The age of the Industrial Internet of Things opens a better pathway for OEMs to provide enhanced remote service. However, words such as “Internet” and “remote” conjure visions of cybersecurity holes in the minds of IT professionals.
It seems as if every few months for years as I scanned my contact list looking for someone, I’d see the card for Spencer Cramer, founder and CEO of ei3 and wonder what he was up to. Then a couple of weeks ago I heard from Mark Fondl, an industry friend over many years, who told me I needed to talk with Cramer and he set up a call.
ei3 has been busy over the years. Its technology can be found in more than 5,000 factories connecting to more than 20,000 machines. Typical installation is through the machine OEM giving them a secure channel into the machines they’ve sold. Cramer tells me they call it “secured remote services.”
Without diving into specifics, the gist of the service is allowing only a single point of entry through the corporate firewall. Consolidating all OT connections through a single point make IT happier. Meanwhile, the operations technology people—engineers, maintenance, operators—are able to control connections to equipment. It’s a way of creating happiness for both sides of the famous IT/OT divide.
Then I got the news that ei3 announces next phase of European expansion by completing acquisition of Copenhagen-based NextIOT. With two bases in Europe, ei3 is able to address strong demand for IIoT services in Europe with growing onshore, multilingual team
As part of the acquisition, NextIOT is being renamed “ei3 Denmark ApS” and will join ei3’s existing Switzerland-based data science team as ei3’s European operations.
By acquiring NextIOT ei3 is now able to expand its sales and marketing activities to serve the growing number of European clients from an onshore location and support them with a multilingual growing workforce. The ei3 solution of guiding OEMs of any size along their journey towards digitization and the practical adoption of IIoT with limited investment and instant ROI remains the same. Recent events have once again proven the value of remote access and remote service, though the full value of IIoT clearly goes beyond that.
“ei3 is the best choice for OEMs who want to provide secure remote service and support, which has now become more critical than ever. The safety of technicians and plant workers is increased by using remote service,” says Spencer Cramer, Founder and CEO of ei3. “In the coming months, we will be rolling out a new product called Essential that will allow a secure and free method for data collection to enable quick adoption of the IIoT technology. We are happy to complete this acquisition as it brings us closer to our European customer base. Especially in this trying time where the need for properly architected, secure, remote service is so critical.”
ei3 provides an end-to-end IoT solution starting from edge device to secure private cloud to robust web-based apps to powerful and practical predictive maintenance tools. Earlier this year, ei3 announced that the solution has now been decoupled from the hardware and can be deployed separately. This gives ei3 customers the freedom and flexibility to choose where and how their data is managed.
“We look forward to working closely with our new colleagues in Copenhagen to deliver on the benefits of Industry 4.0 and Artificial Intelligence,” says Dr. Stefan Hild, Managing Director ei3 Europe.
