before adopting Argos.APP Meter AI.
- The publisher gives three different founding years: 1988 on its own history page, 1985 on LinkedIn, and 23 August 1995 in the commercial register, which is the date reported here for the legal entity
- The same register sheet has carried two earlier company names, so material published under those names describes the same entity
- The legal notice already shows a new Munich address while the register still shows the previous one, following a move announced for early September 2026
- The LinkedIn address printed on every page of the site returns a 404; the live company page sits under a different handle
- The ISO 27001 and ISO 9001 standards quoted on the service page are attributed to the hosting provider, not to the publisher, and no certificate is issued in its own name
- Automated reading invites over-trust: a claimed 96% accuracy still leaves incorrect readings that a technician confirming on screen may wave through, with billing consequences
- Nothing on the site says whether photographs and readings captured by technicians may be used to train the models, and no product-level list of subprocessors is published
Setup & Integrations
Technical difficulty
Setting this up is a project, not an installation. The upstream systems have to be connected first — through the B+K Process Engine for non-SAP landscapes or the Argos Suite add-on for SAP, exchanging data over web services — and the terms of business provide for a formal acceptance with ten working days of examination, plus customer cooperation on contacts, access and infrastructure. The publisher says customising effort stays low because the base processes follow the standard. For the technician at the far end, by contrast, difficulty is minimal: three steps to read a meter, and external contractors get in through a QR code with no account.
Deployment
Integrations
Behind Argos.APP Meter AI
Social
Resources
All the official URLs gathered for verification and reference.
Frequently asked questions
What does Meter AI actually do?
What is the difference between Meter AI and Meter AI plus?
Which devices does the application run on?
Does it work without a network connection?
How much does it cost?
Can I try it before buying?
Does it integrate with SAP?
Where is the data hosted?
How do external contractors get access?
Who publishes the tool?
Should you pick Argos.APP Meter AI?
Argos.APP Meter AI is a narrow, well-aimed product rather than a general-purpose assistant. It solves one expensive problem in utility field work — reading a meter reliably in a dark cellar, at an awkward angle, behind a reflecting cover — and it does so inside an application that already handles orders, forms, maps and offline work. The single published performance figure, 96% correct readings at Mainova ServiceDienste, is attributed to a named customer with a named manager quoted, which is more than most vendors offer.
The commercial side is deliberately closed. No price appears anywhere on the site, there is no trial and no free plan, and the demonstration on offer is an appointment rather than a login. The stores carry only client-specific builds, so an individual cannot install the software to see for themselves. Everything — website, documentation, support — is in German, and the market the publisher claims is the German-speaking one.
Two things deserve attention before drawing conclusions from the vendor's own material. The security standards quoted on the service page belong to the hosting provider, not to Bittner+Krull, and no certificate is issued in the publisher's own name. And the question of whether customer data may be used to train the models is never addressed, in either direction.
For a German-speaking grid or metering operator already engaged in digitising field processes, especially one running SAP, this is a credible and specific option backed by a company that has been in the sector for decades. For anyone looking for a tool they can evaluate on their own terms this afternoon, it is not.
- Choosing a selection results in a full page refresh.
- Opens in a new window.