The following are news announcements made during the past week. Additional announcements were posted yesterday.
PRESS RELEASE:
Monnit Launches Internet of Things Partner Program
Monnit Corporation (www.monnit.com) has announced its Premiere IoT Partner Program—IoTvantage. The program provides business partners (Distributors, Value Added Resellers, System Integrators, Independent Software Vendors, Managed Service Providers and OEMs) a fast track for connecting their customers to industry-leading IoT solutions.
“Global business is rapidly changing as more customers are investing in IoT solutions that employ remote monitoring to protect their bottom line,” said Brad Walters, CEO, Monnit Corporation. “As the global leader in reliable, cost-effective IoT solutions, we are excited to offer the IoTvantage program as the ideal solution for channel players that want to capitalize on the growing demand for Internet of Things solutions. On the heels of the release of our award-winning ALTA enterprise IoT solution, we now have streamlined the on-boarding process for new partners and provide them with all the necessary tools and incentives to succeed in IoT.”
Market-ready kits are a key component of the new IoTvantage program. These kits allow distributors and resellers to stock or drop-ship “off-the-shelf”, application specific kits that require less than 5 minutes setup time. Each kit is available with either cellular or Ethernet connectivity and wireless sensors specifically designed for the application. The following kits become available: Commercial Refrigeration, Remote Real Estate, HVAC, Pharmacies and Labs, IT Server Rooms, Corporate Properties, Agriculture, Mobile Refrigeration, Industrial Manufacturing, and Small Business.
The kits feature Monnit’s ALTA enterprise wireless sensors, the only wireless sensor platform available that offers 1,000+ foot wireless range (non-line-of-sight), 10+ year battery life and bank-level security (Monnit’s new Encrypt-RF integrated security). Monnit’s IoT solutions are comprehensive and feature all of the hardware and software needed without requiring any additional subscriptions or monthly fees.
Also key to Monnit’s IoTvantage program is the ability for partners to private label and sell the solution as their own. Custom kitting, product development and customized software features are available to help partners tailor the solution for their customer’s specific needs.
For more information on the new IoTvantage Business Partner Program, call (801) 561-5555 or visit www.monnit.com/partner.
PRESS RELEASE:
Vypin, LRNI Unveil Wireless IoT Badging System
Vypin LLC and LRNI announce the launch of EverView for WorkForce Management, a wireless IoT badging system that provides “peace of mind” for personnel operations. Key capabilities of the EverView System include workflow status of services to customers, immediate feedback [RM1] when personnel approach an “off-limits” area, procedural compliance training for best practices like hand hygiene, and time and attendance
“Installation of the system is noninvasive and simply elegant,” notes Louis Thompson, CEO of LRNI. “The mZone architecture behind EverView allows us to quickly place AC or battery powered location markers (wireless) as needed in a facility. Employee badges collect the location markers, combine it with appropriate sensor data and forward the data to our local, campus or enterprise cloud software. Operational scorecards and alerts are provided based upon business rules and operational metrics.”
The core of the EverView WM system is the wireless BadgeTag, which is equipped with three key RF features: the ability to talk directly (up to 200 feet) with any modern smart phone, tablet or gateway; a second RF system that interacts with wireless location spot markers (microZones) whereby a doorway may identify itself directly to the badge; and Near Field Communications (NFC) for short-range operations. BadgeTags are also equipped with motion, orientation and activity sensors; customized sensors are available. Each BadgeTag (sealed with a multi-year battery) contains a long-range assistance request or duress button.
Mitch Bernet, CEO of Vypin, states, “The EverView solution lends itself to a wide variety of targeted workforce use cases. For example, the OnHand system [RM2] uses the EverView components to monitor hand hygiene in health care and food management operations, whereby workers are immediately given a reminder if they haven’t washed their hands prior to entering a patient care or food preparation area.” The procedural logic can either be imbedded in the cloud software or within the badge itself. Specialized antennas tailor the coverage zones, ranging from individual sink or sanitizer dispensers to broad range service delivery areas.
PRESS RELEASE:
Kimberly-Clark Joins Georgia Tech’s Internet of Things Research Center
Kimberly-Clark has joined Georgia Tech’s Center for the Development and Application of Internet-of-Things Technologies (CDAIT). As a member of this global, non-profit research and development center with a seat on the Executive Advisory Board, Kimberly-Clark will help guide research into the rapidly evolving Internet of Things (IoT) marketplace that addresses critical societal issues including privacy, trust, ethics, regulation and policy.
This follows the announcement by Kimberly-Clark Professional about Onvation Technology, a smart restroom management system that harnesses the machine-to machine connectivity of IoT to provide customers with up-to-the-minute monitoring of restroom conditions from any device or location, 24 hours a day. Onvation Technology is a patent-protected system that delivers real-time data and alerts so building managers can identify and fix restroom problems before they become complaints.
“Onvation Technology is Kimberly-Clark’s first foray into the IoT world,” explains Renee Pearson, Global Director of IT Innovation. “By joining CDAIT, we are taking an active role in shaping the future of IoT innovation and better understanding how to continue leveraging the convergence of the physical and digital worlds to bring actionable data, analytics and insights to businesses.”
Kimberly-Clark is building on its long-standing partnership with Georgia Tech, dating back more than 35 years. The two organizations have partnered together from a research perspective, and Kimberly-Clark sponsors key programs within the institution including Women in Engineering, the Renewable BioProducts Institute, the Center for Bio-Inspired Design, and the Institute for Electronics and Nanotechnology. Kimberly-Clark employs more than 100 Georgia Tech alumni.
“We are looking forward to actively collaborating with Kimberly-Clark’s experts in the IoT space,” highlights Alain Louchez, Managing Director of CDAIT. “In particular, their significant involvement in the IoT Security and Privacy Working Group will provide a very useful perspective in a complex and critical area.” Currently, CDAIT’s activities are focused on horizontal domains through six Working Groups, i.e., education and training; start-up ecosystem; thought leadership, security & privacy; standards & management; and research.
“Kimberly-Clark has a strong track record of transforming insights and technologies into innovative products and services that improve the lives of nearly a quarter of the world’s population,” says Clay Mahaffey, Global R&D Director for Kimberly-Clark Professional. “By partnering closely with our fellow CDAIT board members and Georgia Tech’s faculty and students, we aim to build on this history of innovation and explore the many dimensions of IoT and their applicability in today’s world.”
“We are honored to welcome Kimberly-Clark to our board,” says Jeff Evans, Chair of the CDAIT Executive Advisory Board and Director of the Information and Communications Laboratory at the Georgia Tech Research Institute. “With their experience and expertise, we’ll keep pushing IoT research and insights even further.”
PRESS RELEASE:
Clinical Ink, Integron Partner to Streamline IoT-enabled Clinical Trials
Clinical Ink, the pioneering provider of eSource and patient engagement technologies, and Integron, a leading provider of managed services for the connected health and Internet of Things (IoT) industry, have partnered to extend Clinical Ink’s mobile device and sensor deployment capabilities to engage and collect data from patients in clinical trials.
The life science industry is accelerating the adoption of mobile devices and IoT technology to simplify the patient experience while collecting increasingly sophisticated endpoint data. Incorporating mobile and IoT devices requires global expertise to handle unique geographic logistical challenges, variable connectivity options, and device security/support for patients and sites.
“More and more clinical trial sponsors want to leverage mobile devices to engage patients and capture study data anytime and anywhere,” said Jonathan Andrus, chief operating officer, Clinical Ink. “SureSource Engage gives sponsors the option to deploy an integrated ePRO, patient engagement and IoT platform that integrates with multiple sensors in either a provisioned or a Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) model. We partnered with Integron to leverage their experience managing devices and data throughout the world to ensure we can meet our customers’ IoT provisioning demands for clinical trials, globally.”
“The clinical trial space represents an important market for Integron,” stated Bryan Lubel, president of Integron. “Our wireless and mobile device management (MDM) services, which enable secure and seamless data capture through connected devices and sensors, combined with the patient engagement and data access capabilities of Clinical Ink, are providing cost-effective, seamless delivery and technology management to deliver successful clinical trial engagements.”
Integron and Clinical Ink will both be showcasing their capabilities at DIA 2017, June 18–22 in Chicago. Visit Integron in booth 2058 and Clinical Ink in booth 527 to learn more.
PRESS RELEASE:
EVRYTHNG Integrates GS1 Identifiers With IoT at Industrial Scale
EVRYTHNG, the Internet of Things Smart Products Platform for consumer products, has announced the first-of-its-kind integration of EVRYTHNG Active Digital Identities with GS1 Standards. The integration enables consumer goods brands to use the billions of existing GS1 identifiers deployed on consumer goods to web-enable their products and drive new digital applications across the product lifecycle. EVRYTHNG is a GS1 US Solution Partner.
In the world’s first-ever implementation of GS1 semantics in an Internet of Things (IoT) framework, EVRYTHNG’s Active Digital Identities now provide operational support for all GS1 identifiers and GS1 data sharing standards. This industry-leading development enables all brands already working with GS1 identifiers to seamlessly and rapidly apply IoT technology to drive new digital product lifecycle management capabilities. GS1 Standards are used globally to identify products—critical to enabling products to work with different systems and applications.
EVRYTHNG is the market-leading Internet of Things platform for consumer products, providing digital identities to billions of consumer products via unique and intelligent software identities in the cloud. Through partnerships with global packaging solution providers—including Avery Dennison RBIS in the apparel & footwear industry and Crown and WestRock among others in the consumer packaged goods industry—EVRYTHNG is able to adhere digital identities to products as they’re manufactured. EVRYTHNG’s integration of Active Digital Identities and GS1 Standards further strengthens its market-leading capability to bring speed, convenience, and scale to the digitization of all physical products building on existing standard identification methods.
Leveraging these #BornDigital products, consumer goods brands can easily deploy digital applications across the product lifecycle—such as supply chain traceability, quality control and inventory management, direct-to-consumer experiences for product information, e-commerce and CRM, and sustainability. End-to-end digital lifecycle management for products makes supply chains smarter and cultivates more valuable customer and consumer connections.
“GS1 identifiers are the standard in global commerce, and identify billions of products in the supply chain around the world. It’s both exciting and important to the digital transformation of the consumer product industry to leverage GS1 Standards with EVRYTHNG’s innovative Internet of Things technology, thereby providing a shortcut for brands to switch-on their products as digital assets and manage digital product lifecycle at industrial scale,” said Niall Murphy, Co-founder & CEO, EVRYTHNG.
“As a GS1 US Solution Partner, EVRYTHNG will help our members maximize their existing implementation of GS1 Standards and adapt their digital strategies to a more technology-driven, IoT world,” said Siobhan O’Bara, Senior Vice President, Industry Engagement & Services, GS1 US.
Commenting on the industry implications, Dwight Meyer, former President, Global Sourcing, Logistics, and Distribution for Warnaco, said: “It’s clear the market has changed, and brands with the ability to know their customers, form a relationship, and react to demand are winning. Real-time information and transparency throughout the product lifecycle, combined with a speed-to-market capability, are critical to driving profitable growth. EVRYTHNG’s digital enablement of GS1 Standards creates an environment where the needed changes to operating models can begin.”
EVRYTHNG and Avery Dennison RBIS are applying this technology standardization to the Avery Dennison Janela solution, powered by the EVRYTHNG Smart Products Platform, which assigns unique identities to apparel and footwear products. The new, joined up capability for an RFID tag with a standard Electronic Product Code (EPC) to communicate with the Active Digital Identity in the cloud enables a wide range of consumer in-store applications. This allows for self-checkout and better product availability, and enables omnichannel experiences across the consumer shopping journey to drive store traffic and unlock consumer analytics.
Bill Toney, Vice President of RFID Market Development at Avery Dennison, shared: “Janela is one of the first solutions to enable apparel brands and retailers to leverage the power of connected products to drive a seamless in-store shopping experience and reveal consumer analytics, which was once only possible online. This GS1 standardization introduces the extension of the RFID EPC standard with 2D barcodes to unlock in-store consumer experiences, with the goal of enhancing store traffic, in addition to capturing in-store shopping journey data received from the same online customer. This is exciting for both the industry and the advancement of omnichannel strategies.”
Brands can rely on standards-based GS1 coding to ensure all their applications and systems can interact with product items.
EVRYTHNG will be demonstrating its #BornDigital solutions at GS1 Connect 2017 (Booth #50) at the Cosmopolitan Hotel in Las Vegas, June 20-22.
GS1 US is an information standards organization that brings industry communities together to improve supply chain business processes through the adoption and implementation of GS1 Standards. The GS1 System of Standards, the most widely used information standards in the world, uniquely identifies products, services, assets, and locations worldwide to support supply chain visibility and efficiency. The GS1 US Solution Partner Program facilitates the implementation of GS1 Standards by connecting users with solution providers that can deliver services and solutions for quick, efficient, and accurate standards implementation.
Please visit evrythng.com to learn more about the EVRYTHNG Internet of Things Smart Products Platform. For more information about the GS1 US Solution Partner program, please visit www.gs1us.org/resources/solution-partners.
PRESS RELEASE:
HID Global Shares IFSEC Study Revealing How Trusted Identities Bridge Gap Between Connected Workers and Smart Buildings
A recent study conducted by IFSEC Global reveals how trusted identities can serve as the backbone for smart buildings and today’s connected workforce. Sponsored by HID Global, the access control study on the connected workplace explores the trends in smart buildings and the increasingly important need for identity-aware building systems that offer greater convenience, security and productivity.
“Most respondents want more integrated smart buildings and business applications that seamlessly work together. While many of them are realizing these benefits by using common management frameworks with centralized databases, this approach is generally quite expensive,” said Ashish Malpani, director of product marketing with HID Global. “The study reveals how trusted IDs offer a viable alternative for achieving a connected building at lower cost, better ROI and improved user experience–all by providing systems with knowledge of identities and their authorizations for access to elevators, parking garages, vending machines, printers and other systems.”
IFSEC Global’s study focused on how the access control infrastructure combined with trusted identities can connect disparate systems for enhanced monitoring and a better user experience as people enter and move around buildings, access various systems and consume building services.
According to the report, 85 percent of respondents are aware that identities can be connected across multiple systems and devices, and more than 60 percent believe that having everything on one ID card or mobile device will provide operational efficiencies. More than half have already connected their building systems to access control applications, and converging systems can even be a factor in deciding to upgrade the access control infrastructure.
Top applications include integrated logical access, AV conferencing, elevators, secure print, locks for interior draws and racks and HVAC control. Other key findings include:
• 63 percent define their building as “smart” to at least some degree, a 13 percent increase as compared to a 2016 IFSEC Global report on smart buildings.
• 60 percent of access control systems are already integrated with other buildings systems.
• Roughly the same percentage believe that system integration is hugely beneficial for user convenience while adding value to existing systems.
• 51 percent of respondents have already integrated time and attendance systems.
• 45 percent cite asset tracking as the most likely system to be integrated in the future.
• System integration can also be a trigger for access control upgrades – at least 40 percent cited converged physical and logical access as a decision factor.
• Other top upgrade triggers include enhanced security (65 percent), multi-factor authentication (46 percent), and multiple ID form factors, such as mobile devices and cards (41 percent).
• Two-thirds of respondents believe that IT and facilities/security management teams need to work together more closely when buying, installing and using new technologies.
Another finding from the IFSEC Global study is the growing awareness of the Internet of Things (IoT), with 86 percent of respondents either “very aware” or “modestly aware” of the IoT. For a more connected workplace, trusted IDs can help organizations take a first step towards integrating building systems by securing, customizing and enhancing IoT applications that help connect people, places and things.
PRESS RELEASE:
Industrial IoT Company Samsara Raises $40 Million in Series C Growth Financing
Samsara, the leader in Internet-connected sensor systems, today announced $40 million in Series C financing led by General Catalyst, with participation from existing investor Andreessen Horowitz and Samsara’s founders. The round valued Samsara at over $530 million as the company’s revenues grow in excess of 250% annually.
The financing comes as Samsara, which makes Internet-connected sensor systems for industrial and transportation applications, has emerged as a next-generation leader in the $8 billion vehicle telematics market. It has established a broad customer base in transportation, food and beverage, energy, and field services, and is rapidly gaining share with faster-than-market sales growth.
Samsara’s complete hardware-software platform combines data from sensors, GPS, cameras, and mobile apps in an integrated, cloud-based solution. Samsara’s technology drives operational gains ranging from safety and regulatory compliance to lower operating cost and increased customer satisfaction. Samsara’s growing list of enterprise-scale deployments include long haul trucking companies, Fortune 500 food producers, passenger transit operators, local governments, and public utilities.
Samsara is well-capitalized for long term growth. By reinvesting revenues from product sales, the company had over two thirds of its Series A and Series B financing remaining on hand upon raising this round. The new financing brings the company’s total capital raised to $80 million, fueling Samsara’s accelerating growth – the 100-person company plans to double headcount to 200 by year’s end – and enabling long-term investments in research and development.
“Thanks to our faster-than-market sales growth, we didn’t need additional outside funding for day to day operations,” said Sanjit Biswas, Samara’s co-founder and CEO. “But we believe that Samsara’s approach to IoT can have a broad impact across large markets. We’ve already seen the technology benefit customers ranging from vehicle fleet operators to water utilities to energy producers. This new financing lets us invest in long-term technology development to explore new applications for our platform.”
Samsara was founded by Biswas and CTO John Bicket, who together previously founded and led Meraki, the cloud networking technology leader that was acquired by Cisco Systems for $1.2 billion. Samsara had raised $40 million in two earlier rounds led by Andreessen Horowitz.
“The traction and acceleration of growth that Samsara has seen are impressive but not at all surprising. The team is successfully replicating the playbook they developed at Meraki in an even bigger market,” said Hemant Taneja, Managing Director at General Catalyst. “Their ambitious vision of the ‘industrial internet’ is already delivering significant value to the industrial businesses that power our economy and they’re just getting started. We’re incredibly happy to be on board.”
Taneja joins Marc Andreessen, founding partner at Andreessen Horowitz, Sanjit Biswas, and John Bicket on Samsara’s board of directors.