- OptConnect has launched what it calls the world’s first smart USB modem connecting to Wi-Fi-enabled devices to create instant IoT networks in a business.
- The new device can connect with dozens of appliances, from cash machines to to digital signs, and everything in-between.
Businesses such as banks, convenience stores and gas stations are deploying an increasing number of connected devices that often leverage IoT wireless connectivity; but the more devices are connected the more complicated they can be to install and manage.
Serving the kinds of businesses that might want a view into everything from a cash machine and point of sale device, to ice maker and gas pump, technology company OptConnect has been offering its products and services to help connect their services and appliances.
Most recently, the company launched a device known as OptConnect ema:USB, an LTE Category 4 modem and Wi-Fi device to connect a wide variety of equipment and services within a business or chain of stores. The modem helps customers avoid the added cost and difficulties associated with developing embedded wireless designs, or installing multiple connections within a single business. The ema:USB comes with OptConnect’s Connectivity-as-a-Service (CaaS) management solution.
A History in ATMs
Since 2009, OptConnect—based in Utah—has been providing telemetry and connectivity to the ATM industry. From that base, it has expanded to offering IoT connectivity in a wide set of industries including gas and retail.
Their customers include businesses that operate IoT devices, as well as companies that own or service those devices.
Early on, OptConnect’s experience in connectivity positioned it as a provider of IoT connectivity. That became especially important when banks or merchants wanted to set up mobile cash machines for specific events such as a festival or fair, said Chris Baird, CEO.
“In the early days, the pain points for the ATM were specifically around mobility,” Baird said. It was “the biggest challenge that cellular connectivity or IoT solved for them.”
Building Mobility for Cash Machines
To develop the first mobile ATM solutions, OptConnect provided a ruggedized gateway, found a cellular data plan—that was not necessarily built for IoT use—and put together a full solution that connected a mobile ATM to a server, wirelessly.
“It worked—and not only did it work, it worked so well,” Baird recalled. They then began receiving more customer demand for similar solutions.
OptConnect found its customers began using the connectivity provided for a mobile device at a temporary event, and then leveraged the same technology in a permanent placement such as in a convenience store or gas station.
Expanding to a Full IoT Solution
Today, the company serves a new generation of IoT connectivity issues. Increasingly, businesses need to connect their devices to a server, without cables and without leveraging a host such as a landlord’s Wi-Fi account.
Many businesses may initially hope to build the necessary networks themselves, Baird said. “The first inherent thought everybody has is ‘how hard can it be? let’s do it ourselves,’”
But they soon find that connectivity of one data point is not scalable to other devices in a store, or to other stores within a chain. In many cases, Baird found, “they grow frustrated, it becomes unwieldily, or they have these cost overruns they can’t manage.”
The company’s OpEx model consists of an end-to-end solution that leverages OptConnect hardware and cloud-based software to connect payment devices and other services for a business. That solution means that customers don’t have to use their own financial capital to establish their own IoT system. Instead, OpEx provides the dedicated connectivity to devices as a service.
From Cash Machines to Signage
The ema:USB device makes IoT networks more scalable, by enabling a wide variety of appliances or devices—in fact dozens of them—to be managed by the single gateway, Baird explained. Companies may need an IoT system for a variety of purposes that include connectivity with a cash machine in the store, a point-of-sale system, but also digital signage, sensor data from a cooler and even inventory data.
Companies would use an ema:USB appliance to capture Wi-F- based transmissions from devices such as an ATM machine or digital sign, and then connect to the backend software via LTE cellular connection. The company provides the relevant SIM card for devices such as the ATM machine.
End Cases Uses
OptConnect partners with companies that make many of the devices that require connectivity including digital signs and point of sale devices. Other systems, such as utilities data, can be collected with the ema:USB as well.
“For example, you might want to monitor your electricity,” Baird said. “We help our customers get data out to the cloud so they can see and take actionable data on the energy consumption.”
Companies would use an ema:USB appliance to capture Wi-F- based transmissions from an ATM machine or digital sign, and then connect to the backend software via LTE cellular connection. The company provides the relevant SIM card for such devices.
Convenience Stores, Fuel Stations, Banks
Baird pointed to a common customer deployment: a convenience store or gas station that sells both products and services. They may connect digital signage that enables discounting specific products in real time.
A company using wireless digital signage can connect one main screen above a counter where customers interact with staff. That signage might list the latest products for sale and their pricing, employ screens above soda dispensers, and screens near a deli counter or deploy digital screens on every gas pump.
Users could then access the system software to update data displayed on the screens, such as a new discount of hotdogs, even at multiple stores or stations in different geographic areas.
OptConnect partners with integrators who typically place equipment in locations they don’t own. Therefore, they bring their own Internet connection. One integrator the company works with, for instance, places devices in Maverik convenience stores, a retailer headquartered in Salt Lake City that covers the western U.S.
Sensor Data Capture
With the addition of sensor-based data, the solution aims next to inform companies about what’s happening to the environment in their machines, store or chain of stores.
One example is understanding the conditions in the machine where cash is managed. If humidity builds up within ATMs, the bills will stick together, potentially jamming the machine. Such an incident then could result in the machine being out of commission for an extended period, and could require a high-cost technician to come onsite to address the jam.
With OptConnect, instead, the ATM operator could receive an alert if the humidity has risen above a specific threshold so that the conditions can be addressed before the machine fails.
Conditions around other appliances can be critical as well. If an ice machine’s freezer temperature rises above 0 degrees Celsius, the store or device management could receive a warning. That condition monitoring is not yet available today but planned for the coming months.
“In a world where more and more devices are expected to connect, OptConnect simplifies that for the operator so they can focus on their widget,” Baird said. “Companies that make or provide tire compressors, ice machines or the businesses that operate them don’t want to be experts and IoT they just need to use it.”