SMART CONNECTIONS The significance of connectivity in today’s world is growing faster than ever before – it is one of the key enablers for the Internet of Things (IoT), machine-to-machine communications and Industrial Internet. Connectivity is the concept on which a small Finnish software company, Wirepas, based its business six years ago – and it has been growing ever since.
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he Finland-based Wirepas’ unique solution enables cost-efficient and reliable data collection from sensors. Founded in 2010 as a spin-off from Tampere University of Technology, Wirepas is focused on providing the most reliable, optimised, scalable and easy to use device connectivity for its customers. Wirepas Connectivity is a de-centralised radio communications protocol that can be used in any device, with any radio chip and on any radio band. With Wirepas Connectivity there is no need for traditional repeaters because every wireless device is a smart router of the network. Wirepas has its headquarters in Tampere, Finland and offices in France, Germany, Korea, the United Kingdom and the United States. “Hannover Messe is THE industrial trade fair and we really cannot afford not be here. We are going to showcase our very unique technology focused on providing the most reliable, optimised, scalable and simple-to-use device connectivity,” says Sebastian Linko, Wirepas’s Marketing and Communications Manager.
The ability to flexibly optimise the connectivity solution to the needs of the customer’s business case and application is crucial to the development and growth of IoT based business. “With Wirepas Connectivity we are able to flexibly optimise the connectivity solution for the application in terms of power, bandwidth, range and latency. Our technology is also hardware independent – our protocol runs on any radio chip,” stresses Sebastian Linko. IoT and Industrial Internet are relatively young business areas with different technologies emerging, many of them in young growth companies. However, end users prefer turnkey solutions and a limited number of partners to work with. This is the reason why Wirepas focuses on creating partner ecosystems. “We believe that successful business ecosystems can be extremely efficient in terms of flexibility, scaling and value creation. We need device manufacturers, radio hardware, connectivity protocols, database or cloud providers, IoT platforms, analytics and system integrators. And we need these competences to come together and unite for a joint goal – the end customer’s business need,” says Sebastian Linko. He explains that exploring new business partnerships is one of the key reasons why the company is attending Hannover Messe. “Our business model is based on licencing and market access is always going to be through partnerships. We have some bigger partnerships in the viewfinder and Hannover Messe is a good opportunity to explore these, in line with our strategy: to focus on our sophisticated technology and on building partner ecosystems which enable turnkey solutions for end users. This is what we do and this is what we wish to further develop in the future,” says n Sebastian Linko. Industry Europe 33
