by Gary Mintchell | May 2, 2018 | Commentary, Internet of Things, News
Last week it was Hannover Germany in pursuit of the elusive Internet of Things (IoT) where the weather had been in the 70s until I arrived. This week, still in pursuit of the elusive IoT, I’m in a chilly and wet Las Vegas at Dell Technologies World where I’ve talked IoT for some three years.
For two years, Michael Dell featured IoT in his keynote. Last year, he brought VP Andy Rhodes on stage for a highlight. Rhodes has since moved on to another group, the GM of IoT is also the CTO of VMware indirectly reporting to the President of OEM and Global Channel (and IoT). So on the one hand IoT has been elevated in the organization twice in a year. On the other hand, there seems to be less glitter.
Meanwhile this year, Dell brought up IoT in the context of data. Data being in the service of Digital Transformation. In fact, Dell said, “Dell Technologies is in a unique position to integrate innovation for Digital Transformation.” He noted that companies can use data to improve products and services which in turn attracts more customers which generates more data which is analyzed and so the process goes.
However since IoT generates data and date attracts attacks, security is an essential element of the system. Interestingly, I met with Zulfikar Ramzan who is CTO of RSA, the Dell security company who talked in terms of recognizing and managing risk. Making risk visible and using analytics are key strategies.
There were also two briefings with the Unstructured Data Group. So much of our industrial data is in historian databases. But the growth of Websites and IoT has generated unstructured data that must be stored, retrieved, analyzed, and used in order to support business
Trends for IoT within Dell Technologies? After conversations with CTO and GM Ray O’Farrell and my longtime contact Jason Shepherd, I’d say the big thing is that IoT has grown from being a small division—almost a skunk works sort of thing building a product and solution infrastructure to becoming part of the DNA across all Dell Technologies companies. Therefore the fruit of moving the locus of leadership higher in the organization and placed with people that can build alliances and partnerships. And these partnerships now include channel partners as well as solution partners. I’d call this growling maturity.
by Gary Mintchell | Mar 10, 2017 | Internet of Things, Operations Management, Technology
Chris Anderson, while still editor-in-chief of Wired magazine, talked to a small group of us once about his fascination with drones. He got so involved he quit his job to start a company. Of course, in my day (ancient though it was), we called the RC (or radio controlled) model airplanes.
The technology has developed so quickly that I’ve been amazed there have not been more industrial drone applications. Other than spying, which I’m sure goes on but we don’t talk about.
Aeromon, a Finnish cleantech startup that utilizes its innovative analytics platform and mobile sensors to flexibly map emissions in real-time, successfully demonstrated the effectiveness of drone-mounted platforms for measuring industrial emissions.
Drone Pilot Program
A pilot program at the Ämmässuo waste treatment centre (operated by the Helsinki Region Environmental Services Authority HSY, Finland) compared historical data captured using hand-held measurement tools with aerial measurements taken by a remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) fitted with Aeromon’s sensor package. The composition and concentration of the biowaste stack and treatment facility emissions were also studied.
The resulting readings closely corresponded with HSY reference results, demonstrating the suitability of Aeromon’s aerial measurement platform for detecting fugitive emissions in a wide range of industrial settings, including those in which measurements may have previously been difficult to obtain.
“When aerially-deployed, our sensor package can create a detailed emissions map of an industrial area. This data can be combined with environmental data in our cloud-based analytics platform Aeromon Cloud Service to provide a complete view of the emissions ,” says Jouko Salo, Chairman of Aeromon.
The agile, accessible nature of the Aeromon platform was appreciated by HSY in particular. “The analysers used in Aeromon’s quadcopter were very portable and seemed reliable. The graphs provided in Aeromon’s final report were informative and easy to understand. We found the results obtained by Aeromon’s quadcopter to be close to our own measurements,” said Roni Järvensivu, Site Environmental Engineer as HSY Ämmässuo.
With the HSY pilot case proving the effectiveness of the Aeromon platform in a real-world industrial setting, Aeromon is well positioned to serve a wide range of industries. “With emissions monitoring legislation tightening across the globe, the need for reliable fugitive emissions detection solutions is increasing,” continues Jouko Salo.
Unlike traditional technologies, the Aeromon platform maps and identifies emissions with cost-effective, lightweight sensors that analyze a wide range of gases, augmented with exact location information and environmental conditions parameters. The ultra-lightweight nature of Aeromon’s analyzer platform means it can be deployed in fixed and hand-held configurations, and can be carried by any drone/RPAS/UAS capable of carrying a professional camera set.
by Gary Mintchell | Jan 25, 2017 | News, Organizations
A couple of reports and studies on industrial manufacturing merger and acquisition activity have popped up recently. One came from my usual source—PwC. The other arrived from a new contact—Mergermarket.
First PwC.
The following is an analysis of Global Industrial Manufacturing deals with disclosed values greater than $50 million.
The Global Industrial Manufacturing sector closed 2016 with two strong quarters of deal activity. The deal market in the first half of 2016 was suppressed primarily due to geopolitical concerns such as Brexit, slowing growth in China, and the impending US presidential election.
Although 2016 finished strong, deal value ended down 3% and volume ended down 18% compared to 2015, principally driven by the softness in the deal market in the first half of the year.
The largest deal in 2016 was the Johnson Controls/TYCO megadeal valued at $22.7 billion, which occurred in Q1 of 2016. This drove the average deal size to $404 million from $342 million in 2015.
With two consecutive quarters of improved deal activity (both value and volume), we are optimistic 2017 will likely be a good environment for deal makers. The speculation of reduced tax rates, infrastructure investment, health care reform, and reduced government regulation in the US are positive factors for many deal makers. Further, similar to 2016, deal making in 2017 will be driven by inorganic growth strategies focused on product and service differentiation through access to new markets, customers, and technologies.
Key Trends and Highlights
- Aggregate disclosed deal value for 2016 vs. 2015 was $91.3 billion and $93.7 billion, a 3% decrease.
- Deal volume decreased by 18% in 2016 vs. 2015, with 226 vs. 274total deals, respectively.
- M&A activity showed signs of continued comeback as Q4 2016 had 65 deals with a total aggregate disclosed value of $25.1 billion vs. 60 deals and $20.2 billion of aggregate disclosed value in Q3 2016.
- The largest deals in Q4 2016 included CK Holdings intended acquisition of Japanese Calsonic Kansei Corp. for $4.5 billion and a US-based investor group’s acquisition of German Atotech BV for $3.2 billion.
- There were three transactions exceeding $1 billion in Q4 by financial buyers with a total aggregate value of $9.2 billion, 37% of total value for the period.
- M&A activity continues to be driven by deals in the Industrial Machinery subsector. Value increased 6% compared to 2015 and doubled compared to Q3 2016. This was the only category that recorded year-over-year growth and contributed to 59% of deal value and 41% of deal volume in 2016.
- Asia & Oceania remains as the region with the highest M&A activity. In 2016, acquirers in the region accounted for 41% of deal value and 61% of volume.
Now Mergermarket
Mergermarket has released its Global Industrials & Chemicals M&A Trend report for 2016 (Q1-Q4). Take a look at the full report Here.
A few key findings include:
Despite a series of political shockwaves leading to market uncertainty, global Industrials & Chemicals’ M&A activity still managed to hit its highest level on Mergermarket record (2001). A total of 3,356 deals worth US$ 525.2bn makes it the most active sector based on deal count and up 11.3% in terms of deal value compared to 2015 (US$ 471.8bn)
The US continued to dominate global Industrials & Chemicals activity last year, with 832 transactions valued at US$ 207.2bn, accounting for nearly 40% of the sector’s overall value. Bayer’s headline- grabbing US$ 65.3bn takeover of Monsanto contributed almost a third of the sector’s deal value. The deal also helped Germany boost its outbound activity to US$ 142bn. Germany’s appetite for outbound deals will likely continue into 2017 as German corporates take on the Industry 4.0 challenge – a government-backed initiative to unite technology within the manufacturing industry – according to Mergermarket intelligence
Industrials & Chemicals in Europe (US$ 159.4bn, 1,404 deals) saw a 45.4% jump in terms of deal value compared to 2015 (US$ 110bn, 1,361 deals). Chinese investors in particular showed a growing appetite for Europe Industrials & Chemicals, leading to a record value of US$ 58.4bn with 55 deals. This however is expected to ease this year over protectionism concerns against Chinese buyers and domestic capital controls. As such, Chinese companies may avoid overseas acquisitions for now and focus on organic growth
Drivers
Fueled by the government-backed Industry 4.0 initiative, in an effort to advance technology in the industrial space, German corporates are expected to have an even greater influence over the Industrials & Chemicals sector this year.
Activity across Asia-Pacific (including Japan) saw a significant uptick in the automotive sector driven by an increasing willingness from Asian industry players to carve out non-core businesses, such was the case in Nissan Motor’s US$ 4.5bn disposal of auto parts maker, Calsonic Kansei, to KKR. This is again likely to play a role this year as international industry players’ show an increasing hunger to acquire technology and know-how.
The rise of Chinese M&A has also contributed to the growth despite a relative slowdown in the manufacturing sector. A race to develop technology has created fierce competition among companies bidding for European and US targets to move up the supply chain and to gain industry know-how.
As the sector’s most dominant player, the US could experience a more uncertain 2017 as the effect of president-elect, Donald Trump, still remains a large unknown. But there are positive sounds being made with suggestions he would call for comprehensive tax reform and substantial changes to trade agreements, existing regulation and immigration policy, in addition to the claim that he would like to see significant investments in infrastructure.
by Gary Mintchell | Dec 9, 2016 | Automation, News, Technology, Wireless
Imagine what you could know about your plant or factory if you could get many more sensors around the area. This was the dream behind the development of robust wireless sensor networks for industrial and manufacturing applications.
Here is a new entrant bearing much promise. Swift Sensors Inc. debuted Dec. 8 as an Industrial IoT company providing a cloud-based wireless sensor system for industrial and commercial applications. The company fundamentally replaces a hodge-podge of manual processes and disparate sensors with a low-cost, unified sensor system delivering real-time actionable data — dramatically transforming business process efficiency and reliability. Swift Sensors technology monitors temperature, humidity, vibration, motion, activity, location, electric voltage and current.
“Businesses are frequently limited in their ability to efficiently monitor critical equipment and processes because of expensive, manual traditional systems. Swift Sensors extends the reach and efficiency of sensor monitoring, while offering new opportunities to enhance performance using analytics and optimization,” said Sam Cece, CEO of Swift Sensors. “Our low-cost, instant deployment allows businesses to rapidly adapt to regulatory compliance initiatives and commence predictive maintenance programs.”
Swift Sensors released its cloud wireless sensor system after 18 months of development and successful deployment with various customers, including Kraft Heinz, Sysco Foods, and McDonalds.
“We deployed hundreds of wireless sensors from Swift Sensors to upgrade our existing sensors and automate our manual monitoring processes. My team now focuses their time on important daily tasks rather than manually checking temperatures or equipment status. We’ve saved hundreds of hours in productivity during the past year and improved operations,” said William Thacker, Engineering Supervisor at the Kraft Heinz Company.
Swift Sensor’s next generation cloud wireless sensor system includes customizable real-time monitoring, alerts and analytics. The company’s mission is to improve business efficiency and reliability by making actionable data and analytics globally accessible; providing businesses a way to actively avoid disasters rather than passively waiting to remedy costly failures.
A variety of industrial, commercial and service businesses can now take advantage of Swift Sensors affordable, scalable sensor system, integrating their sensor data across multiple areas for maximum impact. Sample sectors include:
- Food chain (including FSMA compliance)
- Transportation
- Restaurants
- Industrial
- IT Data Centers
- Research & Development
- Power
Low Cost & Scalable, with Actionable Data
Swift Sensors gives companies a cost-effective way to accelerate a broad range of business goals:
- Companies place the Swift Sensors plug and play matchbook-size wireless sensors wherever they would like to capture data and insights from their physical environment.
- The sensors transmit the relevant data via either Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) or RF to a Swift Sensors Bridge, a small appliance that connects the sensors to the secure Swift Sensors Cloud using Wi-Fi, Ethernet, and/or cellular communication.
- Administrators then utilize the Swift Sensors web-based dashboard to configure the sensor system for data monitoring and analysis from any location.
Authorized company employees use the cloud-based dashboard to access sensor data and, based on their role, sophisticated analytics using their desktop and mobile devices. Businesses can create reports and send notifications via email/SMS/phone call based on customizable thresholds.
Pricing and Availability
The Swift Sensors Cloud Wireless Sensor System is available immediately. Individual sensor and bridge appliance pricing start at $79 and $349, respectively, with a low monthly cloud subscription fee for access to the Swift Sensors Dashboard with an unlimited number of users.
Swift Sensors Founding Team
Swift Sensors was founded in May 2015 and began development immediately. The three founders are Dean Drako – Executive Chairman, Sam Cece – CEO, and Dr. Kelly Jones – CTO.
Dean Drako has founded and run several successful companies. He is best known as former president and CEO of Barracuda Networks, which he founded to solve the spam and email security problem, growing the company from a concept to become a cloud and IT security industry leader with more than $200 million in annual sales, 1000 employees, and 150,000 customers.
Sam Cece was previously CEO of Virtual Bridges and CloudTools, acquired by Nimboxx and SolarWinds respectively. As CEO of StrongMail Systems, he expanded the company’s initial customer base to hundreds of business customers; StrongMail was named to the 2012 Forrester Wave Report shortlist.
Kelly Jones was Engineering VP for Virtual Bridges/Cloudtools. Previously, he was a Director at Dell, managing technology teams supporting the majority of Dell’s operational public cloud environment and accounted for 80% of Dell’s SaaS revenue. Jones was also: VP of technology for Message One, acquired by Dell, meeting all delivery dates and achieving 99.999% service availability; founder of PANACYA, acquired by Research in Motion; and Chief Security Scientist for Computer Associates Int’l.
