M2M Now Magazine July 2014

J U L Y

V O L U M E

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M2M Now: ISSN 2046-5882

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I S S U E

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FLEET & ASSET MANAGEMENT How can the mass market potential be maximised?

Telit’s Cyril Zeller explains why vertical integration must end for millions of connections to be made

AUTOMOTIVE M2M

SMART UTILITIES

mHEALTH

SMART CITIES

THE BLACK BOOK

Fast forward to connected vehicles Report out May 2014, Read it at www.m2mnow.biz

Communications integration in utility assets speeds up M2M Now Insight Out September 2014

Wellness is just the opening gambit in mobile health!

M2M Now Insight Out December 2014

Better lives not bigger profits push up interest in smarter cities M2M Now Insight Out February 2015

Five key industry verticals assessed by leading M2M/IoT analysts All in one book.

Out February 2015

PLUS: Oil & gas to reach 1.12m installed base of wireless M2M devices • Numerex buys Omnilink, TIBCO buys Jaspersoft • KORE and Robustel partner for industrial M2M solutions • Telit plans to eliminate lost luggage, children and pets • ORBCOMM offers M2M solutions to governments • Brazil to reduce M2M device tax • Peugeot Citroën launches FM for full range • More news at www.m2mnow.biz

P R O F I T

F R O M

A

W O R L D

O F

C O N N E C T E D

D E V I C E S

CONTENTS

12 TALKING HEADS

15

FLEET MANAGEMENT & ASSET CONTROL REPORT

42

INDUSTRIAL AUTOMATION

53 CLOUD FOR M2M

IN THIS ISSUE 4

EDITOR’S COMMENT M2M reaches its vertical horizon

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MARKET NEWS Brazil reduces M2M device tax; KORE Wireless and Robustel partner

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PRODUCT NEWS Telit makes lost luggage a problem of the past; Raco Wireless and Queclink launch development kit

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COMPANY NEWS Market consolidation continues with Numerex Omnilink and TIBCO Jaspersoft deals

37 M2M SECURITY SOLUTIONS Steve Hudson explains how Numerex’s acquisition of Omnilink enhances the combined companies’ personal emergency and response and judicial and offender monitoring propositions

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CONTRACT NEWS Option chosen by SimplyHome as smarthome market accelerates

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EVENT DIARY & OPINION What’s on in the world of M2M

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THE CONTRACT HOT LIST Gemalto wins Algerian ePassports deal and contract wins listed from Canada to Sweden

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TALKING HEADS Telit’s Cyril Zeller warns vertical integration could mean that service providers are missing out on a mass market

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M2M NOW INSIGHT REPORT In the third of a new series of specially commissioned Insight Reports, Johan Fagerberg of Berg Insight explores how the fleet management and asset control markets are dependent on business processes and enterprise IT systems to maximise their potential and uptake. The outlook is positive, he concludes

INDUSTRIAL AUTOMATION David Hofer explains why M2M provides enterprises with a golden opportunity to achieve better control of automation

53 CLOUD-BASED M2M Anthony Savvas uncovers the value of controlling M2M solutions in the cloud 57 ON-DEMAND CONNECTIVITY Nick Booth says complex logistical challenges must be made to disappear

Cover Sponsor: With over 12 years of unparalleled focus on M2M, reducing technical risk and shortening time to market for OEMs and integrators, Telit’s ONE STOP. ONE SHOP delivers all necessary services and products to connect assets to the Internet of Things. Whether sourcing single products or full end-to-end solutions, count on M2M’s broadest portfolio in cellular, short range and positioning technologies paired with m2mAIR services covering application enablement as well as deployment management & connectivity under mobile networks and over the internet & cloud. Telit benchmark-quality products and services are delivered with global support and logistics exceeding exacting requirements from customers large and small. Telit’s ONE STOP. ONE SHOP. delivers the Internet of Things made Plug & Play. Now innovate! www.telit.com M2M Now

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COMMENT

M2M reaches its vertical horizon So many M2M markets remain verticalised with specialised services serving highly specific user bases. That’s been great to get the market off the ground because the value delivered can be focused on a specific need. The business case for M2M is underscored three times and in bold in a market such as oil and gas in which equipment is stratospherically expensive and the consequences of its failure can run into thousands of dollars a second.

However, there are only so many pumping stations, rigs and pipelines in the world and that has meant only a handful of specialist providers have arisen to serve such small and relatively high value markets. What’s needed to kick off a far more valuable, high volume, lower revenue, market is a range of more cost-effective systems that are applicable to multiple verticals.

We’re already seeing this in the fleet management sector. Yes, the high end still exists and services to protect million dollar truck cargos will rely on more resilient satellite-based services such as those provided by ORBCOMM. However, as the company’s Marc Eisenberg points out on p.26 of this issue, a hybrid service using the best available bearer for a given situation can change the market’s dynamics. Traditional satellite-only services from a single provider might have cost US$40 per terminal per month in contrast to cellular services with patchy coverage for US$10 but hybrid services using cost effective new technologies can be sold profitably for around US$12. The decision process for users is simplified and the market opportunity radically expanded.

telematics market to be made attractive to the mass market. He describes this in terms of blowing the market wide open. That will be a shock to specialist vendors of bespoke systems but a boon to the majority of organisations that would like to access telematics and other functionality but are unaware or priced out of the potential.

Of course, it’s not just mobile applications that need to move out of their verticalised straitjackets. There are a vast range of organisations that need to achieve better control of their industrial automation. Again what’s needed is a standardised platform that can be applied to multiple verticals. Oracle’s David Hofert argues the case that such a platform should be Java-based on p.42.

Famously, US mobile operator Verizon takes its name from the convergence of vertical and horizontal, the M2M market is sending clear signals it needs to achieve the same thing, let’s call it horticalisation to avoid brand name infringement.

A similar view is held by Telit’s Cyril Zeller, who emphasises on p.12 that an integrated platform is necessary in order for the

Contributors in this issue of M2M Now We are proud to bring you the work of leading writers, commentators and journalists in this issue of M2M Now. They include:

EDITOR & PUBLISHER Jeremy Cowan Tel: +44 (0) 1420 588638 j.cowan@m2mnow.biz DIGITAL EDITOR Nathalie Bisnar Tel: +44 (0) 1732 808690 n.bisnar@m2mnow.biz BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR Cherisse Jameson Tel: +44 (0) 1732 807410 c.jameson@m2mnow.biz

Jeremy Cowan, Editor & Publisher, M2M Now

Johan Fagerberg is chief executive and senior analyst of Berg Insight. His Insight Reports starts on p.15

Freelance telecoms writer Alun Lewis assesses M2M applications in factory automation

Saverio Romeo, from Beecham Research chats with Jim Dunlap, the chief executive of Cycle30, about Service Enablement Services

Technology journalist Nick Booth gets to grips with on-demand connectivity for M2M services

DIRECTOR OF STRATEGIC PLANNING Charlie Bisnar Tel: +44 (0) 1732 807411 charlie@wkm-global.com

PUBLISHED BY WeKnow Media Ltd. Suite 138, 70 Churchill Square, Kings Hill, West Malling, Kent ME19 4YU, UK Tel: +44 (0) 1732 807411

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EDITORIAL ADVISORS

Olivier Beaujard, vice-president market development, Sierra Wireless

Erik Brenneis, head of Vodafone M2M

Alexander Bufalino, SVP, Global Marketing, Telit.

Robin DukeWoolley, CEO, Beecham Research

Baard Eilertsen, president & CEO, Maingate

Gwenn Larsson, director, M2M Global Expansion, Telenor

Andrew Parker, project marketing director, Connected Living, GSMA

Gert Pauwels, M2M marketing director, Orange Business

Bill Zujewski, CMO & EVP, Product Strategy at Axeda Corp All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be copied, stored, published or © WeKnow Media Ltd 2014 in any way reproduced without the prior written consent of the Publisher. M2M Now: ISSN 2046-5882

M2M Now

MARKET NEWS

Brazilian government passes legislation to reduce taxation on M2M devices The Brazilian government has decided to pass regulation reducing taxation on machine-to-machine (M2M) devices, a move welcomed by the GSMA. It means that SIM card tax on M2M devices should be cut by up to 80%, providing a stimulus for operators to develop services, such as smart metering, car tracking or remote health monitoring.

The fee cuts come from the Telecommunications Inspection Fund (FISTEL) – the Installation Inspection Tax (TFI), which is charged when a SIM is first activated, and the Operation Inspection Fee which is an annual charge on each active SIM.

“President Rouseuff’s decision to reduce this taxation is a significant move to stimulate the growth of M2M services and should be recognised by other markets as a very positive and forward-looking move,” said Tom Phillips, chief regulatory officer, GSMA. “M2M is a new market whose growth should be encouraged by government policies of low taxation and lighttouch regulation. Countries like Brazil that encourage the growth of M2M services will be the first to benefit from the social, environmental and economic opportunities of this important new sector.”

There are approximately 8.7 million M2M connections currently active in Brazil reports GSMA Intelligence, a figure that is expected to grow exponentially following this decision.

KORE Wireless and Robustel partner to deliver a range of industrial M2M Solutions Robustel Technologies, specialists in providing robust, reliable and secure connectivity for the M2M and loT markets, has partnered with KORE Wireless, the world’s largest dedicated M2M wireless network provider.

The resulting effect of the partnership is that customers will be able to develop fully connected, industrial M2M applications that work consistently and effectively regardless of location, without the hassle of trying to source connectivity.

Together the two companies have developed a starter kit which provides everything customers need to connect, develop, deploy and use M2M applications within the Asia-

Pacific region. It includes: Robustel GoRugged R3000 Industrial 3G Cellular VPN Router; RobustLink Centralized M2M Management – a web based portal, allowing users to monitor, configure and manage devices; KORE Wireless SIM with 30MB of data and 20 SMS to be used over 90 days; and KORE Wireless PRiSMProTM M2M Business Management Platform – allowing for remote provisioning, management and monitoring of KORE Services.

Vice president and general manager of KORE Wireless Asia Pacific, Shane Murphy, said he hopes that this kit will reduce the usual time to market associated with developing an M2M solution from the ground up.

NEWS IN BRIEF Aeris addresses roadblock to M2M and IoT industry growth According to a survey of M2M connectivity users, by Infonetics Research, service and support are critical considerations when selecting an M2M service provider.

Yet, while 71% of respondents rated this element as ‘very important,’ it’s a scarce resource.

Infinity Support, developed by Aeris Communications, provides the criteria that customers need for breakthrough performance in operational efficiency and solution uptime. Offered in three packages, it includes 24/7 support, 30-minute response time, proactive monitoring, and issue identification.

“Taking the complexity out of M2M is an important aspect to accelerating service adoption,” said Godfrey Chua, directing analyst, M2M and IoT, Infonetics Research.

“Heightened attention and innovative approaches to customer service and support, as well as the development of cutting-edge management tools, is a critical aspect of making this happen.”

Oil and gas industry set to reach 1.12million wireless M2M devices by 2018 According to new research, from analyst firm Berg Insight, the number of devices with cellular or satellite connectivity deployed in oil and gas applications worldwide was 423,000 at the end of 2013. Growing at a compound annual growth rate of 21.4%, this number is expected to reach 1.12 million by 2018.

Characterised by remote and inaccessible facilities, wireless communication is often the only viable option for transferring M2M data in this sector. M2M can be found in applications for monitoring and control of drills, wells and pipelines (upstream), as well as using cellular telemetry for the remote monitoring of storage tanks (downstream).

M2M Now

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PRODUCT NEWS

NEWS IN BRIEF Low cost, on-board telematics system empowers drivers eDrive Group is launching telematics devices to deliver cost savings and safety improvements to vehicle fleets by empowering and incentivising the drivers directly. MySafeDrive will send statistics and reports to fleet managers that should help to save money, and reward good drivers with offers from approved partners such as garages and restaurants.

Mervyn O’Callaghan, managing director at eDrive Group, expects the development to encourage drivers to operate their vehicles safely and economically through empowerment rather than enforcement. “Each driver will have direct access to their own statistics and data via a personal online dashboard, so they can see exactly how well they are driving, without feeling that big brother is watching over their shoulders.”

Development kit claims to provide everything needed to deploy M2M solutions for Fleet and Asset Management Queclink, a supplier of wireless M2M hardware, has teamed with RacoWireless, a provider of M2M data solutions, to offer a bundled M2M kit that knits all the pieces of the ecosystem into one seamless offer.

The kits include SIM cards that allow users to connect to Raco’s worldwide carrier partners across four different models of Queclink hardware: GL200, GL300, GV55, and GV300.

“Partnering with Queclink to deliver this innovative packaged solution takes down even more barriers to the M2M deployment process,” said John Hubler, vice president of business development at RacoWireless.

The GL asset tracker product series offers compact size products with advanced power management, water

resistance, and high quality GPS and GSM chipsets - making them ideal for a wide range of applications including: vehicles, asset tracking, lone workers, and even pets.

The GV vehicle tracker product line includes miniature devices built for a variety of vehicle applications. Again, a compact design allows for easier installation, and an internal three-axis accelerometer supports driving behaviour monitoring, making these devices attractive for insurance and car leasing applications. The devices can send reports including emergency, geo-fence boundary crossing, low power, and scheduled GPS position. The GV300 also features multiple I/O accommodating Garmin support, multiple sensors, and two-way voice support.

Lost luggage, children and pets to become things of the past Smarter, smaller fleet monitoring Zubie’s business solution could help small to mid-sized business with a smaller number of vehicles. Often, traditional fleet monitoring products are too costly for smaller firms, and can be complex to install.

Zubie’s new offering comes in at roughly half the price of competing solutions and can be installed in seconds.

Tailored for fleet monitoring and analytics, it enables a smart device to plug directly into the car’s On-board Diagnostics port to deliver vehicle and driving data.

Working on iPad and Android tablets, AlwaysSmart (always on and always connected) technology enables vehicle monitoring - even while parked.

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According to a report by SITA, 21.8 million bags were mishandled worldwide in 2013, costing the airline industry more than US$2 billion.

However, until now, the use of tracking devices has been tricky because of strict regulations regarding electronic and wireless communication devices.

Recominte, a leader in the aeronautic industry, has implemented Telit Wireless Solutions’ M2M module to its Tracer Tag. This portable tracking device has been designed to address technical concerns in the aeronautical industry by automatically shutting itself off when flying, then back on when grounded. A combination of GPS with cellular connectivity enables tracking with maximum sensitivity, even in challenging environments such as indoors and urban canyons, making it suitable for use inside a bag transported by train, vehicle or aeroplane.

And if you want to know how fast your teenager is driving, Swedish WTS has just launched the world’s smallest and smartest personal tracking device for children (and pets). Trax is a tiny tracker based on a u-blox’s GNSS receiver module with an integrated antenna and cellular module. It can be located anywhere, anytime via a free Android or iPhone mobile phone app. Providing realtime tracking and geofence alerts, Trax works indoors, is accurate to 1.5 meters, and can be located using a Smartphone’s built-in camera view.

M2M Now

COMPANY NEWS

Market continues to consolidate via acquisitions Numerex, a provider of on-demand and interactive machine-to-machine (M2M) enterprise solutions has completed the acquisition of Omnilink Systems, an M2M company providing reliable and intuitive tracking and monitoring to businesses, consumers, and government agencies.

The deal enables Numerex to expand its position in the fast-growing security and safety, and tracking and monitoring markets. The purchase price was US$37.5 million in cash,

funded through cash-on-hand and a US$25 million term-loan provided by Silicon Valley Bank.

TIBCO Software, is on a similar quest, to build the most comprehensive analytics portfolio on the market. The company recently acquired Jaspersoft in a deal worth approximately US$185 million.

Jaspersoft's commercial open source business model and embedded business intelligence suite allows application developers to embed highly interactive reports, dashboards and analytics into their applications. These tools give customers the ability to gain insight from multiple data sources and ultimately make better decisions.

The acquisition accelerates TIBCO's expansion into embedded business intelligence and reporting with the broad portfolio needed to address the two fastest growing segments of the business intelligence. Jaspersoft also complements the TIBCO Spotfire go-to-market approach through the use of a commercial open source business model.

ORBCOMM offers M2M solutions to government customers under Corp Ten’s GSA schedule Global provider of M2M solutions, ORCOMM, can now offer its portfolio to government customers under Corp Ten’s General Services Administration (GSA) schedule. Corp Ten is a provider of integrated GPS tracking and information management solutions for the federal government. The GSA schedule allows government agencies to purchase commercial goods and services using pre-negotiated terms and pricing – streamlining the procurement process.

The news means that ORBCOMM will market its M2M products and services, such as: satellite and cellular connectivity, asset tracking and monitoring devices, RFID tags and web reporting applications, directly to federal, state and local government agencies.

Kamal Sirageldin, CTO at Corp Ten

M2M Now

said: “ORBCOMM’s comprehensive product portfolio includes connectivity services from multiple networks and a broad range of tracking devices ranging from modems to complete solutions, which supports Corp Ten’s strategy of delivering a wide range of versatile, high-performance solutions to government customers.”

ORBCOMM’s M2M solutions will be available under Corp Ten’s UniTrac and UCAP device management and billing systems, which have become the standard for many government customers for enabling multinetwork, multi-device operations within a common framework. These devices can also be managed by ORBCOMM’s web applications which offer advanced reporting and analytics capabilities for asset tracking and monitoring solutions.

NEWS IN BRIEF Imagination and Oracle collaborate to enhance Java for embedded and IoT apps Oracle and Imagination have announced that they are working together to support the MIPS32 and MIPS64 systems. MIPS32 and MIPS64 architectures incorporate functionality including SIMD (Single Instruction Multiple Data) and virtualisation. These technologies, in conjunction with others, enrich the architecture for use with modern software workloads requiring larger memory sizes, increased computational horsepower, and secure execution environments.

The collaboration is intended to enhance Java for embedded and Internet of Things (IoT) applications and optimises the technology for the MIPS CPU architecture. Java is the foundation for a broad range of networked applications and is a global standard for developing and delivering embedded, web-based and enterprise content, and applications.

US$2million to develop devices that understand behavioural patterns Another firm developing the IoT ecosystem, Neura, has just secured US$2 million to further its cause.

The early stage technology company will use the capital injection, from Greenhouse Capital Partners and other investors, to develop devices empowered with intelligence that cooperate to understand the human element behind behavioural patterns.

Peter Henig, managing partner with the venture capital firm, said: “Neura represents one of the most exciting opportunities we have seen. The combination of a wide open market within IoT, exceptional technology created by a sophisticated team of experienced entrepreneurs and engineers, and the opportunity to apply connectivity, big data, and intelligence all within one ecosystem clearly represents the future of connected devices.”

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CONTRACT NEWS

Option's CloudGate M2M Gateway selected by SimplyHome as Smarthome market hots up Richardson RFPD has confirmed that Option’s CloudGate M2M gateway has been selected by Simply Home, a company that designs and installs inhome, wireless technology to enable independent living for aging and disabled populations.

The new approach will use Aeris Communications’ best network coverage (GSM or CDMA) available at each customer’s location, replacing costly, multiple fixed internet lines.

"Many of our customers are in rural locations, and we needed a data usage plan on CDMA," said Jason Ray, vice president of business development for SimplyHome. "The combination of the CloudGate and Aeris represented a complete business solution, allowing us to go to our customers with something that cost a fraction of their previous connection and was a 'no-

brainer' for them to switch."

The CloudGate M2M 3G gateway, for which Richardson’s design advisors provide technical expertise, is a single unit certified on all major US cellular operators. Richardson also offers a Cloudgate_QSK starter kit to get up and running.

In collaboration, with Orange Business Services, PSA Peugeot Citroën has launched a fleet management solution covering the entire Peugeot and Citroën line-up.

This could be good news for a new generation of Smarthome DIY enthusiasts. Shipments of home monitoring devices are forecast to grow at almost 30% CAGR between 2013 and 2019, according to ABI Research. Devices like Nest’s Smart thermostats and Dropcam’s streaming video cameras are bringing simple-toinstall, smarthome-DIY to a wider audience, and setting a new battleground for existing home automation players.

An autonomous telematics box (ATB) connected to the vehicle’s controller area network (CAN) bus enables automatic reports of precise, reliable data from the vehicle's on-board computers.

This information can be used by fleet managers to monitor each car’s exact kilometre reading, thereby scheduling for maintenance more efficiently and effectively. Further, companies can use location data to optimise each vehicle’s routing and meet customer requests for the closest car in real time.

Tracker partners with Redcaps Security Solutions TRACKER, a leading fleet and insurance telematics expert, is working closely with Redcaps Security Solutions to launch Road Guardian, a service for fleet and corporate clients. Under the new agreement, TRACKER and Redcaps combine a telematics solution with a real-time 24/7 camera to record and store video images, alongside vehicle usage and driver behaviour information.

Road Guardian also has a range of security upgrades, from theft to surveillance, from a security control room. The collaboration will bring insurers and commercial drivers a greater level of protection against fraudulent claims when an accident occurs.

Mark Thomson, insurance director for TRACKER said: “Forward facing camera units are becoming increasingly attractive for insurers and commercial drivers in a bid to reduce the likelihood of a fraudulent claim being submitted.

In addition to recording and storing captured video images in the event of a crash being detected, the system offers live view and remote download.

Road Guardian can take up to four cameras with audio for added security in the cab and goods areas. It also acts as an eye witness to any accidents or bad drivers on our roads.”

Musgrave protects frozen loads with RF alert system from Secureseal Musgrave Retail Partners GB, one of the UK’s leading convenience store franchisers and food wholesalers, has installed SecureTemp, the latest RF temperature alert solution from SecureSeal Systems. It provides a cost effective way to protect frozen inventory in transit between temporary cold stores and three UK distribution centres.

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PSA Peugeot Citroën launches fleet management for full range

The new fleet management solution, provided by the Peugeot Connect Fleet Management and Citroën Connect Fleet Management services, is available through dealer networks. The ATB can be fitted on new and existing vehicles, using the same parameters, for comprehensive management of an entire fleet.

TomTom Telematics is also helping customers cut fleet running costs, via a new service in Spain for leasing company, Northgate Flexible Renting. The NorthgateData service will use TomTom Telematics’ track and trace technology to help the firm boost productivity, cut fuel and maintenance costs, and respond faster to customers by giving them quick access to vehicle data.

SecureTemp enables the wireless monitoring of temperatures down to minus 25C at distances of up to 800 metres. A display-receiver provides Musgrave’s control rooms with a large view of current and historical temperature, and a range of visual and audible alerts should critical temperature thresholds be breached.

M2M Now

OPINION

SPONSORED COLUMN

locate, communicate, accelerate

Integration between verticals As an enabler and facilitator of third-party solutions Telit has a comprehensive view of the market and the various directions in which it is heading. One direction is obvious, the other less so.

The obvious direction is the horizontal integration of established applications with mainstream business applications; less obvious is the significant benefits that can accrue from integration between two vertical M2M solutions. The current issue of telit2market (p.85) highlights the horizontal integration of a stand-alone field service system with an electronic travel log. Devinco, a Danish company, developed both solutions, the latter as a result of requests from customers.

The author is Alexander Buffalino, the chief marketing office of Telit Wireless Solutions

In this issue of M2M Now there is an Industry Insight article on an innovative fleet management system developed by Tritavia, a Mexican company that focuses on industrial and business processes. In this case the country’s largest beverage distributor wanted to determine the respective cost of centralised versus decentralised distribution. This was a complex task and data on six process elements was analysed to determine the result. Subsequently the system was integrated with a third-party planning system and significant cost savings were realised. Details can be found on page 28.

These two use cases illustrate Telit’s commitment to facilitating integration across the M2M board: it’s an important component of our ONE STOP. ONE SHOP. offer, which is helping our customers boost business efficiency and realize cost savings goals. The offer provides products and services that allow organisations to wirelessly collect, process and respond to real-world data from connected devices.

EVENT DIARY Super Mobility Week 9-11 September, 2014 Las Vegas USA www.supermobilityweek.com

Auto Apps Evolution 2014

u-blox u-b b lo ox Distribution Automation Europe 29-30 September, 2014 London, UK www.smi-online.co.uk/utility/uk/ conference/distribution-automationeurope

22-23 September, 2014 Berlin, Germany automotive-apps2014.we-conect.com

Telecoms for Smart Grids 22-23 September, 2014 London, UK www.smi-online.co.uk/utility/uk/ conference/telecoms-for-smart-grids

M2M Summit Europe 23-25 September, 2014 Madrid, Spain www.gdsinternational.com/events/m2 m/eu/

M2M Now

M2M Alliance Summit 20-21 October 2014, Dusseldorf, Germany www.m2m-summit.com

European Utility Week 4-6 November, 2014 Amsterdam, The Netherlands www.european-utility-week.com

SARA-U2: S SA A RA RA-U2 U2: the th h e world’s wo o rld ld’’s smallest small lle le e stt 3 module 3G modu dule le

CONTRACT NEWS

Gemalto selected for Algerian ePassports Gemalto has been chosen to provide the Algerian governmental agency, Hôtel des Monnaies de la Banque d’Algérie, with its Sealys eCover for ePassports and embedded eTravel software. This is in support of the country's ambitious ePassport program, as well as to increase its

production capacity. Gemalto’s advanced production and delivery capabilities ensure the rapid deployment of ePassports - whilst enhancing the travel experience for Algerian citizens.

Gemalto’s embedded Sealys eTravel

software is ICAO Common Criteria certified and achieves industry-leading speeds for both personalisation and secure data access. As a result, the Hôtel des Monnaies de la Banque d’Algérie will benefit from improved personalisation performance and cost reduction of ePassport issuance.

THE CONTRACT HOT LIST M2M Now July 2014 It's free to be included in The Contract Hot List, which shows the companies announcing recent contract wins or product deployments. Email your contract details to us now, marked "Hot List" at <news@m2mnow.biz> Vendor/Partners Bell ID Dialog Semiconductor

Client, Country EnStream, Canada Cateye, London

EnVerv

Smart Meter Technologies Sdn BhD, Malaysia Hôtel des Monnaies de la Banque d’Algérie, Algeria Flaircomm Microelectronics, China USI, China Chang’an Motors & Geely Motors, China Oracle Corp, USA Advantech, Netherlands SkyBitz, USA

Gemalto Gemalto GreenPeak Technologies HARMAN Imagination Technologies Intel Gateway Solutions Iridium Communications KORE Wireless LogMeIn NetComm Wireless New Forest Communications Numerex Orange Business Services Orange Business Services

Robustel Technologies, China Verdeva, USA Kanematsu Communications, Japan Stream Communications, UK i3G Corp, USA PSA Peugeot Citroen, France Dacom, Holland

Product / Service (Duration & Value) Deal to provision and manage secure applications on NFC-enabled devices in Canada Deal to implement Bluetooth semiconductor DA14580 SmartBond™ SoC into Strada Smart Cyclocomputer Collaboration for advanced infrastructure for residential, commercial & industrial meters

Awarded 4.2014 4.2014 5.2014

Contracted to supply Sealys eCover & embedded eTravel software for ePassports

5.2014

Selected to integrate secure M2M for 'T-Box' telematics for car manufacturers in China

6.2014

Collaboration to develop high performance and low cost module for smart home sensor devices Deal to incorporate infotainment systems in leading domestic automaker offering

6.2014 4.2014

Collaboration to enhance Java for embedded and IoT apps and architecture Collaboration to simplify IoT deployment of connected, secure & managed applications Extension agreement for satellite connectivity to support remote asset and information management without upfront investment Partnership to further industrial M2M solutions within Asia-Pacific Contract to turn gas pumps into internet-connected transaction stations via Xively IoT platform Distribution of wireless M2M products to major export and telecommunication carrier customers Agreement to integrate Orion network into IoT-X platform

5.2014 4.2014 5.2014

Deal to incorporate management tools into i-tank bulk-liquid monitoring solution Telematics partnership to help fleet owners reduce vehicle total cost of ownership Contract to connect tens of thousands of devices in 30+ countries via Smart Agriculture M2M services Deal to market M2M products and services to federal government Collaboration to support for Zendai’s development of a smart city in Modderfontein, SA Partnership to enable connectivity for next generation IoT apps on Vortex intelligent data sharing platform Partnership enables turnkey M2M kits for fleet and asset management Three-way partnership to develop fleet management and diagnostic monitoring kit

4.2014 4.2014 5.2014

4.2014 5.2014 4.2014 5.2014

ORBCOMM PCCW Global PrismTech

Corp Ten GSA, USA Shanghai Zendai, China Red Hat, UK

Queclink RacoWireless & CalAmp Redcaps Security Solutions Richardson RFPD & Aeris Communications SecureSeal Systems Semtech Corporation

RacoWireless, USA DCS, USA

Sierra Wireless Stream Communications Sunrise Micro Devices TeliaSonera

Philips CityTouch, Canada Inmarsat, UK Wicentric, USA Landis+Gyr, Switzerland

Telit Wireless Solutions Telit Wireless Solutions

Recominte, Brazil TireStamp, USA

ThingWorx & Nippon Systemware Co. Thuraya Telecommunications Co TomTom Telematics

NTT DOCOMO, Japan

Collaborative telematics agreement combining real-time video, vehicle usage & driver behaviour data for insurers & commercial fleets Collaboration to replace fixed internet lines for SimplyHome system with Cloudgate M2M gateway 3G cellular connection Contract to install SecureTemp RF temperature alert system to protect frozen inventory in transit Deal to assist companies building equipment/sensor monitoring networks via 1st IoT long-range gateway Deal to embed AirPrime wireless modules for remote lighting management system Completion of integration for BGAN-M2M commercial service on the OaSys platform Partnership to offer Bluetooth Smart software for sub-volt IoT product US$10m agreement consolidates multi-vendor network into one single provider for global managed services Deal to utilise M2M modules in luggage tracking solution on land and in the air Telit HE910 cellular module selected for real-time monitoring of tire pressures and temperatures inside TireStamp TireVigil Partnership to provide new M2M cloud for Japan's largest mobile service provider

ViaSat, USA

Partnership to develop M2M platform with commercial packages for satellite M2M market

5.2014

Agreement to provide track and trace technology to help customers cut fleet running costs

5.2014

TRACKER, UK Simply Home, USA Musgrave Retail Partners GB KERLINK, France

u-blox

NorthGate Flexible Renting, Spain WTS, Sweden

Vodafone Vodafone

RWE, UK KONE, Worldwide

WirelessCar

Qoros, China

Contract to incorporate GNSS receiver module in world's smallest indoor/outdoor tracking device 'Trax' for children & pets Seven year, multi-million contract to become utility company’s total communications partner Deal to manage global M2M remote monitoring, diagnostics, & maintenance scheduling for thousands of elevators Connectivity module 'Dispatcher' to deliver connected services telematics data to QorosQloud for new vehicle brand

5.2014 4.2014 6.2014 4.2014 4.2014 5.2014 4.2014 4.2014 4.2014 6.2014 4.2014 4.2014 6.2014 4.2014 6.2014 4.2014

3.2014 4.2014 4.2014 6.2014

More information on these and other News stories can be found at www.m2mnow.biz

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M2M Now

TALKING HEADS

Vertical integration means service providers could miss out on a market of millions Cyril Zeller is the vice president of global telematics at Telit, which is working to assemble a standardised back end infrastructure for fleet management and asset tracking to complement its well-established portfolio of cellular and GNSS modules. A turn-key back end platform is necessary to enable service providers to focus on the front-end services they provide and blow the market wide open to a vastly increased number of organisations.

M2M Now: How do fleet and asset management solution deployments differ according to the size of the fleet involved?

they’re being monitored, they improve their driving behaviour. As a result, both fuel consumption and accidents decrease.

Cyril Zeller: If you look at the larger markets of traditional Telematics Service Providers (TSPs)in North America and Europe, small fleets are their key customers. Such smaller customers are looking for turnkey solutions to help improve and manage their return on investment and, of course, to keep their fleets under control.

The problem is that there are lots of small providers all with very vertically integrated solutions which lack flexibility. Whether a customer provides ambulance, taxi or garbage collection services, technically speaking, they all have similar requirements: their businesses are about moving people (or garbage) from point A to point B.

The market now is still awfully fragmented. In Europe and North America you have only a handful of TSPs that ship more than 100,000 pieces per year. With 100,000 shipments in telematics per year, you’re a giant. Of course, there are also a lot of TSPs shipping fewer than 100,000 pieces a year.

So long as the market remains as vertically integrated as it is now, it will remain fragmented and with a much lower penetration rate than it could achieve. What I mean by ’vertically integrated’ is each TSP building all elements of their solution from scratch and for a specific sub segment – taxis versus long haul shipping, for example.

M2M Now: Is that the main barrier to further adoption?

CZ: When it comes to fleet management, the return on investment is already well proven. In fact, it has become very obvious. Take driver profiling, for example. When personnel know

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Not so long ago most TSPs used to design their own hardware. Now there is a solid trend towards outsourced hardware. Certainly the availability of more choices together with price pressure is driving that change. In fact, that pressure has become so great that a small service provider can’t afford it. Or, their private equity backers won’t accept the cost and time involved in developing proprietary hardware.

M2M Now: What are the key considerations for those looking to create or adopt a new fleet tracking solution?

CZ: You have to bear in mind the different requirements of fleet operators and the requirements that are placed upon them. Maybe cost is their primary reason for adopting a telematics solution. Maybe it’s driver monitoring.

Maybe it’s to increase on-time delivery. Maybe their chief reason is to comply with a new law.

The key is to fully understand the principle metrics, adopt a solution accordingly and measure your return on investment based on those parameters.

For example, when you have a mandate imposing some sort of telematics box in a truck, no one wants to have two or three SIM cards – so the ▼

Obviously, as a company grows, people get more involved in the software and, instead of turnkey solutions from the TSP, they look for a hardware platform from a specialist supplier.

M2M Now

Cyril Zeller, vice president of global telematics at Telit

discussion turns into one about how to achieve regulatory compliance with the features the organisation requires all in one box.

This is where it potentially becomes quite challenging. Not all applications can be managed from an internet-enabled back end, and you don’t generally have telematics boxes running an open operating system.

Unlike a smartphone, telematics boxes can’t simply download an application in Java. That should exist in telematics, and may be coming, but it doesn’t exist today.

M2M Now: What are the obstacles to and drivers for adoption? To what extent do legislation and factors such as driver safety have influence?

CZ: It really comes down to what turned our cellphones into smartphones. Without Android, iOS and Windows CE, smartphones would still be cellphones – like today’s telematics solutions – only existed in a super narrow, vertically integrated, purpose built space. We would never have the proliferation of smartphones we have today. This must also happen to telematics because, as soon as you implement an M2M solution in your fleet, you will instantly generate new needs. Once you can track your truck, you want to manage the number of miles per delivery, for example. Standardisation and operating systems make it considerably simpler to add on to your existing solution in a way that is a perfect fit for your application.

There are, of course, differences to take into account. If I’m working in downtown New York City or London, it’s very likely I’d want real-time traffic information taken into consideration in my route calculation. If I see drivers misbehaving all over the place, I’d like a driver profiling solution to be embedded.

For the time being, solutions remain vertically integrated, so every time I want to bundle third party applications it’s extremely challenging, if possible at all. eCall in Europe will come soon and you already have electronic tolling systems. The eCall organisation has no problem with the eCall box being used for other services but the specifications of eCall have been changed a few times since it’s origin so its hard enough to be ready with the right box to be compliant without talking about the additional apps you would like to run.

▼

In the US, with the UBI solution for Fleetline, for example, most of the time, fleet owners that are interested are those that are open to new technologies – early adopters, you might call them. Nevertheless,they don’t want to have two separate boxes in their trucks.

M2M Now

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TALKING HEADS

What we want to do is bring together all the hidden pieces of that puzzle – everything the end customer does not see M2M Now: What does the future of fleet tracking look like? What innovations do you expect to see in the next five years?

CZ: I don’t see why telematics would escape the trend that is experienced in every high tech industry as it approaches maturity of greater standardisation. We were talking about cellphones becoming smartphones earlier, but a more accurate comparison is the PC market 30 years ago. We had proprietary computers from Amstrad, Commodore and Sinclair. They were all completely vertically integrated solutions and all those companies provided turnkey solutions including hardware, software and firmware.

That sounds familiar to telematics today. But if we are to learn from our past, we’ll recall that all these companies died with the introduction of Windows. Today, you see companies shipping millions of PCs or software licences per year – but almost none of them dare to do hardware and software together, with the exception of Apple.

solutions providers and box vendors go to market as fast as possible. We do that in two different ways.

For the most part, fleet managers are not wireless communications experts, which is why many end customers don’t really realise all the elements you have to bring together in order to build the complete ecosystem. If you want a fleet management solution you need: a box with a modem inside and a SIM card; then you need a data plan from a carrier; then you need an administration portal and a back end and a front end.

Fleet managers – consumers just like the rest of us – don’t necessarily have this vision because, if you are using a smartphone, you have the app and the device. You download it and there you go. You have companies like Google, Apple and Microsoft to build the infrastructure for you. But in telematics, there’s no one to do it for you, because there’s no standard operating system.

There will be connected vehicles as much as there will be connected homes. Those connected vehicles should run on open, connected platforms, which should be able to run any application you want either because it’s a requirement, it’s a need, or it’s a nice to have. For instance, if you deliver CocaCola in North Dakota you probably don’t need a traffic information app but if you’re in New York City, you do.

The value chain can be tortuous. Think of a TSP serving a few thousands customers a year. Often it would have to design hardware and take care of the quality and manufacturing of that. Then they’d have to do a deal with a carrier to get a good data plan before turning their attention to administering the management portal and building the back and front ends. Then they’ll need to maintain it all, sell and administer the services.

An important point is that there’s no killer app in the space today apart from the app you need at the time you need it.

In this description the front end and the box are the only pieces of the puzzle customers see.

This market will never feature 300,000 apps, but if you buy a truck you might like a choice of three or four fleet management systems, or a choice of insurance and roadside assistance apps. I can certainly see the need for 20-50 apps, but not necessarily more.

M2M Now: So what role does Telit have?

Unfortunately, this is very unlikely to happen if you don’t have strong adoption for an open operating system inside the platform. There are initiatives and organisations working on this, but to date there is no strong adoption. As a result, the market remains extremely restricted as people continue to build customised solutions instead. Ultimately, the price of the systems is raised dramatically by this fragmentation and as the savings created by fleet tracking become the norm, customers will start looking for new ways to save.

M2M Now: How does Telit approach this market?

CZ: The key message I’m trying to get across is that we must get out of our silos. If we don’t, we will still be talking about a few hundred thousand shipments, not the millions analysts predict.

What we see, because Telit is global and fairly large today, is that we want to leverage our horizontal experience and help

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CZ: What we want to do is bring together all the hidden pieces of that puzzle – everything the end customer does not see. On the hardware side, we want to be inside the box with our modules. We have a strategy of pin-to-pin compatible modules across all technologies – 2G, 3G, EVDO, 1x CDMA and LTE. When you have a box vendor selling 2G tracking devices in Europe but 3G in Australia or CDMA in the US, they can use the same board.

We can do the same thing with geo-positioning pin-to-pin across any available constellation and those to come. Plus, we’re certified with every major carrier.

In the software side, we want to be behind the front-end app so we can offer SIM cards, airtime and the admin portal, in essence the back-end platform.

We build together all these key points of the infrastructure so box vendors or TSPs can focus their resources on their core expertise: the front end customer experience. It is a first step toward creating a more smartphone-like environment in which the infrastructure is separate, yet fully in support of, the service being delivered. We call it ONE STOP. ONE SHOP.

M2M Now

INSIGHT REPORT

MANAGEMENT How can the mass market be better served?

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INTERVIEW

Satellites can be the launchpad for enhanced M2M services with complete coverage Speaking to M2M Now as ORBCOMM is preparing to launch its next generation OG2 satellite constellation, chief executive officer Marc Eisenberg, explained why satellite isn’t just an expensive alternative to terrestrial communications in hard to reach locations. Eisenberg, who joined ORBCOMM in 2002 and has served in a variety of roles before being promoted to chief executive officer in 2008, says the new constellation’s radically increased capability will bring down the cost of many services and bring it more in line with terrestrial alternatives.

However, price only scratches the surface of what can be achieved for ORBCOMM as the M2M market remains at a relatively early stage and huge growth is expected. As one of the few companies serving the market to have significant scale, Eisenberg says ORBCOMM will continue its strategy of build, buy and partner to grow further and serve the market comprehensively.

M2M Now: How will your OG2 satellite launch impact your M2M business?

Marc Eisenberg: We planned the launch for many years because we recognized the need to expand on the capabilities of our first constellation of satellites which has been running since the mid-1990s. Of course, since then there have been quantum leaps in technology but putting a new constellation into orbit is not the work of a few months.

First we had to raise funding for the new constellation and then work through technical and launch plans. We signed contracts for construction of the satellites in 2008 and signed the contract for the rocket launch in 2009. The first constellation of 25 satellites is fine but there are all sorts of new features that a new constellation can provide.

The new constellation will offer many times more capacity and higher gain. We’re really excited to get it up there.

www.orbcomm.com

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That’s because historically satellite services suffered from latency but with the ability of OG2 to deliver larger packets we’ll be able to offer something that nobody else has. Terrestrial communications have their advantages in terms of bandwidth but satellite has its strengths as well. For example, terrestrial providers measure coverage in terms of population, and satellite providers measure in geography covered. We also can offer excellent backwards compatibility.

Caterpillar, for instance, started deploying M2M communications in its products in 1995, and those are still working. The terrestrial market, in

contrast, has gone through many technical generations since then and that can be extremely painful for companies with items out in the field.

M2M Now: What advantages will the new constellation bring?

ME: A current OG1 satellite has one transmitter and six receivers but OG2 will have six transmitters and 48 receivers so we’re automatically at 12 times capacity. However, we’ve also drastically improved the protocol to expand the capacity. Once you have 48 receivers you won’t be able to fill it with the current business. You could track every tractor and trailer on earth.

In addition, we’ve created backward compatibility so the constellation will be available to the installed base, and we’ve added the capability of being able to service really large messages. We are going to slow the message speed down and improve the gain indoors – no one else is looking at indoor applications.

M2M Now: Satellite is known to be an expensive solution, does that hold it back in the M2M market?

ME: The reason that satellite’s share of the M2M market has fallen is purely to do with cost. If you look at the applications out there, the satellite price was always a massive barrier. For instance, if you offer tracking via satellite versus cellular, you’ll get 86% of the functionality of satellite for $10 a month. However, if you want to receive 100% of your messages by using satellite, the cost will be $40. The customer makes an economic decision. ▼

The new constellation will offer many times more capacity and higher gain. We’re really excited to get it up there.

M2M Now

Marc Eisenberg, is the chief executive officer of ORBCOMM

With OG2, which we’ll get launched for $200 million, it’s not going to be such a large economic decision because instead of $40, the cost might turn out to be around $12 a month. We think that will change the decision profile for the entire M2M industry. In addition, we’ll see more partnerships between cellular operators and satellite providers to support M2M projects. We’ve partnered with Verizon, Rogers and T-Mobile so we can offer multi-technology propositions.

M2M Now: What role is ORBCOMM trying to fill in the M2M industry?

ME: We’ve certainly changed our business model and now run two businesses. One is the satellite network business and the other is the services business. We operate them both so, through one portal and one connection, you can mix and match technologies. For example, you can get Inmarsat and AT&T on a particular price plan.

We’re enabling that because we see four key competencies being in demand in the M2M market. The first is network capability, the second is device management to help control devices, set locks and limits and provide bundles of airtime, the third is hardware to try and build platforms for use across multiple verticals, and the fourth is to create return on investment on bits and bytes processed through a web portal.

We’ve acquired six companies over the last few years and acquired Euroscan in the Netherlands which distributes in Germany as well. What a perfect opportunity that has created for Euroscan to bring its products to North America and to take our products and distribute them in Europe.

Earlier, it had been a struggle to sell in Europe because we didn’t have the support but with Euroscan we have 45 people in Europe to help us deploy there.

M2M Now: In addition to your constellations of satellites, what other benefits are there in dealing with ORBCOMM as opposed to other offerings?

ME: ORBCOMM gives customers the perfect combination to enable them to address their needs across multiple products.

We can service the whole gamut of needs, no one else can do that. Either ORBCOMM, or our partners have a product that will service the entire transport market.

We give such an incredible choice of options and can serve across multiple continents. We’re one of the few companies that has scale in this market and that means we can hit price points and deploy across multiple regulatory environments.

We’re a low risk solution with a great set of options.

M2M Now: What's next for ORBCOMM?

Lots of companies do these things but we can do one or all of these things for you in a far more sophisticated way than others.

However, we are a large-scale operation. We’re not very good at selling five units but we’re great at selling 5,000. Using our 110 technical resources, we like to build something customised for the market and large projects make that viable and valuable.

M2M Now: Why does ORBCOMM need to offer service from other networks?

ME: It comes back to the nature of satellite communications.

Customers want reliable products and need to hit their price points, and we need to deliver the best solutions for them. That might be a hybrid of satellite or terrestrial communications or it might be a satellite provider that covers a geography that our satellites do not. For instance, we partner with Inmarsat and that’s a perfect solution because we work at different latitudes, we market well in the US and Japan and they are larger in Europe. We want to give people options and that’s why we’ve done so many deals with partners.

ME: We’re going to grow. We’re very aggressive and entrepreneurial and have had a very successful strategy of building, buying and partnering. However, there is a still a good portion of the globe we can expand to and that gives us attractive room for further growth. Add to that, that we’re an acquisitive company, and it’s clear that we will continue to grow.

However, it’s not just about footprint and acquiring companies. We have an absolutely huge advantage in being able to provide our customers with a single platform that is backwards compatible. Caterpillar, for example, has its M2M offering built on one platform and, while its competitors were switching out analogue units, those in the CAT equipment still work.

The next step for us will be to work more closely with the original equipment manufacturers, and we are building our relationships in the plant market. Doosan, for example, is a dual-mode customer and uses ORBCOMM to provide both. It has one price for everything so all it has to do is deliver excavators.

M2M Now: What are ORBCOMM's plans for global expansion?

ME: We’ve got a build, buy or partner model. On the build side, we build products that we are looking to deploy globally.

In partnering, we’ve definitely moved forward, whether that’s with Inmarsat, cellular operators or with partners in Japan and South Korea.

M2M Now

Another key point of comfort for large organisations like these is that we share a similar scale with them. Last year we achieved revenues of $74 million and we are guided to generate $100 million this year. That scale means we are increasingly well situated in this growing industry and poised to grow further as the industry develops and matures.

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FLEET & ASSET TRACKING

COMPANY INSIGHT:

Big data meets fleet management Telit’s GE865-Quad GSM/GPRS module delivers fleet data to Mexico’s largest beverage distributor. Analysing the results facilitated the decision to restructure the delivery process. Mike Ueland explains how the value was uncovered.

An initial three-month trial conducted to evaluate the system was based on a small fleet of 45 vehicles operating in three cities. After the trial, Tritavia analysed the data and found that focusing on six key process elements could potentially result in significant savings. Today,

Tritavia is running the second phase of the project – using 400 vehicles in the same three cities to demonstrate real-world savings. The trial will be extended to 900 vehicles operating in additional cities by the end of this year.

Centralised versus decentralised distribution Fleet management systems provide a wealth of real-time data on driving behaviour and vehicle performance, but management of this nationwide distributor had a specific requirement. It wanted the various data sets to be analysed to determine the respective cost of a centralised versus decentralised distribution model. This is a complex task, and for the trial, Tritavia decided to focus on collecting data on six process elements: (1) stops; (2) driving practices; (3) vehicle performance; (4) unauthorised stops; (5) refuelling and (6) frauds linked to refuelling. Of course, Tritavia’s platform is scalable to allow more elements to be added in future. ▼

Mike Ueland, president, Americas of Telit Wireless Solutions

The leading bottler and distributor of soft drinks in Mexico employs a fleet of more than 8,000 vehicles and operates in a highly competitive environment. In order to evaluate the efficiency of its nationwide distribution and process management systems, the company’s management decided to conduct a trial and feasibility study at its main distribution centres in Mexico City, Puebla and Veracruz. Tritavia, a company focused on the implementation and improvement of industrial and business processes, supplied its SIAF (Sistema Integral de Administración de Flotillas) fleet management system, which uses Telit’s GE865-Quad GSM/GPRS modules to deliver real-time data from the vehicles.

IN ASSOCIATION WITH TELIT 28

M2M Now

Opportunities for cost reduction.

• Wasted idle time from longer stops during deliveries exceeding agreed standards; • potential savings from reduced number of trucks in the field and lower requirements for fleet renewal; • potential reduction in the distribution cost for each route; • fuel savings from reduction in engine idle time per vehicle; • reduction in emissions; • reduction in recurring speeding events; • observed fuel economy by truck brand and specific vehicle; • mileage tracking for efficient preventive maintenance planning; • operating cost reduction from curtailing unauthorised nap stops and; • refuelling stop frequency optimisation with fraud detection.

The initial results revealed ten areas where costs could be reduced (see panel ‘Opportunities for cost reduction’). In order to meet the management objective, the individual costs had to be applied to the two distribution models. If we keep things simple, but not too simple, it is clear that this involves various trade-offs. For example, the distributed model will require more trucks, but journey times will be shorter, so less fuel will be consumed. Moreover, being in closer proximity to clients brings marketing benefits. In addition, the lower operating costs have to be offset against the capital cost of setting up a new distribution centre.

The result of this big data analysis resulted in the decision to restructure the distribution and process management systems, specifically, to implement a decentralised model. The distributor now intends to demonstrate to upper management of other distribution centres how the solution enables comparisons to be made between planned delivery times and fuel consumption, and the real-world results, with the objective of having each distribution centre adopt Tritavia’s management solution.

Better planning: the next step Having realized the cost benefits of Tritavia’s fleet management system, the distributor, decided to focus on delivery times and employ a third-party planning system that collects field data sent by GPS devices and compares the results to the plans.

The main issue that Tritavia found was that the system uses standard times for planning deliveries. They comprise a fixed time – the mean of time based on previous visits, and a variable time – which would typically depend on the number of cases/pallets, but if these times were not correct, such as if they were out of date, then the planning would be incorrect and schedules could be disrupted.

SIAF delivers a historical record of all the actual times for each delivery. Therefore Tritavia developed an automated interface that delivers the real-time position of all vehicles to the planning system every 21 seconds. In this way, accurate delivery times are always used when routes are planned, producing significant benefits. For example, one route was using a fixed time of six hours while SIAF recorded the much lower time of three hours. This is significant because it means that the vehicle could have done another delivery.

M2M Now

Integration between the two applications has been completed in Mexico City and is underway in Puebla and Veracruz.

Tritavia’s own software platform provides a number of key operating indicators, including positioning in a Google Maps window, displays of geofences, as well as speed alerts, historical tracking, driver behaviour, actual daily mileage and fuel consumption.

In addition, the managers who supervise the operation of a group of vehicles, typically 20, get daily granular data on individual drivers. Integrating SIAF with the third-party system enables the supervisors to plan individual routes and to process changes or make corrections as needed. The granular data includes alerts that are activated when a vehicle has stopped for more than 180 minutes at a customer site, as well as when the vehicle has returned to the distribution centre.

Enhanced fleet management functionality It is worth emphasising that the solution delivers all the expected fleet management features: GPS location, tracking and security. The process elements that Tritavia has introduced are additions and the company estimates that every dollar invested in their enhanced solution will result in a five dollar cost saving. For a large fleet, the potential saving can be as high as $75,000 a month for a single distribution centre with around 120 vehicles.

While the primary objective of this rollout was to minimise operating expenses, the operational database that the solution creates and updates in real-time creates benefits in other areas. For example, SIAF informs supervisors on the real-time status of their schedules so they can make adjustments to achieve priority deliveries and avoid vehicles losing time at the distribution centre or at customer sites.

Supervisors can even inform large retail outlets about the estimated time of arrival, allowing the customer to have their forklift trucks ready to unload the pallets, thereby realising a fast, efficient turnaround.

"The results from this pilot demonstrated, with hard data, just how much savings are possible from the detection of bad practices in the field, fraud, risk reduction, availability and errors in process planning," said Fernando Corona, general manager of Tritavia. "Thanks to the reliability and functionality of the Telit GE865-QUAD GSM/GPRS module, and the success of the trial, we have an open invitation to present these results to all distribution centres at their annual forums, with the intent of implementing the tool in as many delivery vehicles as possible, turning it into a fundamental part of their distribution process.”

The integration of established vertical solutions into mainstream business processes is a development that has moved centre stage, as has the insights into those processes that are generated by analysing the data. Tritavia fleet management solution, SIAF, combines both developments and Telit is proud of its contribution. In addition, and it is a very significant addition, the company is committed to facilitating integration across the M2M board: it’s an important component of our ONE STOP. ONE SHOP. offer, which is helping our customers achieve their business efficiency and cost savings goals. The offer provides product, services and facilities to connect organisations to the Internet of Things (IoT), allowing them to wirelessly collect, process and respond to real-world data from connected devices, creating new efficiencies, revenue streams, as well as societal and personal benefits.

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FLEET MONITORING

Employee safety and security regulations raise the stakes for fleet operators Fleet operators and owners are challenged to ensure their vehicles and equipment can be operated safely and efficiently in isolated locations. Although more technology is available than ever before recent fleet management audits have shown there is substantial room for improvement, writes Ralph Adam

That is an extreme example of what can happen in isolated conditions where there is no modern technology. These, of course, were ill-prepared

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people travelling independently. But how different is the situation for companies responsible for equipment or vehicles in far-away locations where wireless communication is poor or non-existent, as can easily be the case in a desert, a jungle, mountains or on the high seas?

There are many important issues here. For example, how does a plant manufacturer or leasing company ensure it can pinpoint the location of its equipment or verify that plant and vehicles remain in good condition? And how does it check that the equipment is not being misused? What about monitoring health and safety to avoid accidents? None of this is easy; recent fleet-management audits suggest that the current situation leaves much to be desired. â&#x2013;ź

Here is a true, but very unfortunate, scenario.

Australia. Scorching desert heat: a farm worker finds the decomposing bodies of two men and their dehydrated dog. They are lying on a mattress underneath their broken-down vehicle.

The men had tried, it seems, to escape the burning sun. Press reports suggested that they had no idea they were near a source of fresh water; the remoteness of the location meant it took the farm worker two days to notify the police of his discovery and even longer for them to recover the bodies.

M2M Now

Advanced fleet management systems can use mechanical diagnostics from onboard computers to profile a given driver’s behaviour patterns

The role of audits An audit for the Canadian government found: • No clear fleet management governance structure for promoting good practices and providing support for managers to carry out their duties; • A failure to develop a consistent suite of directives, guidelines and procedures – and verification that procedures matched directives; • Insufficient – and often inappropriate – training given to employees engaged in fleet management; • The inability of staff to understand the differences between specialist and nonspecialist equipment; • Ineffective monitoring programmes for operational managers with little support for developing guidelines and tools to assist in monitoring their fleet’s performance; • Insufficiently frequent risk assessments – this should be a regular part of the strategic planning process.

One might add many other factors: for instance the need to encourage staff in distant locations to practise reflexive thinking to help assess their roles, functions and the logic of their situations.

Reflexivity can lead us to question the need to spend vast sums on high-value equipment in remote locations with poor wireless services. Communication with owners, manufacturers and maintenance staff in such industries as deep mining and construction remains crucial – if only to monitor the positioning of equipment and ensure that it is being used as intended.

may be better-suited to work in both northern and southern high latitudes – where it may not always be easy to get a good-quality GPS signal. Using GPS and GNSS in conjunction with one another is likely to result in faster performance with greater and more stable accuracy. They can be further supplemented by the use of mobile phone triangulation platforms.

Online software services which can easily be accessed via web browsers are increasingly popular; they obviate the need for user-installed software. Telematics is also becoming increasingly important for vehicle monitoring - ‘tele’ means ‘far away’.

Tracking the evidence How do M2M applications and related software link to enable effective fleet and asset management in high-value situations?

The software is designed to manage all aspects of equipment from acquisition to disposal. Individual functions may include driver, vehicle and trip profiling, as well as the monitoring of vehicle efficiency plus activities such as despatch – including job scheduling and the transmission of information to workers in the field. Active disabling is possible, too. Vehicle diagnostic information can also be related to a management site, depending on the type of hardware installed in the vehicles.

Advanced fleet management systems can use mechanical diagnostics from onboard computers to profile a given driver’s behaviour patterns. This works by automatically collecting and analysing data on, say, usage style such as average speed, detour frequency, braking patterns, and fuel consumption in order to profile the driver’s behaviour and to feed this information into a global data set.

The key lies in the availability of high-quality tracking services: the use of software that can easily and cost-effectively monitor a wide-range of in-vehicle features of importance to owners, manufacturers and service companies, such as distance and route covered, fuel use, engine diagnostics and the reliability of communication systems.

Drivers’ behaviour brings us back to that thorny issue of safety. The UK’s current duty of care legislation covers company directors as well as their drivers. Where road deaths involve vehicles used on business the police will treat every fatality as an unlawful killing; they have the power to seize company records and computers during their investigations. These laws are part of a trans-European attempt to reduce the death toll for road users and are likely to spread to more countries.

Vehicle-tracking is probably the most basic feature of fleetmanagement systems. M2M devices often depend on USsatellite based GPS (Global Positioning System) platforms.

GPS has become the premier platform type due to its wide use for position and location awareness. It is now an essential tool for both consumer and business applications.

This gives directors a responsibility under the law to ensure their vehicles, whether they are privately- or company-owned, are roadworthy and correctly insured. Every company, therefore, needs a Driving at Work policy in place covering vehicle operation, irrespective of the number of vehicles owned and by whom they are owned.

Also important is GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System), of which the best-known product is probably the Russian government’s GLONASS platform. This system can be valuable as a complement to GPS because its satellite orbits

With so much high-value equipment in use around the world it is obvious that safety and security need to have a high profile. Those Australians just could easily have been remote employees of your company.

Location, location, location

M2M Now

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INTERNET OF THINGS

The Internet of Things creates revolutionary changes in the applications of M2M One-to-one connectivity between vehicles, drivers and the office via cellular and satellite networks has been made a reality by the Internet of Things. Here, Craig Montgomery explains how tracking and management technology has enabled fleets to become more efficient and fight back against mounting cost pressures In Anytown, USA, big construction equipment roars to life as the sun starts to rise. Attached to all of the powerful earthmovers, dump trucks, cranes and other expensive equipment building the new housing development – including a new school and all other accoutrements of modern day suburban life — is a small device collecting critical telematics and engine diagnostic information.

M M2

A central command centre, miles away, is using the information to monitor its fleet and quickly respond to engine fault codes.

The construction project will proceed without a hitch. Picket fences will go up, and block parties will go on as planned with the power of the Internet of Things and GPS tracking.

Across town is an 18 wheeler approaching a supermarket with a load of double chocolate ice cream. Somewhere else, perhaps states away, is an office employee monitoring the internal temperature of the trailer to ensure the frozen goods will arrive perfectly. It’s no coincidence that the double chocolate ice cream will taste just as buyers expect, every time.

Further away, along the coast, is a large freighter ship making its way into port carrying, among other things, sheet metal and other materials destined for a manufacturing plant in Anytown.

A unique Automatic Identification System (AIS) has been continually monitoring the vessel's location and status well beyond the coastal region to assist with navigation and to improve maritime safety.

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As the ship glides into port, managers at the local manufacturing plant breathe a sigh of relief. They can keep their shifts working, their supply lines healthy and their customers happy. Again, it all happens because of the power of the Internet of Things and GPS tracking. www.orbcomm.com

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May 2014

For the past 14 years, ORBCOMM has been part of this tracking evolution. We were monitoring assets across the globe when they still called it the world wide web The author, Craig Montgomery, is senior vice president of marketing at ORBCOMM

Across the world, a delivery of fuel crosses the border of Pakistan into Afghanistan to supply the US military. A sophisticated tracking and fuel sensor device assures the fuel is not tampered with as a local contractor makes the delivery through the winding canyon roads that lead to Torkham, Afghanistan.

A troop of Marines from Anytown, and the nation at large, depend on the successful delivery of fuel to keep the Humvees ahead of the bad guys. The soldiers will stay safe as the war rages on because of the Internet of Things and GPS tracking.

The Internet of Things represents the evolution of one-to-one connectivity between vehicles, drivers and the office via cellular and satellite networks. Vehicles today are inundated with devices and sensors to capture critical, real-time information about assets, drivers and cargo. This information is sent in an integrated fashion to the right people at the right time to make the right decisions.

For all of this to happen, cellular and satellite communication platforms have had to come a long way in terms of power, bandwidth and coverage. Tracking devices have also had to become more compact and ruggedised.

Altogether, the amount of data that can be streamed to the office or literally any mobile device with an internet connection is stunning. The capabilities and options for deploying technology are immense. Functions that were unheard of only a few years ago, like changing the temperature settings of a refrigerated trailer or locking and unlocking trailer doors from a smartphone, are now expected.

Fleet and asset tracking is everywhere. Without it, companies like Amazon would have fallen by the wayside with ecommerce still being more of a promise than a booming, worldwide industry.

As e-commerce has grown significantly over the past 15 years, radical changes have been made to the delivery model for goods. Products must ship to consumers’ homes within days not weeks, making regional distribution hubs the only option to meet two and three-day delivery schedules. E-commerce has also spurred greater demand for transparency and dependability of status and arrival times.

Without fleet tracking technology, e-commerce would have sputtered for much longer and may never have achieved the efficiency and reliability levels to justify the business models and big bets made at the time by visionaries like Jeff Bezos, the chief executive of Amazon.

Fleets have also had to become more efficient to fight back against mounting cost pressures. For example, without trailer tracking, fleets had to have slack capacity – more trailers – to deal with the lack of visibility and potential unpredictability of demand. That meant more capital expenditures, more maintenance and thus higher operating costs.

Technologies like route optimisation in the cabs of trucks have helped dispatch operations effectively and efficiently adjust to

M2M Now

changing conditions and variability of driver behavior, resulting in lower fuel costs and higher revenues. Higher costs would have pushed the delivered cost of goods beyond the convenience factor of driving to the store – which was the initial business model of e-commerce — to get what you want at a lower total delivered cost with no taxes.

The real-time demand of goods has created new supply chain models. Inventory patterns evolved, and inventory turns dramatically increased. Warehouse cross-docking and long haul to short haul trucking transfers became critical.

Distribution centre designs changed forever as have retail stores. Omni-channel fulfillment is the new buzzword in retail and represents the blurring of the line between the distribution centre and the retail store. Selling and fulfilling have become synonymous with stores taking on more tasks traditionally reserved for the data centre.

To create a seamless experience for customers, stores are being asked to perform new processes traditionally reserved for the warehouse. To not lose out on a sale, stores let customers buy online and pickup in the store or buy at the store and have product shipped directly to their home. Omnichannel fulfillment has put real-time visibility to inventory in the supply chain in the hands of a floor salesperson or cashier.

Less-than-truckload delivery operations have become a key element in regional hub and spoke designs to ensure quick fulfillment from distribution centres. Long haul trucking has also had to become faster and more efficient to keep distribution centres and retail stores supplied with goods to avoid lost sales. The evolution of fleet and asset tracking technology has helped to enable all of this.

For the past 14 years, ORBCOMM has been part of this tracking evolution. We were monitoring assets across the globe when they still called it the world wide web. We were connecting business to assets and their location before the term Internet of Things was coined. Our technology can be found on the oceans, railways, roads and construction sites of the world. And just as the supply chain has changed over the past decade and a half, so have our solutions.

Our solutions now range from modems and development kits for our new OG2 satellite constellation, to full turn-key solutions for the transportation and heavy equipment industries. We work with the top tier one cellular carriers, as well as other leading satellite M2M providers such as Inmarsat.

We enable the tracking and monitoring of almost 900,000 different assets that span most of the world’s industrial complex and transportation systems.

From ruggedised and solar-powered trailer tracking systems to covert intermodal container tracking and theft prevention systems, we are constantly focused on solving the market’s needs. As an industry, we are on the cusp of something incredible. We have only scratched the surface of the power of M2M and the Internet of Things.

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SATELLITE M2M

“We are looking to grow our business beyond the boundaries of the existing satellite M2M market”

RacoWireless and Inmarsat – Creating a truly global M2M service through satellite An interview with John Horn of RacoWireless and Joel Schroeder of Inmarsat by Saverio Romeo, principal analyst at Beecham Research

Saverio Romeo: Since February 2014, RacoWireless and Inmarsat have joined forces in the global M2M market. What are the reasons of this collaboration? And how has it been so far?

Joel Schroeder, Inmarsat

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John Horn: RacoWireless wants to give the possibility to our customers to access our platform wherever they are. This enables the customers to manage their global connectivity from anywhere. In order to do that, we have

agreements with mobile network operators and fixed telecoms providers. However, those agreements are not enough because there are locations with no coverage at all. Therefore, if we want to pursue our mission and give accessibility to our customers anywhere and anytime, satellite has to be part of our strategy. This is the reason for our collaboration with Inmarsat. Since the launch, the relationship has been extraordinarily positive. Inmarsat is a very efficient corporation dealing with multinational customers in different sectors and in every part of the world.

Joel Schroeder: For Inmarsat, we are looking to grow our business beyond the boundaries of the existing satellite M2M market. A partnership with a company like RacoWireless allow us to reach a much wider customer base, many of whom have requirements that can’t be met by terrestrial networks alone, but have not yet considered satellite. Through RacoWireless’s multi-network platform, access to a satellite solution becomes simple – just another network option that happens to reach where others don’t. So far, it’s been a great experience for Inmarsat. RacoWireless came to the partnership with a pipeline of opportunities looking for a creative solution.

We have been working together to get their satellite business up and running, and ▼

John Horn, RacoWireless

In February 2014, RacoWireless and Inmarsat crossed their paths in the M2M market by establishing a formal partnership. Through its cloud-based Omega Management Suite (OMS), RacoWireless gives customers total control over its connected solutions independently from the types of connectivity.

Inmarsat is a very well known satellite communications provider with a strong presence in the satellite M2M market. At the time of the launch, the partnership between the two companies caught the attention of the specialised media because it highlighted the increasing importance of satellite for the M2M market. We have met John Horn, president of RacoWireless and Joel Schroeder, director of strategic developments, M2M and New L-Band at Inmarsat, in order to understand the reasons for that partnership and the impact that satellite will have on the M2M market.

March 2014

providing support as necessary to capture some of this new opportunity.

Saverio Romeo: What is your view on the current status of the global M2M market?

Joel Schroeder: As the market continues to grow into new segments and new geographies. It’s become clear to many that alternatives to cellular are needed to meet a wider range of requirements. Not as a replacement for cellular, but as an extension – whether it’s satellite, white space or other technologies that are starting to get traction in the market. I’ve noticed that more people are talking about this. A few years ago, M2M conferences were dominated by the mobile operators. Today, you see Inmarsat and its competitors not only speaking at these conferences, but you hear the M2M service providers and even the mobile operators acknowledging the need for satellite as part of an M2M ecosystem – a major shift in perspective.

John Horn: The M2M market has reached a turning point.

We are moving from the use of M2M for solving specific operational problems in specific sectors to a ubiquitous and strategic phenomenon. We see the use of M2M in several verticals, almost in all domains of our societies and economies. Probably, automotive and fleet management are developing faster than others. But, also asset tracking, digital signage, telemedicine and consumer electronics are rapidly growing.

From a geographic perspective, every region has its own pace, but Israel is leading the way. I would say that it is the most advanced M2M market on the planet. Certainly, Europe and North America are very important markets, but we see growth in different segments in different parts of the world. For example, M2M applications in agriculture and remote medical monitoring are getting momentum in Africa.

Saverio Romeo: The attention being given to the M2M market is growing rapidly. This momentum is bringing new opportunities, but also new levels of complexity.

For example, data reliability is critical for M2M development, but also global connectivity is needed as M2M applications are becoming increasingly international. How does the RacoWireless-Inmarsat partnership respond to these challenges?

John Horn: In the M2M market, it is very difficult to create a global strategy. Among other things, a global strategy implies different relationships with several carriers. This could be resource intensive. RacoWireless solves that problem with our platform which provides our customers with one solution and one interface to several telecoms platforms.

Joel Schroeder: Satellite networks like Inmarsat’s, generally offer a higher level of service availability than cellular networks, so in addition to providing extension to more remote and hostile locations, satellite can also topup cellular network availability to get customers as close as possible to 100% coverage, particularly for critical infrastructure and applications. For RacoWireless customers deploying on a global basis – particularly to very remote locations – the opportunity to simplify management of these sites can be realized by standardising on a single connectivity device, a single global network, a single SIM and one airtime rate.

Saverio Romeo: In terms of verticals and applications, in which ones do you see satellite M2M being more reliable and effective?

M2M Now

Joel Schroeder: Satellite is used across a number of vertical markets and applications, but particularly in the transportation, heavy equipment, and oil and gas markets today. It’s well suited to industrial applications that require a robust service that works well in a rugged environment.

However, we see opportunities in a number of new markets, including utilities, financial services, environmental monitoring – and automotive. As Inmarsat invests in reducing the size and cost of its hardware, moving to chipsets and core modules that are as easy to embed as those offered by mobile operators, the reach of satellite will increase as it becomes more cost effective and less complex.

John Horn: There are three application areas in which satellite M2M can have a strong role. The first one is oil and gas. The oil and gas industry is modernising the entire process from prospecting to distribution. Most of those activities happen in remote areas where satellite is the only available form of connectivity. The second one is asset tracking and management. Tracking very expensive assets moving around the world can be done only with the presence of satellite connectivity. The third one will be fleet management, particularly, for specialised fleets moving in remote areas.

Saverio Romeo: Looking at the market place, how do you see the coexistence between satellite and other types of connectivity, primarily cellular connectivity?

Can we talk about co-opetition – collaboration and cooperation – between satellite and cellular technologies?

John Horn: As cost of hardware decreases, satellite M2M can become more competitive. But, at the moment, cellular M2M has two main advantages. It is cheaper and faster than M2M satellite. The disadvantage of cellular M2M is footprint and coverage. Those are not issues for M2M satellite.

Saverio Romeo: In terms of future developments, which is the next frontier for satellite M2M in technological terms, but also in terms of applications and business models?

John Horn: As satellite M2M technology evolves and cost decreases, satellite M2M can have a strong impact in telemedicine solutions for remote areas. In those areas, there is a strong need to have healthcare provisions through telemedicine solutions. Satellite M2M can support those solutions, considering the absence of other forms of connectivity. I also believe that fleet management will continue be a strong market segment for satellite M2M. Saverio Romeo: What are the next steps of the RacoWireless-Inmarsat partnership?

Joel Schroeder: Of course, we want to continue to develop the market for IsatData Pro services together, growing Raco’s subscriber base. But we also want to do more, using RacoWireless’s M2M expertise and Inmarsat’s network. We want to reach opportunities that go beyond the traditional scope of satellite M2M, to bring an exciting and innovative development to the market that is something unexpected of a satellite network.

John Horn: At the moment, RacoWireless has business activities in 70 countries. We want to expand this footprint to all the countries in the world. Inmarsat is a key partner for doing that. Therefore, I see that the collaboration between the two companies will become stronger over the coming years.

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M2M SECURITY SOLUTIONS

Numerex and Omnilink come together to form a complete M2M value chain

â&#x2013;ź

In April this year, Numerex acquired fellow Atlanta, Georgia headquartered M2M technology provider Omnilink. The acquisition enables Omnilink to become a Numerex branded solution and brings greater presence in the personal emergency and response (PERS) and judicial and offender monitoring markets to Numerex.

M2M Now

An interview with Steve Hudson, vice president of business development at Numerex.

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M2M SECURITY SOLUTIONS

Hudson is excited by the prospect of continuing to find new applications for Omnilink’s technology in other verticals and to make use of Numerex’s solutions, sales channels and partners. In addition, he sees the two companies developing a portfolio of highly complimentary security, tracking and monitoring solutions to bring to market through retail and commercial channels through mobile operators and distribution partners that currently sell Omnilink products.

M2M Now: How does the Numerex acquisition of Omnilink affect the broader M2M market?

What kinds of changes can we expect to see in the market as a result of the acquisition?

that at the core of our solutions across all the disparate components such as device, network, user interface and support, that compose the entire service.

Steve Hudson: Both companies have been in business since long before M2M was an industry trend. Numerex has existed since 1992 and Omnilink was established in 2004, so M2M wasn’t even a recognised industry or buzzword when we started in this business.

One of the benefits of being in the business for so long is that we’ve been able to sort all of that out. We believe that focusing on holistic solutions is important – you can’t keep asking customers to figure it out for themselves. We want to give the end user something complete and we will work with domain experts, brands and channels that really understand the market we’re providing a solution for.

Both companies have focused on a high level of mission critical availability because, when you work with enterprises, you need to ensure security and scalability is sustainable. We have

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That’s valuable because we’re helping move markets forward by helping people succeed.

Success will breed success and keep the momentum of M2M moving forward.

M2M Now: What are the key synergies between the two companies, that combined, will see greater applications of Numerex solutions in the security M2M vertical markets?

SH: Security is one of the major business areas for Numerex and with users turning away from

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What we’ve done now is bring two veteran organisations together that approach the market in the same way. In M2M, it’s quite complex to bring all the elements of the value chain together in one approach. We have the DNA – device, network and application concept, which is at the core of all Numerex solutions, to achieve that.

This enables our customers to get the solutions they want and have their problems solved, because we deliver the complete solution.

M2M Now

If you can track someone who doesn’t want to be tracked you have got exceptional capability to transfer to other, more receptive, verticals

People at risk would be children, the elderly and lone workers. In Canada and Europe there is legislation for lone worker protection and we have a lone worker solutions programme to address that.

In addition, we have customers such as the National Alzheimers Association in the US and the Amber Watch Foundation for children. We work with brands like Verizon and Sprint which sell solutions in their stores directly to consumers that we power with our technology. That’s accretive for Numerex, which has sold predominately through other channels.

In vehicles, we have a connected car programme that helps parents manage a family of drivers and also supports a maintenance and diagnostics programme. We are the managed services provider for Audiovox’s Car Connection Program, which connects through an OBDII port in the vehicle, and has no wiring. Consumers just plug it in and it’s easily configured for use.

You can buy it from an AT&T store, online e-stores and Audiovox dealer channels which again are complementary channels for Numerex.

M2M Now

M2M Now: Describe the challenges involved in addressing the judicial and offender monitoring markets with M2M solutions.

How does M2M solve customer problems in these areas?

SH: It is unique in the sense that it is expected to work 100% of the time. Many solutions provide productivity tools, for example, but the consequences of failure when monitoring an offender outside a jail are far greater. We provide a reliable service that courts continue to use as an alternative to jailing offenders.

When we started out serving this market, the status quo was to have a passive alarm that triggered when a person left their house. That has progressed now to allow the person to leave home and go to work but if they went somewhere they shouldn’t go, such as near the home of an ex-partner in the case of a domestic violence offender, the alarm would trigger.

Omnilink through the use of M2M technology has incorporated cellular and GPS technology in a one piece device with a tamper-evident strap.

Our solution became indoor and outdoor and we enhanced that with our intellectual property.

We’re now able to locate people who are not in a fixed location but also may be mobile.

In contrast to companies that offer offender monitoring we have a pedigree from the security business, and our software was built to be exception based from the beginning. Everything we did was in real-time and we provided the ability to make it really easy to use.

If you can track someone who doesn’t want to be tracked you have got exceptional capability to transfer to other, more receptive, markets.

A lot of the features and functionality in our asset ID and tracking technology can be used for other verticals. ▼

landlines, many alarm communications are moving to wireless technologies which are a key strategic interest for Numerex. While we really understand alarm communications – consumer, commercial and fire – with Omnilink we now expand the category even further with personal and asset identification and tracking. In addition, Numerex is in the forefront of development with the latest security tools such as smartphone apps for consumers which allow home automation and interactive services and remote management of alarm systems, as well as installer apps which streamline alarm installations. At the same time, Omnilink developed its business focusing on offender monitoring and there is a huge market in that space to help reduce taxpayer dollars with a lower cost alternative to incarceration.

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M2M SECURITY SOLUTIONS

Omnilink had been a venture capital-backed growth company which sought a partner to help us get to the next level

M2M Now: What are the key products and solutions Omnilink, a Numerex branded solution, sells into the M2M space?

SH: Beyond the offender solution, when we entered the market ten years ago, the cost of data and devices was quite high. To keep someone in jail the average cost is $84.95 per day, whereas offender monitoring averages about $15, so when you compare it to other solutions, remote monitoring is of huge value for the customer. Moreover, the cost of data and network modules fits into a healthy margin proposition for Numerex.

However, since we’ve seen the component and network costs come down the technology is more applicable to many more markets that have greater scale. An application like child tracking is a good example. To address this, Omnilink built the Sprint WeGo product which is designed for children for whom a smartphone is not appropriate. It looks like a cellphone but has built-in security so a parent can input ten numbers through an intuitive web portal– essentially a white list – to regulate who their child is able to be contacted by and who they are able to contact. In addition, the device has an alarm function that automatically dials out if the child triggers the alarm.

For seniors and other family members, we developed a managed service for Verizon Wireless called SureResponse, which is a mobile Personal Emergency Response System (PERS) to help a user get in touch with a loved one or emergency services 24/7 at the press of button.

With permission, members can also log into a web portal anytime to view location of the device for additional peace of mind.

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When it comes to asset tracking, the same platform we use to monitor offenders can be applied. Up to $30bn of goods are reported stolen from the retail and supply chain annually, and it doesn’t take much to potentially lose millions of dollars if a truck full of pharmaceuticals is stolen, for example. We’ve essentially created a platform that started with offender management which can be tailored to address focused solutions for asset tracking of both people and things.

M2M Now: How does the scope and scale of a larger Numerex Corporation better position these Omnilink products for the future?

SH: Omnilink had been a venture capital-backed growth company which sought a partner to help us get to the next level. Numerex, as a public company that has integrated several acquisitions successfully, is a perfect fit. Numerex is a top tier M2M company, with over 2.4 million subscribers, strong growth rate, assets and respected leadership.

As any company scales up successfully like Numerex, it overcomes the challenges customers face, and the combination of Omnilink as a Numerex solution allows us to keep the same trend of being customer focused to address the market’s needs.

Beyond the people, talent and scale that these technology and solutions add are additional channels to market. A sort of cross pollination effect allows Omnilink products to now go into Numerex channels and vice versa.

I think the cross-channel and cross-product pollination will be huge and, as we go to the next level, the roadmap and outcome will be greatly enhanced.

M2M Now

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INDUSTRIAL AUTOMATION

M2M provides a golden opportunity for enterprises to achieve better control of automation Industrial automation systems take advantage of remote monitoring and diagnostics for process optimisation and operational efficiency. Increasingly industrial equipment such as robots and plant controllers are being shipped with embedded cellular connectivity. Analyst firm Berg Insight forecasts that M2M connections in industrial automation applications will grow at a CAGR of 23.2% to 7.1 million connections by 2018.

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The opportunity to generate operational efficiencies extends from machinery on the factory floor, to operations such as mining equipment in remote locations served only by satellite connectivity. It also encompasses partner and supply chain management and has the potential to enable organisations to rapidly arrive at the root cause of inefficiencies

or disconnects in processes.

Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s now clear, that if done well, M2M applied to industrial automation can generate improved customer experiences, streamlined processes and cold, hard cash. However, maximising those benefits is dependent on the M2M market continuing to mature, increased â&#x2013;ź

An interview with David Hofert, the senior director of Internet of Things strategy at Oracle

M2M Now

M2M Now: What are the benefits to enterprises in terms of increased productivity, reduced downtime and failure avoidance that M2M technologies and services can bring in industrial automation?

David Hofert: There’s now quite a lot of activity underway in the industrial automation market. M2M techniques such as cloud, big data and acquisition of data from sensors are highly relevant to organisations and everyone is moving towards improved processes, efficiency gains and more effective troubleshooting.

Good troubleshooting is more important than ever as Industrial environments are much more complex now. For instance, we’re making multiple, complex products out of different materials including more and more electronics and processes are evolving to reflect that heightened complexity. Sometimes a new process works well and sometimes it doesn’t. M2M capabilities provide a way for organisations to understand why.

It’s important to avoid the enormous mistake in any M2M space of deciding to collect every data point – just because you can – and rely on working out useful insights later. You can certainly collect phenomenal amounts of data but the problem then is to analyse it and get a meaningful result. Organisations must start with the end in mind.

For example, if I have one machine in a particular plant that keeps going down, I need to understand why it fails.

Collecting some basic data shows that it always gets too hot just before failure so that’s a clue of where to look further to determine the cause of the problem. It is

M2M Now

possible to draw correlations from environmental and machine performance data in the plant and that’s much more of a focused activity than simply connecting – and collecting – everything. There is a virtuous cycle of collecting enough data to understand a process and then reporting information on how the process is running.

Make changes, review more data, and repeat.

M2M Now: Which adjacent technologies can be deployed alongside to maximise the benefits? It’s clear that big data analytics will be relevant but how will the value of the data extracted be realized?

DH: There are many disparate influences affecting how M2M solutions and industrial automation are approached.

One important technique using the Internet of Things and big data is to try to bring enterprise data processes and IT data management techniques to the physical world. The multiple parties and players involved have to come together in a timely way to achieve that transition.

Oracle, for example, is able to use IT techniques developed over the last 20 years to help you look at information from multiple different areas and to bring it together into an integrated view so that your IT infrastructure can be managed effectively. That’s the same challenge and goal for industrial automation these days.

Of course, industrial automation is a fragmented landscape and each piece of equipment has its own issues. But when you try to understand a plant-wide problem, you can’t determine the root cause from one machine’s input. You need to create a broader way to pull information from a variety of sources and achieve a single view. This is more of a DCA approach than the traditional SCADA-only model. Either way, an important part of the total solution is to collect data and integrate it with your

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standardisation and ongoing efforts to integrate and automate.

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INDUSTRIAL AUTOMATION

IT has been working on this for a number of years and the opportunity here is for industrial automation to take advantage of the work that has been done in IT for decades.

M2M Now: So the architecture is at least IT-like?

DH: Yes, it’s all about processing and integrating data from disparate sources to provide a holistic view. In industrial situations there’s a concept of islands of automation in which elements of a process are considered separately. For example, car makers will have a series of production lines that ultimately come together and out pops a car. However, shopfloor solutions can’t comprehend the entire plant so you need to be able to understand the data from multiple systems to understand how an issue or change in one segment of the production process causes downstream impacts and affects the quality of the product.

At Oracle, we talk about expressing business intelligence out to the edge. We look at edge nodes – things like management consoles or gateways – to contain a greater amount of intelligence enabling them to make local decisions and report out not just data but information.

Obviously, I can collect the temperature of a part of a machine five times a minute and that’s great because I may need it for deep analysis on occasions. But what I really need to know in a timely manner, is that the machine is operating within set parameters. It’s useful to know if the machine is running properly – this is information built out of multiple data inputs.

To do this the local system needs enough logic to report

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back that all is well or that a component is getting near the edge of a performance boundary. For instance, if the temperature starts to rise it might decide to start sending raw data with the information so the situation can be analysed in depth at the back end as it evolves.

This model offers you local decision-making and locallyproduced information instead of reams and reams of data that is difficult to evaluate.

M2M Now: Industrial automation environments are highly fragmented though. How do you get data from one plant equipment manufacturer to integrate with the systems of a heating and ventilation provider, another equipment maker and potentially several IT systems?

DH: For us, Java is an important aspect of enabling crossplatform communication. It’s clear that more software is needed in everything we touch to enable the benefits we’re discussing. Our value proposition is that, if you’re using Java on platforms and consoles or smart sensors, you have the same programming language as you use in the back office, for big data applications and all of Oracle’s middleware.

There have traditionally been high walls between IT and the plant floor guy and the only way to communicate is to have a bucketful of data thrown over the wall from either side. Java can help break down the barriers and help you decide where that data should go.

With Oracle’s approach we create a platform that stretches from the shop floor to the back office and ultimately to the boardroom. You can migrate logic or applications wherever you need to and wherever makes the most sense because it’s all written in Java and it can run anywhere. ▼

back office systems. Ultimately the data and results need to have a business impact or else it’s all just statistics.

M2M Now

We see Java as a very important aspect of a solution because it means organisations can integrate various teams via a consistent language. They can develop the analytical behaviour of a complete system and evolve it – important since we all know it’s going to change starting day one.

M2M Now: What about the greater bandwidth that 4G/LTE brings? In what ways does the far more granular set of data collected and transmitted deliver real value rather than only the perception of greater value because more aspects are enabled to be monitored?

DH: Wireless broadband communications modules are very important to enabling the concept of sending information rather than data back. When you get past 3G and into 4G/LTE you have very good bandwidth offering you lots of flexibility in terms of moving data and code. Wireless connections also enable solutions where it may be too complex to wire everything together. For example, it could be too costly for a large plant to upgrade to wired industrial Ethernet.

One of our partners, Gemalto, provides wireless modules that run Java ME 8. Those modules provide the flexibility and capability to set up new solutions with existing equipment but use a communications module to run your business logic. It comes back to the model of having a platform where you can flexibly decide what to do and where to do it.

M2M Now

M2M Now: Who are the natural providers of M2M systems for industrial automation?

Where does Oracle fit into the value chain?

DH: If you’re starting from scratch to enable your factory for M2M, any number of systems integrators or specialists may be involved.

Oracle’s goal is to make platforms – platforms that are robust, secure and scalable because our job is to make it easier for customers and partners to create end solutions.

Providing a rich platform with Java, middleware, database, big data analytics and high transactional capabilities for the industrial automation market provides real value. Why? Because having all those pieces enables people to focus on their business logic and analysis rather than how to connect everything.

The value of having a consistent platform in a consistent language for the guy in the plant on the floor and the guy in headquarters IT is that it provides something solid to build on. M2M and the Internet of Things is ultimately a world of discovery. There is still much more that needs to be understood and optimised.

However, there is value to be achieved today if you think about how to integrate across partners, customers, sites and personnel.

Remember that these are very much the same problems that affect any IT architecture and the way to solve them is by achieving a consistent, stable, secure, performant platform.

www.oracle.com

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INDUSTRIAL AUTOMATION

Industrial operators go in search of a seamless operating model Industrial automation has been at the forefront of M2M deployment and seen many benefits emerge. However, that has left the sector grappling with legacy technology issues, writes Alun Lewis.

In this context, the many recent advances across a range of different wireless technologies provide manufacturers and the makers of factory plant with much needed flexibility in deploying connectivity across what can be a very difficult environment. On top of that, the range of legacy hardware and software that needs to be supported – combined with the need to often deliver mission-critical performance – is driving the increasing use of technologies like Java as well as products and platforms able to mediate between the different control systems and sensors already in use and the overarching management system itself.

Tim Taberner, Eurotech: Factory automation in the past has usually been pretty pointsolution and devicecentric

Andy Grimmett, Simoco: The ongoing operational costs of running M2M over a PMR system are generally lower than cellular

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According to Johan Svanberg, senior analyst at Berg Insight, “The combination of wireless technologies such as Wi-Fi, cellular, WirelessHART, ISA100 and Bluetooth can provide ubiquitous online connectivity at reasonable cost and deliver very high performance and availability. Industrial automation control networks are very time critical and connect through industrial grade standards and via near field wireless technologies such as Bluetooth and Zigbee.”

“There are a wide range of protocols for wired industrial communication including Modbus, HART, Profibus, ControlNet and Foundation Fieldbus. WirelessHART and ISA100 are the two most common industrial wireless standards at the control and field levels in wireless automation systems,” adds Svanberg. “In some applications and scenarios, control networks also connect via cellular and Wi-Fi. Berg Insight forecasts the number of cellular M2M connections in industrial automation applications to grow from 2.5 million connections at the end of 2013 to 7.1 million connections by 2018.”

Andy Grimmett, head of product strategy at

mobile radio manufacturer Simoco advocates using multiple bearers to facilitate M2M networks in these environments, integrating existing radio infrastructures into a wider unified comms platform.

“The majority of M2M solutions are deployed on cellular networks,” he says, “but clients with existing radio networks increasingly ask how they can bring together disparate networks to enable data to be transmitted and collected across a number of areas. Cellular is great, but what happens if there is a network outage? M2M networks by their nature often monitor remote operations where a cellular signal may not be available. In these instances a radio network can either be deployed or integrated, if it is already in place, to support other comms activities.”

“Cost is also a factor and companies with a radio system can leapfrog many of the M2M pain points by sweating their existing asset,” he adds.

“The ongoing operational costs of running M2M over a PMR (private mobile radio) system are generally lower with no data transmission costs.

Most sensors and Remote Terminal Units (RTUs) are network agnostic, lending themselves perfectly to a UC approach.”

On the platform or systems side, a number of companies such as Eurotech, Axeda and Forcam have developed solutions that take advantage of open source and cloud technologies as a way to simplify the integration of diverse populations of devices, sensors and control systems.

Tim Taberner, vice president of marketing at Eurotech, highlights the importance of the MQTT lightweight connectivity protocol’s role in creating an environment where devices and sensors publish and consume data – in ways that are appropriate to their specific needs. “Factory automation in the past has usually been pretty point-solution and device-centric and the protocols used have been very prescriptive.

Additionally, the types of data flowing around a manufacturing plant are going to have a wide range of different characteristics – security, the bandwidth required, delay tolerance and reliability.

Taking an open source approach makes it much easier for companies to future proof themselves – and as MQTT can carry a wide range of payloads including text and images it can be tied into a wider web services-based strategy. It also complements a recent encouraging trend for companies in this space to start forming flexible partnerships with one another, rather than continually going head-to-head.” ▼

When it comes to implementing M2M visions, the manufacturing sector can probably claim a head start. After all, it’s around three hundred years ago that some clever French weavers came up with the idea of programmable looms, using the first generation of punched cards to produce complex textile patterns. As always however, pioneers in any field also end up having to deal with legacy technology issues later on – and that’s one of the key things now confronting many manufacturers around the world as they seek to integrate different systems, technologies, protocols and standards into a hopefully seamless operating model.

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For Exeda’s chief marketing officer, Bill Zujewski, its strategy of providing their machine cloud service platform to major industrial plant manufacturers such as GE Generators and scales and analytics specialist Mettler Toledo means that they can gather information from a wide variety of sources and systems and readily use this to improve both plant design and operational effectiveness.

“There are very few standards in IoT,” Zujewski observes. “Using Axeda’s platform, manufacturers are able to spot when equipment is about to fail, ensure uptime is maximised, reduce repair truck roll and deliver a fix-first-time maintenance regime. It also supports manufacturers wanting to move towards servitisation strategies, such as a customer buying power as a service – rather than purchasing a generator outright themselves.”

Forcam’s chief executive, Franz Gruber, sees the main challenge of the Internet of Things in manufacturing as “Building the cyber-physical systems (CPS) – the means of collecting tangible production data on machine output, then visualising and analysing that information in a virtual frame,” he says. “This results in vast masses of information – big data

M2M Now

– that need real-time analysis, requiring in-memory data processing. One of the major design goals for Release 5 of Forcam can be expressed as 1-10-5-4 installation – that is, one central planning department, ten plants, in five countries, communicating in four languages. We‘re currently implementing such a system for a major auto component supplier that will eventually encompass 1200 machines in nine plants spread over the Americas, Europe and Asia” Gruber adds, “Release 5 is programmed in Java. This meets the priority for usability and goes hand in hand with configurability. With a little experience in Java programming, Forcam clients can adjust the screens and masks, define the reports, and adapt the interfaces and functions of the software to fit the application precisely. Because it is platform-independent Java is well suited to environments with a multitude of machine control interfaces. Clients with a global production infrastructure across the world need to have their production software adaptable to each IT environment and to each user. Java gives the ability to work across borders: in different time zones and in different languages with minimal effort in reprogramming the user interface.”

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M2M SUMMIT PREVIEW

SPONSORED COLUMN

M2M – from technology to business M2M solutions and the Internet of Things are helping more and more businesses to optimise their processes and to increase their efficiency. However, there is still room for improvements, especially when it comes to the exchange between the suppliers and the users of M2M technology. That’s why Europe’s largest M2M association, the M2M Alliance, has put the focus of this year’s M2M Summit, to be held at the Congress Centre, Düsseldorf, Germany on 20-21 October 2014. The theme will be: M2M – From technology to business.

For the eighth edition of the largest event of its kind, the M2M Alliance expects more than 60 exhibitors and over 1,000 visitors from 30 countries.

As in previous years, the congress with its accompanying exhibition provides a great opportunity to discuss the hottest topics in M2M communication such as international co-operations, uniform standards, the Internet of Things and the benefits of M2M in the Industry 4.0 sector.

The author is Jürgen Hase, second chairman of the M2M alliance

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“M2M communication plays an important part in our lives – at home and at work”, says Jürgen Hase, second chairman of the M2M Alliance. “With the M2M Summit, we offer manufacturers, developers and users an excellent opportunity to exchange their views on the latest developments and to get to know each other. Despite the increased interest, many companies and potential users are not aware

yet what M2M communication has to offer.”

The M2M Summit was a huge success with participants and exhibitors in recent years. With the partner country USA, the international interest in the event is expected to be higher than ever before in 2014.

In addition to the official programme, the M2M Alliance will offer guided tours in which the most interesting solutions and new developments will be presented. There will also be a user lounge to highlight the future of M2M, the Internet of Things and industry 4.0.

Participants can benefit from an early bird discount of 50 percent if they sign up before June 30 via the official website: www.m2m-summit.com

M2M Now

SES PLATFORMS

Cycle30 – Taking care of the entire lifecycle of M2M devices Machine to Machine (M2M) technologies are increasingly proving their abilities in solving important operational problems, increasing efficiencies and reducing costs. The use of M2M is spreading across different domains of our societies and economies. New service introduction is accelerating as new sources of data become available and users and service providers become more adept at understanding and harnessing the potential of M2M technologies. New applications are being developed using those sets of data. And, as different sources of data can be integrated and analysed, cross-sector applications are beginning to appear.

The SES platform market landscape is rich with solutions, and one of its compelling market players is the provider Cycle30 from Seattle in the US. With its roots in the telecoms carrier world, Cycle30 first

M2M Now

introduced a billing solution for Communication Service Providers (CSPs) in 2010. The vendor soon realised there was much more their technology could offer. As the opportunity to add value in the IoT market became clear, Cycle30 explored the space and, in response to market demand, decided to spin out a separate product called Mobius designed specifically for IoT and M2M. In March of this year, Mobius was introduced, delivering telecoms-grade billing and innovative device provisioning to the M2M market. Cycle30’s chief executive, Jim Dunlap, recently discussed the company’s strategy and approach with Beecham Research.

Saverio Romeo: Can you tell us how Cycle30 has developed to address this market?

Jim Dunlap: The heritage of Cycle30 is

▼

In order to more closely address such market trends, the M2M industry is moving from a purely vertical approach, typical of the traditional M2M view, to a horizontal approach, typical of the Internet of Things vision that crosses multiple sectors. In this transition, Service Enablement Service (SES) platforms are fundamental because they enable the necessary flexibility by providing a middleware layer on which to develop applications in the easiest possible way. Such platforms are also vital because they enable management of the increasing number of devices and the volume of data they produce.

An interview with Jim Dunlap (above) of Cycle30

by Saverio Romeo, principal analyst at Beecham Research

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SES PLATFORMS

strongly rooted in the telecoms industry. In fact, our parent company is a publicly owned, USbased telecoms and cable company. This enables us to have a unique understanding of how platforms for telecoms players should be designed in order to serve the customer in the most effective way.

because we understand the space and we’ve designed our cloud-based service from the ground up to scale transparently, always keeping ahead of our customers’ growth needs.

The billing solution market is largely populated by software companies developing billing products for telecoms operators but the operators then have to integrate the software solution with their infrastructure. That step is not easy, partly because that infrastructure continues to develop into new technological generations and partly because the operator sector is experiencing a wave of consolidation which sees mergers of companies with different back office approaches.

Cycle30 designed and developed Pivot, our billing solution, with an operator in mind and with the frame of mind of an operator.

Jim Dunlap: Our journey into the IoT world was prompted by a collaboration with Arrow Electronics. They strongly valued our billing solution, so they proposed that we develop a platform to address the machine-to-machine world. At the time, we were focused on telecoms OSS/BSS, but our close collaboration with Arrow Electronics was a richly rewarding knowledge sharing experience.

We explored the M2M market, its challenges, and the landscape of solutions available at the time in the market

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We then use rule-based access that narrows down the type and volume of data necessary for taking each decision. All of this is achieved inside a graphically rich user interface that facilitates workflow management and the decision making process. Pivot is ideal for mid-tier telecoms operators, from quad play to simple voice and data operators with less than two million subscribers. Part of that success is attributable to our expertise in facilitating commercial services, a key area of growth for our customer base. Our ability to scale and deploy services quickly is also recognised: one of our customers is running nearly $1bn a year though Pivot, with a mix of residential, mobile and broadband services, as well as commercial and satellite. We can do this

We explored the M2M market, its challenges, and the landscape of solutions available at the time in the market. We identified the key gaps, one of which was complex billing. At the beginning we thought we could adapt Pivot for the M2M space.

However, we soon realised that a telecoms billing system – used to metering services by data megabytes or voice minutes – just didn't have the feature set that the market was demanding: there were other areas to cover such as device management, diagnostics and inventory updates.

It’s important to note that this wasn't just our system, but all the BSS platforms that were trying to force a square peg solution into a round hole problem. No one was meeting the need, so the work evolved very rapidly towards a new platform, Mobius, that could deliver what the market was calling for. That comprises: a complete, end-to-end solution that addresses the entire lifecycle of devices in the Internet of Things.

Saverio Romeo: The current market landscape of Service Enablement Service platforms is populated by several solutions and many of them claim to offer an end-to-end approach.

How do you differentiate Mobius from these other platforms?

Jim Dunlap: I agree that there are several

▼

The key challenge we tackled with our solution was enabling an intelligent amalgamation of the large amount of billing data that decision makers have to use and analyse in order to take actions.

The approach has not been about providing as much info as possible on the screen, but providing the right data at the necessary level of detail for the specific decision that has to be made. The platform understands who is accessing data and for what reasons.

Saverio Romeo: Can you tell us about your move towards the IoT world?

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The second problem lies around the interpretation of what a device management platform should do. It should look at the entire lifecycle of the device, from on-boarding the device to how to monetise the device. You need a billing methodology flexible enough to adapt to different billing models and financial contexts such as changes in taxation.

In contrast, Mobius looks at the entire lifecycle of the device knowing that within the lifetime of that device, dramatic changes can occur. The other platforms were not developed with this view. Therefore, they are not flexible enough to face uncertainty and change. Mobius has been designed to include all the steps of the life of a device. It is a cloud-based solution and globally available. It’s flexible enough to adapt to different OEM industry verticals from asset management to automotive to animal monitoring, or for CSPs looking for a fast entry into IoT services, or even for other IoT-enabling platforms looking for a better back-office solution, in which case we white-label the user interface so it looks like the rest of their system.

Saverio Romeo: In your work, the role of diagnostics and data analytics seem to have a prominent role. Can you tell us about your approach to data analytics?

Jim Dunlap: Our platform gathers different sets of data – usage, diagnostics and device lifecycle data – and makes all this data available in realtime through our analytics engine. We care about the device performance, not the data the device is collecting, which is handed off to a separate application. We have a set of performance analytics but, we also know that customers want to run their own analysis and use it for their

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specific application development process.

Therefore, our data analytics engine can easily be integrated with the customers’ needs. That said, we are working towards the development of an application layer for specific sectors. For example, we believe our extensive experience with customers on the North Slope of Alaska would let us develop a better solution than what is currently available for the oil and gas industry.

In terms of the capability of our analytics engine, at the moment, it is able to run real-time analytics around the status of the device. However, we believe that being able to run predictive analytics over specific business questions is very important. In order to do that, we could develop this capability in house or partner with specialised data analytics providers.

Saverio Romeo: Oil and gas seems to be a sector that has your close attention, but which other sectors do you see strong opportunities in?

Jim Dunlap: It’s important to note that Mobius is a very flexible system that works across the horizontal landscape, but if we had to identify sweet spots, then automotive is a very appealing vertical. The utility sector is also interesting with several applications in smart metering, smart grid, energy management systems and solutions in the areas of water resources. There are many other areas to focus on, but the ones we want to address strongly are the ones that are more industrial in nature.

Automotive, utility and oil and gas are part of that category. From this perspective, the healthcare sector is also very attractive. We see hospitals moving from purchasing expensive surgical equipment to renting equipment on a usage based model. Healthcare providers of those solutions will then need M2M solutions, as will fleet management and heavy equipment tracking. Finally, because of our carrier heritage, our expertise with broadband and the fact that our system is connectivity-agnostic, we see a natural fit with smart home and home ▼

platforms in the marketplace and that many of them claim to offer full device management solutions. However, looking at these solutions in more detail, we see two main problems.

The first problem regards the user interface.

They are not friendly and effective enough to manage and take decisions over a large number of devices.

Cellular communications do not, and will not, hold exclusivity in the M2M and the IoT world

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PLATFORMS

automation solutions. We have pilots in all the sectors I mentioned, and I’m sure we’ll continue to see deployments in other areas we haven’t even thought of yet.

Saverio Romeo: Looking at the smart home space and, more generally, indoor environments, how do you see the coexistence of different connectivity solutions and how your platform supports multiple types of connectivity?

Jim Dunlap: As I said, Mobius is agnostic for any type of connectivity and any type of device. This point matters because the industry needs to be prepared for multi-device and multi-connectivity types of scenario. Cellular communications do not, and will not, hold exclusivity in the M2M and the IoT world. We are increasingly seeing the use of a variety of fixed wireless and wired communications technologies. We expect that cable providers will use their high-speed broadband infrastructures for M2M purposes. We also expect that they will roll out their own Wi-Fi network in order to integrate with their fixed one and expand their M2M offer. From the beginning, we knew we needed to be prepared for the unknown, and it’s already here.

Saverio Romeo: Can you discuss the current pilots and deployments of Mobius?

Jim Dunlap: We completed the platform at the end of 2013 and we launched Mobius in March 2014. Since then, we have had a very busy period with many pilots. I say pilots, but these are running on our production system, so they are very real. We expect to see them switch to commercial deployments in the next couple of months. At this moment, a precision livestock farming solution is using our platform. The solution monitors the livestock in the fields, but it also measures the health conditions of the livestock in order to increase productivity.

Solutions based on smart watch and smart shoes are also running on Mobius. We also have projects in fleet management, usage-based insurance, asset tracking and utility monitoring.

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Saverio Romeo: From a Mobius user perspective, what does the deployment experience resemble?

Jim Dunlap: Making the deployment process easy was a strong criterion in the design and development of Mobius. Mobius can go live in days without impacting the operations of the users. There are cases in which the deployment process has completed and Mobius is in operation after just a few hours.

Saverio Romeo: Please can you discuss your goto-market strategy?

Jim Dunlap: We believe that partnerships in the M2M industry are fundamental. Our partnership with Arrow Electronics has widened our presence in the market. Our partnership with Device Cloud Networks (DCN) is also significant. DCN provides connectivity, while we offer the device management and monetisation platform. In the case of Mobius, we see three go-to-market models. The first one is going directly to the service providers, the telecoms providers and the utility providers. The second one revolves around direct sales or through resellers into the OEM, such as an automotive maker. The third approach looks at the so-called platform enablers. These are M2M players with a large customer base dealing with multiple connectivity options that want to have an end-to-end platform. We address those directly or through resellers. On the Pivot side, our direct sales team goes directly to the carriers.

We thank Jim Dunlap for taking us into the life of Cycle30 and its approach to the IoT market.

Building on extensive telecoms experience and key partnerships, Cycle30 is offering an easy-touse end-to-end Mobius device management platform that addresses the entire life of an M2M device. Currently, several applications in different sectors run on Mobius and many others will adopt it. The solution is also evolving as Cycle30 introduces advanced analytics and application development solutions for specific sectors.

M2M Now

CLOUD-BASED M2M

Cloud can provide update flexibility and scalability for M2M management The control of M2M solutions through a cloud-based front end is coming at a steady pace, with expanding 4G mobile networks set to drive the pace even quicker, Anthony Savvas looks at the benefits Cloud offers enterprises and network operators the scalability and flexibility they need to update and manage M2M devices, as well as providing the online and shareable capacity to store the data collected from those devices.

response to the needs of the business using more efficient resource management.

This is extremely important as the number of M2M devices spirals and the Internet of Things starts to become a reality in the enterprise and in the home, and more and more data requires storage, analysis and distribution.

As the efficiency and speed of wireless networks improve, the ability of the cloud to control largescale device deployments will become more streamlined and cost effective for enterprises.

A cloud-based management platform that can be located at a single location can control multiple M2M applications, and can provide the necessary data analytics to get the most out of this data for the benefit of enterprise. This contributes to efficient business processes, cuts M2M operational costs and helps the organisation to make greater returns from its technology investments.

M2M devices connected to the Internet of Things and controlled in a cloud environment benefit from the classic scalability features of cloud. They can be increased in number more quickly in

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Although most M2M devices currently work very successfully over established 2G and 3G mobile networks, it is only a matter of time before organisations decide to garner more data from their devices using the extra capacity being promised by 4G operators. If you have a good data analytics platform at the cloud management end there's no reason why you wouldn't want to take advantage of higher bandwidth networks.

M2M change configuration settings, software updates, troubleshooting through device log files and device performance analysis can all be done more quickly through an automated cloud-based front end. â&#x2013;ź

Single location management

Taking advantage of speedier networks

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CLOUD-BASED M2M

What's required from a cloud-run M2M solution Authentication and security to ensure that data transferred between devices and applications is verified, authenticated and protected from security threats and malware Managed connectivity and device management to make

Industry M2M cloud alliances The delivery of such cloud-based solutions will be enabled through industry alliances across communications hardware specialists, analytics software leaders and mobile operators.

sure M2M devices can be detected, monitored, updated and managed over the air across multiple mobile and fixed-line networks, and across various mixed network operators Device data aggregation and analysis to ensure information - like temperature, location, usage data and other readings - is efficiently organised and stored ready for examination

Telekom launched its M2M Device-to-Cloud (D2C) offering.

DT said it was expanding its portfolio of services for M2M with ultra-simple data and device management through the cloud.

A significant alliance penned last year was between Ericsson and SAP, who invited mobile operators to join them in jointly selling one-stop shop cloud-based M2M solutions to enterprises.

To promote the type of cloud M2M ecosystem that Ericsson and SAP talk about, Deutsche Telekom also launched its M2M Device-to-Cloud Ready certification programme. This programme helps hardware manufacturers confirm that their M2M devices are compatible with DT's cloud platform.

Their offering combines Ericsson's device connection and service enablement platforms and SAP's HANA data analytics system, with the partners promising lower upfront costs to potential customers by using a software-as-aservice model via the cloud as part of the package.

Jürgen Hase, head of Deutsche Telekom’s M2M Competence Centre, says: “With our M2M Device Cloud, machinery operators can now monitor and manage their machines more easily with M2M."

Hans Vestberg, the chief executive of Ericsson, says: “Global M2M service revenue is estimated to reach more than $200 billion by 2017. This partnership gives us a chance to unlock some of that potential."

He says, "By using Ericsson's experience from the communications industry and SAP's from the enterprise segment, businesses will find better and more innovative ways to respond to customer needs more quickly. Building an ecosystem also provides our operator customers with a new way to address emerging markets and changing enterprise needs.”

A number of mobile operators have been brought on board

by Ericsson and SAP, including Telenor and Three.

And in a more recent enterprise cloud M2M move, Deutsche

Wake up and smell the cloud coffee Nestlé coffee company Nespresso selected Sierra Wireless to provide a cloud-based M2M solution to connect its Nespresso coffee machines used in restaurants, hotels, offices and luxury retail boutiques.

The solution, developed on the Sierra Wireless AirVantage M2M Cloud Platform and using the supplier's AirLink GL6100 programmable modem, enables Nespresso to deliver extended after-sales services by ensuring that the machines are maintained in excellent condition, and that they operate at the optimum pressure and temperature to produce the highest quality coffee.

Sierra Wireless worked in close collaboration with Orange Business Services, which provides wireless data network services for the coffee machines worldwide.

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He adds: “M2M Device Cloud will speed up the development and market launch of M2M solutions, and also simplify management of networked devices.”

Of the developing cloud-based M2M market, analyst firm Frost & Sullivan says: "Exceptional M2M growth will lead to an exponential increase in the amount of computing power required to effectively manage all that transactional data coming in from connected devices.”

"M2M cloud providers that can provide the necessary resources to application developers to help them get started with M2M application development and deployments with relative ease, are expected to see significant adoption for their services. A well-designed and appropriately priced M2M cloud platform can provide a cost-effective way to introduce new M2M applications to the market."

Marco Zancolo, head of the B2B channel at Nestlé Nespresso, says: "This solution will further ensure that Nespresso will consistently deliver simplicity, reliability and a rewarding coffee experience for our clients’ customers."

The programmable modems monitor the Nespresso coffee machines and transmit operational and business data to the AirVantage M2M Cloud Platform via the wireless network operated by Orange and its roaming partners around the world.

Emmanuel Walckenaer, Sierra Wireless senior vice president and general manager for enterprise solutions, says: “Nespresso now has a global M2M solution and a single software interface to streamline the technical support and business services it offers to its customers around the world.”

M2M Now

ON-DEMAND CONNECTIVITY

COMPANY INSIGHT:

Accelerate M2M and the IoT with ondemand connectivity Gemalto’s Benoit Jouffrey says these are exciting times in the Internet of Things (IoT) and Machine-to-Machine (M2M) marketplace because of a variety of innovations including selfdriving vehicles, car-sharing applications, smart office solutions and more. In fact, the sector has witnessed enormous growth in M2M connections of nearly 40% year over year according to the latest report from the GSMA. However, although connectivity technology continues to evolve and new data plans adapted to M2M solutions are being launched, barriers to growth still exist. when embedded components are needed.

Traditionally, the end user or service provider manages the process of physically inserting an MNO-specific SIM card – or MIM in the M2M context – into a connected device at the time of purchase, after deciding on a preferred carrier.

However, many M2M solutions and an increasing number of IoT consumer devices require the benefits and durability of embedded UICCs ▼

A long-time bottleneck in M2M development and deployment has been the complexity of providing connectivity for enterprise solutions that are mobile network operator (MNO) specific and that also work reliably across various geographic areas and networks. For instance, a global distribution company needs a different fleet management solution variant for each MNO region or country where it operates – making technology designed to streamline processes cumbersome to activate. It gets more complex

Benoit Jouffrey is vice president of On-Demand Connectivity at Gemalto

IN ASSOCIATION WITH GEMALTO M2M Now

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ON-DEMAND CONNECTIVITY

Solution providers greatly simplify distribution logistics by eliminating the need to ship MNO-specific device variants to each end user (Universal Integrated Circuit Cards), which are integrated deep inside the device during manufacturing to help extend product longevity for 10-15 years. As a result, a greater number of MNO-specific variants need to be produced requiring complex manufacturing and delivery logistics, tight margins for OEMs and, often, expensive roaming fees for implementers.

On-demand connectivity provides the key Imagine the simplicity of deploying connected devices and managing service plan changes anywhere in the world without ever physically touching a UICC. Where the specific credentials governing mobile network use are beamed ondemand to a UICC already securely-embedded in the device. This is precisely what Gemalto’s OnDemand Connectivity (ODC) solution achieves.

In doing so, it also provides an exciting opportunity for the entire M2M and IoT value chain to overcome traditional challenges, create new revenue streams and greatly speed and simplify deployment.

New standard, new solutions As the global leader in digital security with extensive expertise in secure provisioning for MNOs, banking cards and financial services, Gemalto collaborated with the GSMA and other industry leaders to define the specifications for industry-wide remote provisioning standards. With security as its cornerstone, the GSMA recently specified an architecture that allows the secure remote provisioning of MNO subscription profiles over-the-air on embedded UICCs. It is comprised of a secure bootstrap connectivity solution to initiate the process along with an advanced subscription management system. To allow clear separation between profiles distinct to individual mobile operators, fully encapsulated security domains within the embedded UICC are required.

Adding to the complexity, globally deployed solutions require a fully automated process that identifies not only the embedded UICC but also the country where it is operating before the MNO profile can be downloaded and activated.

Gemalto’s solution for simplicity Gemalto’s secure On-Demand Connectivity solution satisfies all of the GSMA requirements and when used with embedded UICCs, it greatly simplifies the supply chain. Comprised of three components including On-Demand Provisioning Services, On-Demand Subscription Manager and an On-Demand Provisioning Program, portions of the solution are already used by MNOs around the world to support service provisioning programmes.

To kick start the use of embedded UICCs in the industry, Gemalto is offering a dedicated bootstrap On-Demand Provisioning Service (OPS) to enable both device manufacturers and

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solution providers to initiate secure over-the-air provisioning. This bootstrap infrastructure can reach any global embedded UICC that is prepared for remote provisioning, regardless of the manufacturer. The OPS initiates a subscription profile download by sending a request from the On-Demand Subscription Manager directly to the embedded UICC, using HTTP technology.

With its On-Demand Provisioning Service, Gemalto acts as the interim provisioning service provider on behalf of the solution provider. After the preferred MNO subscription profiles and security credentials have been downloaded, the Gemalto solution follows the GSMA protocol for seamlessly handing off services to the MNO. From that moment on, the device operates the same as any other MNO-specific device.

The advantages of new specs The benefits of the GSMA’s new specs are multifold with advantages for stakeholders across the entire wireless ecosystem. Device manufacturers gain reliability and improved quality and durability of embedded MIMs without customisation impact during manufacturing. They also improve processes and cost efficiencies by producing a single device that can be used by all customers and with all MNOs. Solution providers greatly simplify distribution logistics by eliminating the need to ship MNOspecific device variants to each end user. And they improve customer service by offering simplified deployment with the preferred MNO partner via a process that is invisible to the end user.

MNOs gain customers, in this case connected devices operating on their networks, as the marketplace expands in response. And they eliminate direct UICC costs as well as the indirect costs associated with purchasing, ordering, inventory handling and distribution to customers.

MNOs can fully focus on their core competency of providing connectivity services to meet customer needs, big or small. And end users receive improved service and support from their MNO partners who can provide same day connectivity without UICC logistic-related delays.

Gemalto’s On-Demand Connectivity solution truly provides the security and flexibility to help the IoT and M2M market place reach its full potential.

Device manufacturers can drastically improve their production processes with only one embedded UICC as a single stock unit. And solution providers can simplify and fully automate deployment of their regionally preferred connectivity providers after the device is deployed and activated in the field. As a result, On-Demand Connectivity solutions are revolutionising cellular connected M2M device production and deployment, enabling flexibility in MNO services while simplifying manufacturing processes.

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ON DEMAND CONNECTIVITY

Gemalto’s approach to On Demand Connectivity is to bring unity by turning multiple products with multiple profiles for multiple locations into one product that can be personalised by the user

Complex logistical challenges must be made to disappear A lot of hard engineering graft goes into making technology look simple. On Demand Connectivity is a case in point and the process of creating open communications without compromising security needs constant fine-tuning, writes Nick Booth

It’s a battle being fought on two fronts, by companies like Gemalto and Giesecke & Devrient (G&D). These early adopters strive to manage existing M2M communication services, while designing new systems that will meet demand for services on the many new connected devices that are being spawned.

There will be at least $100 billion in revenues to be made annually in this area by 2016, according to analyst firm IDC. So, as other service providers are attracted, it is instructive to observe how the market leaders have begun to wrestle with the engineering challenge.

Gemalto’s approach to On Demand Connectivity

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is to bring unity by turning multiple products with multiple profiles for multiple locations into one product that can be personalised by the user.

Smart though a Universal Integrated Circuit Card (UICC) has the potential to be, it is only as intelligent as the company that programmes it.

Sometimes it is the functions that are left out that are far more important. The problem with UICC is that these devices have enormous potential – created by the copious amounts of CPU, ROM and RAM they enjoy – in comparison with SIM (subscriber identity module). Potential can be a double-edged sword.

SIM cards are a case in point, when it comes to security connectivity, because it is the immobility of UICC, in comparison to SIMs, that gives them the edge as a secure connectivity option.

If Gemalto’s strategy for On Demand Connectivity were to be emulated by later entrants to this market, there are three elements of its plan they should focus on. The company

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Before we can achieve mass adoption of machine to machine (M2M) communications, M2M must be made simple to use. With multiple devices and their multiple profiles creating some complex logistical challenges, today’s M2M pioneers will have to work very hard to make service provision look effortless.

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DEVELOPMENT ON-DEMAND CONNECTIVITY PLATFORM

a in s a int at i a m d th why o t is n an is is o go e t e h io g en nect le. T eds of th n l l ha con ssib t ne ign atio c h s o e ic Th ality imp oug e de ppl a h qu ply re t o th t sim mo in

summarises these as Embed, Connect and Value.

Embedding the software provides the foundation for Gemalto’s management system to take over and run more complex operations on the device.

Today that might mean that, for example, security cameras can be manipulated more skillfully, so that intruders can be automatically detected and followed. This is where integration is vital, as software within the camera – which allows the machine to detect motion, then switch itself on and focus on an individual – has to interact with intelligence built into the SIM. The net effect is that only the most alarming images (when an intruder is detected) are recorded and transmitted.

This is one example of how intelligence built into the machines and integrated by Gemalto ensures that they act more intelligently and don’t waste resources by committing absolutely everything to storage and the network.

In the future, M2M interaction will become a lot more complex.

Gemalto recently demonstrated its systems for automating emergency vehicles. Delegates at the recent ITS European Congress in Helsinki were shown how millions more drivers could be kept safe in the near future. Devices were shown to be able to detect if the vehicle they were embedded in had been in an incident, and were able to negotiate a number of different systems in order to automatically summon the police and ambulances.

“This is a great example of how M2M can find practical uses within the automotive industry, but it is far from the only one,” says Manfred Kube, head of M2M segment marketing at Gemalto.

“One could argue that transport is the sector in which M2M technology stands to make the biggest difference in the years ahead.”

With car-sharing and peer-to-peer car hire schemes near to adoption, it’s vital that these location-based applications are secured.

The managing of subscriptions will be equally important to the success of M2M, says Kube, not least the management of the very data plans and comms charges that ensure devices are constantly

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available. They don’t have to be constantly connected and broadcasting, but they do have to be constantly available for connection and broadcast.

There are many potential pitfalls that new vendors have to be aware of, says Lee Cottle, the vice president of global alliances at Push Technology. “The challenge is to maintain a quality connection and that is simply impossible.

This is why more thought needs to go into the design of the application,” he says.

Any new system builders need to create bandwidth-efficient, network tolerant applications, he says. This involves minimising the data being sent or received prior to it even hitting the network. “Failure to do this causes a lot of unnecessary chatter and this uses up your data plan and clogs the network,” says Cottle.

One of the keys to understanding the advantages of embedded UICC is not to focus at first on the differences from SIMs, but to focus on the similarities, says Professor Jon Howes, technology director at Beecham Research. Both are based on the same certified hardware secure element, which creates the same levels of security.

TTe security features in the embedded UICC are extremely important to suppliers like Gemalto and G&D and are areas of strong expertise for them, as they can offer services like remote provisioning and related reprogramming while playing on those security strengths, he says.

Like any sort of security service, these features cannot offer absolute protection and there is always the possibility they can be circumvented.

“But that is true of all security however implemented,” says Howes. Right-sizing the security offered in an M2M solution is always going to involve a trade off, but that it because there is so much you can do and so much time that can be spent on it. Where does one end?

“It depends on costs, profit margins, usability, the real threats, the quantified risks and much more,” he adds.

The new approaches using embedded UICC offer a very well structured and strongly protected approach to deliver secure and convenient services.

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mHEALTH SUMMIT PREVIEW

Where the World Comes to Connect:

mHealth Summit 2014 In a time of global healthcare crisis and technology convergence, mHealth holds the promise to transform both personal and population health to improve health access and outcomes and reduce overall costs. We are now approaching a tipping point, where mHealth is coming of age and allowing wellness and healthcare delivery to change at an exponential pace.

The 2014 mHealth Summit remains the premier international event sitting at the centre of this new disruptive healthcare delivery model. The summit is committed to advancing knowledge, facilitating collaboration and supporting the use of mobile and connected health technologies for improved health access while reducing costs. In keeping with this mission, the mHealth Summit recently joined forces with the Continua Health Alliance to form the Personal Connected Health Alliance. This will operate as in independent organisation under the HIMSS umbrella.

The Personal Connected Health Alliance is focused on generating greater awareness and providing a global marketplace for plug-and-play, consumer-friendly personal health technology solutions that empower individuals to better manage their health and wellness, anywhere at any time. This year’s mHealth Summit will deliver expanded learning and networking opportunities as well as new special market-specific events around the world.

Topics will range from wellness, fitness, disease management and the consumerisation of healthcare delivery to population health, clinical trials, emergency services, public health, healthcare access and disparities, regulation as well as investment and deal making opportunities.

As the largest event of its kind, the mHealth Summit convenes a uniquely diverse domestic and international delegation. This includes government leaders focused on healthcare technology and public health and safety; policymakers; academic researchers and students; healthcare providers and payers; Pharma; and NGOs and patient advocates from across mobile and connected health; to technology research centres, private companies; startups, entrepreneurs; investors; chief innovation officers and business leaders.

The mHealth Summit connects passionate people who are disrupting traditional models to meet the new demands of a changing marketplace. With more than 400 cutting-edge exhibitors and sponsors, six keynote presentations, over 100 moderated panels, fireside chats, roundtables, interactive sessions and networking events, the

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mHealth Summit enables uncovering new products, technologies and evidence-based outcomes to inspire new ideas and models that will lead to transformative disruption. Co-located events round out the overall experience and they will delve into cutting-edge topics and on-thefloor showcases ranging from Games for Health and the role of gamification, the Intelligent Medical Home and WIPJam for developers, to a pharma roundtable, M2M Now workshop and the Continua Health Alliance Member Summit.

Another major addition to this year’s programme is the Global mHealth Forum, a co-located event resulting from the mHealth Summit’s partnership with the mHealth Working Group and USAID .

This Forum will focus on mobile and connected health in low and middle income countries (LMICs), and will bring together public and private sector organisations to share the latest evidence, experiences and lessons learned on new applications and approaches in mHealth. A Global mHealth pavilion on the exhibit floor, will complement this Global mHealth Forum, and provide a showcase of innovative NGOs, foundations, government agencies, universities and corporate collaborations that are utilising mHealth to improve outcomes in low and middle income countries.

The author is Richard Scarfo, director of mHealth Summit and vice president at the Personal Connected Health Alliance (PCHA)

The mHealth Summit is the venue for keeping informed; getting ahead and discovering new solutions through dialogue with stakeholders you can’t meet anywhere else.

We hope you will join us as one of over 5,500 attendees, or take advantage of the new and exciting opportunities for exhibitors and sponsors.

We also invite you to submit presentation abstracts in the following topic areas: mHealth information management and deployment, Global mHealth Forum, mobile operators and partners, consumer perspectives, policy and regulation, mHealth and the provider, life sciences horizons, public health and safety, new business opportunities and investment approaches, international mHealth in developed economies, and 'outside the box' firsts in research, mobile and connected health programme and technologies.

SAVE THE DATE: 7-11 December 2014 Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center (just outside Washington, DC)

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THE BACK PAGE

A bar that never runs dry – we’ll drink to that!

One of the delights of reporting on and covering developments in the M2M sector is in encountering deployments of M2M technologies and systems in weird and wonderful situations that are of true benefit to mankind.

Even after completing a busy issue of the magazine, M2M solutions are still proving their worth – at least for customers in Switzerland. The editorial team may be last to the bar but there’s no danger of the drinks running out thanks to beer tanks in the country being equipped with M2M technology that automatically places an order when levels run low.

The Feldschlösschen Beverages Group recently introduced an end-to-end M2M solution from the Swisscom M2M Centre of Competence that enables its Swiss customers to maintain their beer tanks more efficiently and to submit exact and timely orders for new deliveries. The tanks themselves instantly trigger new orders when levels get low.

tanks themselves instantly trigger new orders when levels get low

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Feldschlösschen Beverages Group supplies catering establishments and hotels with a selection of different beer brands.

Feldschlösschen is employing M2M technology at over 300 of its biggest clients in Switzerland.

Sensors measure the filling level, temperature and pressure at the customer’s premises. The data are regularly synchronised with ‘myBeer’, an application developed specially for Feldschlösschen, using M2M technology. Simply

by glancing at their tablet or smartphone, restaurateurs can see how their system is performing and react immediately should there be a temperature increase or fall in pressure.

The current filling level can also be viewed in real time. Owners previously needed to check their beer tanks daily, which was not only timeconsuming and required specialist know-how, but also meant that the filling level could not be precisely determined, which led to imprecise ordering. The M2M solution from Swisscom means that the tanks themselves can recognise when the beer is running low and instantly trigger a new order.

“Thanks to the M2M solution from Swisscom, we can also fulfil one of our customers’ greatest wishes – and hopefully we’ll soon be able to do so throughout Europe,” says Manfred Weiss, services director at the Feldschlösschen Beverages Group which produces 340 million litres of beer and mineral water each year at its three production plants.

There are a range of other benefits to the system such as more efficient deliveries but having beer always on tap and kept at the perfect temperature, seems a winning app.

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A NEW DAY IN M2M HAS ARRIVED.

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