ARCHIVE FOR THE ‘software-and-apps’ CATEGORY

SigmaDots blockchain-based solution enables protection for IoT and IIoT systems.

 

 

SigmaDots, a cyber-security startup and subsidiary of Essence Group, has partnered with Telit, a global enabler of the Internet of Things (IoT), to expand IoT security and strengthen business continuity leveraging SigmaDots technology. Essence Group is a market leader in developing LTE-based connected devices and IoT platforms.

SigmaDots has developed the first embedded, blockchain-based cybersecurity solution for IoT and IIoT systems. Telit, recognizing the need for enhanced solutions, is working closely with SigmaDots to improve resilience to cyberattacks. The companies are collaborating on the use of blockchain technology for routers, control panels, IoT gateways, and a host of IoT devices, drastically reducing device vulnerability to cyberthreats.

“The ubiquity of IoT devices makes them attractive targets for cyber mischief,” said Alon Segal, SVP of Software & Services, Telit. “Our collaboration with SigmaDots adds another layer of security and communications resiliency using distributed technologies to offer advanced, secure infrastructure solutions for our customers.”

SigmaDots software-based solutions harness the power of serverless architecture, bringing blockchain-based cybersecurity to the IoT ecosystem. With a scalable, interoperable, and secure platform uniquely adapted to the limited resources of IoT, SigmaDots empowers connected ecosystems to accelerate the machine-to-machine economy.

“IoT is finally delivering on its promises of complete connectivity – wearables, mobile apps, home safety, smart meters and in industry – generally anywhere” said Itsik Harpaz, General Manager of SigmaDots. “However, this connectivity brings significant threats – an attack on a single device can spread throughout the entire network.”

IoT devices without strong cyber protection can easily become part of a botnet to carry out distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks or fall prey to IoT-focused attacks like man-in-the-middle, data and identity theft, and device hijacking.

“SigmaDots technology was developed out of the need to strengthen the security of our IoT devices,” said Dr. Haim Amir, CEO and founder of Essence Group. “We’ve been creating innovative connected device solutions for more than 25 years, so we fully understand the challenges and the necessity of creating airtight cyber protection.”

 

UK-based Thetford International has deployed a mobile service management system equipping field service engineers with tablets connected in real-time to central management systems.

Established for 50 years, Thetford International is a founder member of CHEM, the Container Handling Equipment Manufacturers Association. The company has become a market leader in the design and manufacture of all types of compaction equipment, supplying to a diversity of sectors, from the print industry and supermarkets to industrial complexes, recycling centres and refuse transfer stations.

 

Thetford uses JobWatch, the BigChange solution for managing mobile service operations using live-connected mobile devices running a multi-functional app to replace all paperwork, integrated with vehicle tracking to monitor the fleet and drivers.  As well as replacing nine A4 carbon-copy installation and service forms, the JobWatch 5 in 1 app is also used for engineer time sheets, risk assessments, driver vehicle checks and the management of parts.

 

Thetford carries out routine maintenance of compactors but the majority of work is reactive and requires a fast response due to the safety concerns of potentially dangerous equipment.  Job details are sent to the assigned engineer to complete with JobWatch managing the entire process from start to job completion. 

 

“We had been on the lookout for a suitable system for a numbers of years but nothing seemed to exist that really combined the tracking and field service reporting needs,” says Andrew Goddard, Service Manager, Thetford International. “The BigChange solution is very flexible and adaptable and we were able to tailor it to meet our needs.”

 

JobWatch has been integrated with Thetford’s own bespoke IT system called Onsite providing asset register synchronisation and the seamless interchange of data between the systems. According to Thetford, the biggest benefits are financial and in particular with regard to invoicing.

 

“Previously it could take up to 3 weeks to raise an invoice. Now we do it next day and potentially we could do it the same day,” explains Goddard.  “JobWatch ensures invoices are accurate and are in line with what the customer is expecting and as they are received soon after the job, there are many fewer queries and payment is always quicker.”

 

Thetford’s engineers cover the UK working from their homes.  With vehicle tracking fitted to the fleet of Ford Transit vans, BigChange provides an automated ‘clocking in and clocking out’ system.  With van often stocked with thousands of pounds of parts, it also offers added security and driver monitoring and rating has also encouraged safer driving; important as engineers travel as much as 40,000 miles a year.       

 

JobWatch has also been developed to manage Thetford’s stock control with engineers using their tablets to record parts used.  With around 400 individual parts, the system automatically replenishes stocks with deliveries to engineer collection points.     

 

“Previously the vast majority of information was held in people’s heads and by introducing BigChange we have brought all that knowledge into one place.  It all works very well and seamlessly with our other systems. The whole service operation just runs a lot more smoothly and our customers – and the company Accountant – are a lot happier!” Goddard adds.

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning firm will work with B2B renewable electricity supplier.

By utilising the latest Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) tools from AI innovators, Inawisdom and Amazon Web Services (AWS), Drax Group has transformed its data insight and customer intelligence to personalise the services it provides to its customers, through its B2B energy supply businesses Opus Energy and Haven Power.

As a leading light in the renewable energy market, Drax Group is passionate about providing innovative and sustainable solutions for customers and has a mission to enable a zero carbon, lower cost energy future. As part of this initiative, Drax wants to identify any anomalies in energy usage, to help demonstrate to customers that it really understands how they’re using their electricity. Drax Group partnered with Inawisdom to deploy state-of-the-art Artificial Intelligence across its data and has since been able to provide a much higher standard of customer service.

“Our relationship with Drax Group has been a success story from the start,” said Neil Miles,CEO and co-founder of Inawisdom. “The utility sector is one of our core industries where AI and ML is proving a powerful instrument. Together with AWS, we were able to use our rapid deployment model to quickly find the real value in the data Drax held and help it to achieve goals effectively and efficiently”.

“Our partnership with Inawisdom and AWS has enabled us to draw insight and intelligence from our data, which was previously too complex to see,” reported Bjoern Reinke, Smart Director from Drax Group. “We can now immediately identify unusual usage and respond accordingly, providing many benefits for our customers and in turn Drax Group’s B2B supply businesses. The speed this capability has been provided is a revelation”.

Company adds session recording to its industry leading AR knowledge platform and announces continued enterprise customer growth with Becton Dickinson and Lockheed Martin. 

Scope AR, the pioneer of enterprise-class augmented reality (AR) solutions, today launched at Augmented World Expo 2019 (AWE) an upgraded version of its highly-touted WorkLink platform. With the addition of session recording, WorkLink becomes the industry’s only AR knowledge platform to offer real-time remote support, access to AR work instructions and the ability to record sessions simultaneously in one application. With this, workers can now easily capture, retain and share knowledge like never before. Scope AR also announced new enterprise customer, medical device manufacturer Becton Dickinson, as well as expanded use of its integrated AR platform with Lockheed Martin.

“This is an exciting time for the AR industry. Adoption is growing and expectations among users are shifting towards more comprehensive, enterprise-ready solutions,” explained Scott Montgomerie, CEO of Scope AR. “With the latest WorkLink platform, we’ve added even more ways for workers to collaborate and quickly get the knowledge they need to successfully do their jobs. With the addition of session recording, businesses can now better capture and retain knowledge for future use and training purposes, while taking compliance, quality assurance and accuracy to the next level.”

The updated WorkLink platform can be customized with varying sets of functionality depending on customers’ needs. It can also be deployed across all major platforms and select industry wearables so organizations can use their device of choice. The platform is built to help make anyone an instant expert with seamless access to a variety of features including:

Session Recording to capture important knowledge delivered during live support video calls for retention, future sharing and new insight into additional training needs and how processes can be improved. Either the technician or remote expert can record a live session so real-time knowledge becomes a reusable asset that can be accessed by others in the future.

Beyond its latest product innovations, Scope AR has also experienced continued customer acquisition and growth on the heels of its $9.7 million Series A funding round in March 2019. Becton Dickinson, an American medical technology company that manufactures and sells medical devices, instrument systems and reagants, is the newest addition to the company’s already impressive client roster. Becton Dickinson will use WorkLink at the company’s Automation Center for Enablement to deliver AR instructions across the organization.

Additionally, Lockheed Martin is now expanding its use of Scope AR’s technology after its highly successful implementation of WorkLink to improve workforce training and spacecraft manufacturing procedures. They are now deploying Scope AR into all four of their business units across a broad variety of use cases.

Lockheed Martin’s Emerging Technologies Lead Shelley Peterson added, “Creating AR work instructions with WorkLink has enabled our Space team to reach unprecedented levels of efficiency and accuracy, as well as reduced manufacturing training and activity ramp-up time by 85%. Scope AR's platform has proven to be so valuable that we have expanded our AR adoption into even more manufacturing applications within the Space division, as well as leveraging the technology in other areas of the business."

Integration of engineering document management and maintenance management to save manufacturers dollars, time and Injuries. 

Accruent, the world’s leading provider of physical resource management solutions, announced today that it is has developed an integration between its Maintenance Connection computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) and its Meridian engineering document management (EDM) software. Using these products together, manufacturers and industrial organizations provide maintenance teams with fast, on-site access to dynamic asset documentation.

Comprehensive and accurate asset information enables maintenance teams to complete work more quickly and cost-effectively, increase asset uptime, and help assure worker safety. As margins are crucial to manufacturers, the resulting cost savings and improved output can have a magnified impact on company success.

For manufacturers, seemingly small improvements in output or maintenance cost savings can mean the difference between growth and fighting for survival. However, a growing shortage of skilled workers (71% of companies surveyed by the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) in March 2019 indicated that attracting and retaining skilled workers is their greatest challenge) will require managers to seek other methods of assuring operational excellence. Analyst firm IDC predicts that by 2020, 80% of manufacturers will seek to place data at the center of their processes to increase speed, agility, efficiency, and innovation.

One example of placing data at the center of a process is to improve the depth and quality of information provided to maintenance teams and increasing the speed at which such information is delivered. By integrating EDM and CMMS, Accruent provides manufacturers and industrial organizations the ability to deliver on-demand engineering documentation to on-site maintenance professionals via a computer or mobile device.

Providing access to asset data while technicians are on-site:
• Reduces the time needed to complete maintenance
• Lowers the cost of completing work
• Decreases the duration of asset downtime

In addition, this combination provides better data to engineers who can update asset documentation more quickly and accurately. Perhaps most importantly, providing accurate, real-time asset documentation to maintenance personnel allows them to assure their safety while performing maintenance.

“Manufacturers are embracing digital transformation to improve operations and maximize returns. One of the key elements of digital transformation in manufacturing is breaking down data silos,” noted Kevin Permenter, Research Manager, Enterprise Applications, IDC. “Sharing information between engineering and maintenance teams is an example of how having a single source of truth can deliver benefits to multiple departments and initiatives. Manufacturers that are sharing data across these functions are opening up new avenues to improve productivity, maximize the value of their resources, and lengthen asset life.”

Trimble announce the launch of Trimble PULSE® Remote Expert, an augmented reality (AR) tool that improves the productivity of field service technicians by connecting them with support experts via video, audio and spatial annotations in real-time.


The AR tool provides remotely-located users with a shared, live view using the camera on a smart phone. Both users can add digital annotations, such as text or drawings, directly to the live view by accessing a simple menu displayed on the smartphone screen.

Digital annotations can be especially helpful when trying to communicate complex information remotely, or if either user is working in a loud environment. Trimble PULSE Remote Expert enables businesses across a range of industries, including construction, agriculture, telecommunications and utilities, to rapidly connect remote experts with technicians in the field.

It is a simple and powerful application for technicians who require real-time assistance when facing complex or unfamiliar situations, and ultimately helps to improve first-time fix rates, technician productivity and the overall customer service experience. 

"Many organizations are looking for new and improved ways of connecting their field workers," said John Cameron, general manager of Trimble’s Field Service Management Division. "An ageing workforce and skill shortages are adding complexity to the service workflow and organizations are looking for innovative ways to address the challenges."

Fast Lean Smart (FLS) customer, British Engineering Services (BES), have been crowned winners of The Forum's ‘Innovation award for Enterprise Planning’ at The Customer Strategy & Planning 2019 event. BES, who use FLS' scheduling and route planning software FLS VISITOUR also scooped the award for overall Innovation of the Year 2019.

 

The Forum is an an independent body supporting the contact centre industry since early 2000 and is a supplier-independent and work across all industry sectors to provide specialist support for contact centre and planning professionals.

Widely recognised as the ‘go-to place’ for support teams and business leaders, the team of independent experts offers advice, support and training, helping many organisations develop the capability of their support functions through bespoke learning and development, accreditation, qualifications and standards benchmarking.

 

Each year applications are submitted to the body's for industry awards in specific categories. Aftter FLS introduced BES to The Forum and the company submitted an application directly for the ‘Innovation award for Enterprise Planning’, which you can read below.

The winners were selected by a team which included 12 experienced industry practitioners, many of them previous winners or finalists. Judges visited each of the shortlisted organisations, and then assessed them against a strict set of criteria.

The BES submission: “The power of planning”

How flexible resourcing and strategic use of planning helped them stand out from competitors on service and create a new, one team culture that’s doubled sales and raised month-end service by 50%.

The catalyst for transformation at British Engineering Services was creating a new company, separate from RSA, seizing the chance to stand  out in the market and deliver on ‘making Britain a safer place’. Capacity planning was fundamental, alongside outside expertise with VISITOUR scheduler from FLS. Reliability comes from effective end-to-end planning, delivering the highest quality inspections, on time, every time – an exceptional customer experience. Engineer surveyors remain a key part of the planning process and lifestyle flexibility has been a massive win too. It’s created a customer-driven and flexible mindset and removed traditional territorial boundaries. This is a human organisation that everyone feels part of. Three years on and the evidence is clear – sales up 100%, customer retention up 15%, huge cost savings and delivering the best service in the market.

Key Results

• Customer retention up by 15%
• Cost savings c10-15%
• 50% reduction in wasted downtime in 2018
• 74% improvement for ‘on or before’ SLA for the largest clients
• 100% rise in sales performance in 2018
• The best service in the market

British Engineering Services is the UK’s biggest independent engineering inspection, testing and certification company. 450 highly qualified Engineer Surveyors perform 2.8 million inspections each year, supported by Planning Team members using online reporting systems and FLS VISITOUR scheduler.

You can download the slides here and watch a video of the case study here.

Serve announce the integration of its fingerprint recognition technology with its blockchain-based platform. 

Bringing forth a new paradigm in securing deliveries in sectors such as pharmaceuticals and other sensitive consumer goods where chain of custody and proof of delivery are paramount, this seemingly ubiquitous technology offers users an extra layer of security throughout the order fulfillment process without sacrificing efficiency. 

 

“Being involved in the logistics space for over 20 years, the current faults in last-mile logistics have become increasingly apparent,” says Serve’s CEO Shahan Ohanessian. “With the integration of fingerprint recognition technology, Serve increases the security of order fulfillment while also increasing positive business-to-consumer relationships.”

 

Combining fingerprint recognition technology with Serve’s innovative blockchain-based platform, which now includes facial recognition technology, every participant within the Serve ecosystem will experience more secure and positive transactions, from mom-and-pop shops to large businesses. Creating a solid foundation for a decentralized last-mile logistics, Serve promotes efficiency, transparency, and trust.

BullGuard VPN for Windows, Mac, Android and iOS makes it simple for consumers to create military-grade encrypted connections.

Cybersecurity company, BullGuard, today announced the expansion of its cybersecurity product line with the launch of BullGuard VPN. Designed to be easily used across multiple devices, BullGuard VPN features a simplified user interface and quick connect functionality, enabling consumers to fly under the radar and surf the internet in stealth mode while retaining complete anonymity via military-grade encryption. Available for Windowsâ, Macâ, Androidâ and iOSâ operating systems, BullGuard VPN is available for download and purchase on the Apple App Store, Google Play and the BullGuard website.

 

“Cybersecurity to date has been primarily focused on keeping consumers and their devices safe from online threats, but cybercriminals also pose a threat to consumer privacy,” said BullGuard CEO, Paul Lipman. “In today’s cyberthreat landscape, security and privacy must be equally addressed in order to adequately protect consumers. BullGuard VPN enables consumers to safeguard their online privacy in a fast, easy and seamless way – from their desktop, laptop, tablet or smartphone – wherever they go.”

 

BullGuard VPN secures and protects up to six devices simultaneously – desktop computer, smartphone, laptop or tablet – and consumers can easily switch between 16 different country locations, including the U.S., Canada, U.K., Germany, Austria, The Netherlands, Belgium, France, Spain, Switzerland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Ireland, Singapore and Australia. BullGuard VPN hides a consumer’s origin IP address, preventing others – including ISPs (Internet Service Providers) and government organizations – from monitoring their online browsing activity, including what websites they visit, what they download or what services and applications they use. BullGuard VPN customers have access to 24/7 customer support.

 

Online consumer privacy is under siege on a near daily basis – from huge breaches where personal data is stolen and cybercriminals absconding with personal information and identities to Facebook and Internet Service Providers caught selling consumer data without consent. BullGuard VPN puts privacy control in consumers’ hands and is the perfect choice for consumers when using an unprotected Wi-Fi hotspot when away from home in airports, hotels or cafes. BullGuard VPN users receive secure connections in to hotspots, which protect them against data theft, privacy breaches, malware and cyber attacks via Wi-Fi.