IoT.nxt achieves level 1 B-BBEE status
MEDIA STATEMENT
4 June 2018
Innovator in IoT technology, Pretoria-based IoT.nxt, achieved level 1 B-BBEE status, confirming the company’s commitment to make a meaningful contribution to the advancement of the South African economy through innovation using 4th Industrial Revolution technology.
“President Ramaphosa mentioned the 4th Industrial Revolution in his first State of the Nation address as a key focus area for the future and we are proud of our achievements in this field. Embracing new technologies can make a marked difference to economic development. Achieving level 1 B-BBEE status is part of our journey to be a participant and driver of such growth through a strategy of inclusion and development,” says IoT.nxt CEO, Nico Steyn.
“IoT.nxt has achieved strong growth since its early days as a start-up at the start of 2016. The digital landscape is changing at a rapid pace, which requires forward-thinking and innovation. There still exists and outdated perception that South African companies are lagging behind global companies to drive digital transformation and adopt new strategies through using new technology. Our company and many other successful local companies have disproved this thinking,” Steyn says.
To achieve level 1 B-BBEE status the company scored very well on the required elements of skills development and enterprise and supplier development, in addition to its scores for ownership and management control.
“Skills transfer is very important for the development of any company but also especially important as a driver of economic growth. We have not only created almost 100 jobs in technology in the two years since the company was launched, we also introduced an internship programme to develop the innovators of the future,” Steyn says.
IoT.nxt is the winner of the 2017 MTN Business IoT Award, a Microsoft Gold Partner for Data Platform and was selected as one of six aspiring innovators in SA ahead of the 2016 Gartner ITXpo and Symposium hosted in Cape Town. The company opened the office in The Hague in September last year and is currently exploring expansion to the USA.
ISSUED BY: IoT.nxt
For further information please contact:
Daleen van Wyk
Media Liaison
Tel: 083 302 0827
Email: daleen.vanwyk@iotnxt.com
www.iotnxt.com
Rapid digitisation now a reality
26 March 2018
MEDIA STATEMENT
A strategic partnership between South African innovator in Internet of Things (IoT) technology, IoT.nxt, and global technology and computing hardware giant Dell will allow companies to rapidly digitise their business operations and make IoT solutions a reality.
“IoT.nxt’s intelligent edge IoT gateway, the Raptor™, has been combined with Dell Gateway technology and through this will enable rapid digital transformation. We call it ‘IoT in a box’ and it provides an off the shelf solution suitable for any company in any industry. With this solution companies can quickly see a return on investment and achieve digital scalability. It will allow them to fast forward unlocking efficiencies and drive earnings,” says IoT.nxt CEO Nico Steyn.
According to Ben Vernooij, IoT and Embedded Computing Solutions Lead for Dell EMC, Dell has developed partnerships to help customers rapidly implement IoT solutions, which is exactly what the Dell Raptor™ will deliver. “Customers can now speed up their IoT projects and make sense of the volumes of data produced at the edge,” he says.
This partnership combines the superior, robust Dell engineering with IoT.nxt’s world-leading innovation in IoT technology – known for its exceptional interoperability features – and is expected to become the new standard at the edge.
“This Raptor™ in a box solution gives companies the ability to scale quickly as the Dell Raptor™ is already configured to be rolled out, yet comes with the support of Dell’s global network which offers warranties and superior service,” Steyn adds.
The association with the trusted international Dell brand is likely to drive rapid adoption as companies know that their implementation will be supported by the vast and established Dell support offering.
The ‘IoT in a box’ offering will be distributed by Axiz, an industry leading value added distribution business that serves eight countries in Southern and East Africa. “This is an innovative offering for industry and we expect strong demand in our distribution networks,” says Axiz Executive Terence Barter.
IoT.nxt is the winner of the 2017 MTN Business IoT Award, a Microsoft Gold Partner for Data Platform and was selected as one of six aspiring innovators in SA ahead of the 2016 Gartner ITXpo and Symposium hosted in Cape Town. The company opened the office in The Hague in September last year and executives explored expansion to the USA last year; expected to go ahead in the second half of this year.
ISSUED BY: IoT.nxt
For further information please contact:
Daleen van Wyk
Media Liaison
Tel: 083 302 0827
Email: daleen.vanwyk@iotnxt.com
IoT.nxt secures partnership with listed Dutch group
28 February 2018
MEDIA STATEMENT
South African innovator in Internet of Things (IoT) technology and solutions, IoT.nxt, has entered into a partnership with listed Dutch company ICT Group N.V. as part of its ongoing expansion into Europe as demand for IoT applications and digitization grows in this vast market.
“We have engaged different companies since opening our first office outside South Africa in The Hague last year, seeking appropriate partners to help drive our entry into Europe. ICT Group is ranked in 5th place in the top 15 listed ICT companies in the Computable 100 and has reached 8th place in the top 15 ICT service providers in The Netherlands. IoT.nxt’s hardware and software solutions in combination with ICT’s domain expertise in different industry verticals as well as the expert knowledge of Cloud, Machine Learning, BI and IoT, will enable us – through this partnership – to completely shape the digital transformation journey of customers,” says IoT.nxt CEO, Nico Steyn.
Joe Bester, head of IoT.nxt’s Dutch office, says the ICT Group is an ideal partner as they are leaders in their field of expertise and by partnering with them we can drive business value for any company in any industry. “Digital transformation is now a business imperative and our companies will jointly assist businesses to embark on and fast-track that process. We believe our innovation, especially around interoperability and edge intelligence, will enhance their offering and deliver fast results for customers,” Bester says.
According to Jos Bleje, ICT Group CEO, IoT.nxt’s technology agnostic platform offers horizontal integration of ‘islands’ of digitization with an unprecedented ROI. “By leveraging all existing devices and infrastructure into one single platform, visibility and new insights are provided that will open doors for new business models and (strategic) services,” says Bleje.
Frank Snijders, Business Development Executive at ICT Group notes that the partnership will offer Business grade IoT solutions for ICT’s customers’ Digital Transformation journey. “For many years several sectors have been struggling with unstructured and disparate data coming from many types of assets. With this partnership, our customers can now be supported through one interconnected, interoperable ecosystem, transforming data into actionable information and business ROI.”
IoT.nxt focuses on delivering innovative software and hardware solutions for the Internet of Things (IoT). IoT.nxt has developed an open platform framework that is used for rapid software development, integration and deployment in the Internet of Things realm. This world leading framework that makes the efficiencies, cost savings and increased revenue from IoT a reality for businesses. The major strength of the IoT.nxt framework is that the solution is technology agnostic, which overcomes the challenge of connecting any and all devices or systems. This enables companies to deploy best of breed technologies (hardware/sensors/subsystems) but at the same time also achieve interoperability and interconnectivity between all the currently deployed systems and devices from the edge to the cloud. The IoT.nxt platform allows rapid deployment and businesses to action an Internet of Things strategy with little or no disruption to current operations.
IoT.nxt is the winner of the 2017 MTN Business IoT Award, a Microsoft Gold Partner for Data Platform and was selected as one of six aspiring innovators in SA ahead of the 2016 Gartner ITXpo and Symposium hosted in Cape Town. The company opened the office in The Hague in September last year and apart from the partnership with ICT Group, are busy with finalising partnerships with a host of other companies.
ISSUED BY: IoT.nxt
For further information please contact:
Daleen van Wyk
Media Liaison
Tel: 083 302 0827
Email: daleen.vanwyk@iotnxt.com
Efficiencies delivered with new technology can protect mining jobs
MEDIA STATEMENT
For immediate publication
29 January 2018
The new technologies unfolding in the 4th industrial revolution can drive the advancement of one of the oldest industries in South Africa – mining – and make a critical contribution to improved efficiency which, in turn, will protect jobs in this very labour intensive sector.
“Using an IoT technology platform provides mines with an interoperable data platform that can use legacy and non-legacy equipment to drive systems efficiency. This leads to the improved overall efficiency of a mine, reducing operational costs, increasing operating margins and profitability -ultimately protecting jobs and the lifespan of a mining operation,” says Eric Croeser, IoT.nxt Director of Partnerships: Mining.
IoT.nxt is partnering with global consulting powerhouse Deloitte and in association with enterprise resource planning company MineRP to introduce its strategies and innovative technologies for the mining industry at the African Mining Indaba, the world’s biggest annual mining business event, to be hosted in Cape Town from 5 February 2018.
“Digitalisation is one of the key themes of the 2018 Mining Indaba as the industry looks at new and innovative ways to improve its operations and ultimately profitability. Despite massive job losses in 2017 the mining industry remains a large employer in SA and continues to make a notable contribution to GDP,” Croeser says.
IoT.nxt and Deloitte will set up a live mining operation at Deloitte’s Greenhouse in Cape Town during the Indaba to provide actual demonstrations of how IoT technology is implemented across an entire mine. “A shift manager manages four inputs – people, materials, work areas and machines. Previously responses to changes in any of these four key elements were reactive. Using IoT strategies and solutions makes it possible to be pro-active and assess and adapt as situations change. This makes the entire operation more efficient and mine management have information and data available in real time. This shortens the timing of data aggregation and data orchestration,” says Croeser.
A concern for mining companies – and most other industries considering the introduction of new technology – is whether existing, legacy systems and machines can be integrated into a new platform. “IoT.nxt’s innovation has made interoperability possible which means it is not necessary to replace older technology, delivering significant business value,” Croeser added.
“Many mines in SA are some of the oldest in the world and have particular challenges as many operate deep underground. Not only will the use of new technology make even the older mines more efficient it will also improve safety, which remains a major concern,” he says.
ISSUED BY: IoT.nxt
For further information please contact:
Daleen van Wyk
Media Liaison
Tel: 083 302 0827
Email: daleen.vanwyk@iotnxt.com
www.iotnxt.com
NOTE TO EDITORS: IoT.nxt’s unique technology stack bridges the gap between all protocols in the industrial ecosystem, creating a single integration/translation point. Its patented RaptorTM gateway allows organisations to retrofit all existing legacy systems with no rip and replace. A powerful data abstraction model further translates anything and everything from the edge, supporting a true subscription based big data model. IoT.nxt is the enterprise solution category winner and overall winner of the MTN Business IoT Award 2017.
Deloitte Greenhouses are designed to bring Deloitte and client teams together to accelerate insight-rich decision making and deliver faster, better outcomes to wicked challenges and opportunities. The Greenhouse experience combines a specially designed physical environment with creative facilitation tools and techniques and leading edge technologies to help companies function in a rapidly changing economic environment.
Interoperability at the edge not a challenge says SA IoT innovator
MEDIA STATEMENT
28 November 2017
Overcoming the hurdle of retrofitting into existing infrastructure and creating system and device interoperability at the edge is a key differentiator that has contributed significantly to the strong growth of the past two years of South African innovator in Internet of Things technology and strategy, IoT.nxt.
This full end-to-end IoT stack innovation combined with IoT.nxt’s unique capabilities Edge software stack and device the Raptor™ will be showcased when the company exhibits at the IoT Tech Expo North America, which starts on 29 November 2017 in Santa Clara, California.
US based technology news website, Light Reading, noted in a report following the Mobile Edge Computing Congress hosted in Berlin in September, that interoperability at the edge remains a concern for many companies. According to the website’s article the proliferation of groups tackling the edge-computing challenge has exacerbated concern about fragmentation and the risk that incompatible technologies and techniques will begin to appear.
“We believe that the edge will rise to the same prominence as the cloud in the months ahead. Data coming from the edge will solve many challenges so many companies have struggled to overcome. We have also built a custom, fully integrated stack from the edge to the cloud and back; which we believe is currently unique in global IoT development. Talking our innovation to a massive trade show and conference in the USA is a big step forward in our committed plan to expand IoT.nxt to that market, following successful expansion in Europe earlier this year,” says Gareth Rees, Director Global Partnerships at IoT.nxt and team leader for the company’s participation at IoT Tech Expo.
IoT.nxt’s participation at this global event was made possible after the company was crowned the overall winner at the 2017 MTN Business IoT Award event hosted in Sandton earlier this year. As part of the prizes awarded, IoT.nxt was afforded the opportunity to present its technology at an international IoT event.
The North American Expo is part of the world’s largest IoT event series and runs with the 2017 Blockchain Expo and the 2017 AI Expo North America. Speakers include luminaries like Lionel Chocron, Vice President Industry and IoT solutions at Oracle, Maciej Kranz, Vice President Strategic Innovation at Cisco, as well as experts from global giants like Shell, Toyota, Visa, Mastercard, ON Semiconductor and many more.
Rees will be joined by Bertus Jacobs CTO, Rudi du Toit head of research and development for the Raptor™ and Michiel du Toit, head of the IoT.nxt platform.
ISSUED BY: IoT.nxt
For further information please contact:
Daleen van Wyk Media Liaison
Tel: +27 83 302 0827
Email: daleen.vanwyk@iotnxt.com
IoT.nxt in select company at IITPSA awards
8 November 2017
Visionary leadership that drives business transformation and innovation in the South African IT industry will be celebrated tonight at the annual award event of the Institute of Information Technology Professionals of SA (IITPSA).
IoT.nxt CEO, Nico Steyn, is in the select company of executives from leading companies in the industry as a nominee for the prestigious IT Personality of the Year award. The award recognises a person who has made an outstanding impact on the SA ICT industry over the past year and a significant contribution to the IT profession.
“The variety of companies and industries represented through the nominees is testament to the vibrancy of the IT and broader technology industry in South Africa and shows that the country is at the level, and in some instances ahead, of international counterparts. IoT.nxt has achieved incredible growth since its establishment at the end of 2015 and the nomination for Nico Steyn is validation of the impact the company has had in Internet of Things technology and strategy,” says IoT.nxt Chairman, Wayne Fitzjohn.
Apart from Steyn the nominees list includes respected professionals including Annette Muller, founder of on-demand workforce platform Flexy and DotNXT; Baratang Miya, founder of GirlHype Coders Academy; Karen Nadasen, CEO of PayU South Africa; Sashi Hansjee, CEO of Entelect; Mixo Ngoveni, founder of Geekculcha; Reshaad Sha, Chief Strategy Officer and Executive Director of Dark Fibre Africa and CEO of IoT network Sqwidnet; Yvonne Thobile Mabuza, founder of Elangeni Consulting Services and Jaco Maass, Senior Manager ICT at BKB.
The finalists were evaluated by a nine-member industry panel to select the winner. Well-known industry leaders like Prof Helena Barnard of the Gordon Institute of Business Science, Neville Willemse, Senior Managing Partner Gartner South Africa, Ulandi Exner, President of IITPSA and Tony Parry, CEO of IITPSA served on the judging panel.
Sbu Shabalala, CEO of AdaptIT, was the IT Personality of the Year in 2016.
IoT.nxt is the winner of the 2017 MTN Business IoT Award, a Microsoft Gold Partner for Data Platform and was selected as one of six aspiring innovators in SA ahead of the 2016 Gartner ITXpo and Symposium hosted in Cape Town.
ISSUED BY: IoT.nxt
For further information please contact:
Daleen van Wyk
Media Liaison
Tel: 083 302 0827
Email: daleen.vanwyk@iotnxt.com
SA IoT innovator to introduce its solutions at US IoT expo
Award-winning South African Internet of Things company IoT.nxt will introduce the USA tech market to its ground-breaking technology and solutions for the Industrial Internet of Things at the IoT Tech Expo North America, to be presented from 29 November 2017 at the Santa Clara Convention Centre, Silicon Valley.
“We are excited to attend the event to bring our world-leading technology and platform solution to the US market. Recent trips to the US have validated our cutting-edge approach to our seamless edge device interoperability and ability to retrofit onto any existing equipment, coupled with powerful edge data processing and secure two-way messaging to the cloud,” says Gareth Rees, Director of Partnerships: Global at IoT.nxt and team leader for the company’s participation at the expo.
Rees will be joined by Bertus Jacobs CTO, Rudi du Toit head of research and development for the IoT.nxt field gateway device known as Raptor™ and Michiel du Toit, head of the IoT.nxt platform to present IoT.nxt’s software and hardware offering that allows companies to implement IoT solutions without having to replace existing infrastructure or implement completely new software. “We have pioneered an agile, application agnostic platform that leverages off the core principles of the Internet of Things. We have bridged the challenges of big data and the end-to-end data flow of this data from edge to ERP,” Rees says.
IoT.nxt’s participation at this global event was made possible after the company was crowned the overall winner at the 2017 MTN Business IoT Award event hosted in Sandton earlier this year. As part of the prizes awarded, IoT.nxt was afforded the opportunity to present its technology at an international IoT event.
The North American Expo is part of the world’s largest IoT event series and runs with the 2017 Blockchain Expo and the 2017 AI Expo North America. Speakers include luminaries like Lionel Chocron, Vice President Industry and IoT solutions at Oracle, Maciej Kranz, Vice President Strategic Innovation at Cisco, as well as experts from global giants like Shell, Toyota, Visa, Mastercard, ON Semiconductor and many more.
IoT.nxt opened its first international office in The Hague in The Netherlands in September and has its sights set on the US market. CEO, Nico Steyn and Chairman, Wayne Fitzjohn visited several large companies in the States to explore possibilities, and they have reported that the feedback has been tremendous and validates the value of IoT.nxt’s offering.
ISSUED BY: IoT.nxt
For further information please contact:
Daleen van Wyk Media Liaison Tel: +27 83 302 0827 Email: daleen.vanwyk@iotnxt.com
www.iottechexpo.com/northamerica/
IoT.nxt CEO in select company of nominees for IT Personality of the Year
MEDIA STATEMENT 11 October 2017
Nico Steyn, CEO of leading Internet of Things innovator IoT.nxt, is listed as one of the nominees for the prestigious IT Personality of the Year award, managed and presented by the Institute of Information Technology Professionals of SA (IITPSA).
The list for the 2017 award is dominated by entrepreneurs and innovators and Steyn is in the select company of several of the brightest minds in tech in SA. “The variety of industry leaders on the nominees list is testament to the vibrancy of the IT and broader tech industry in South Africa and shows that the country is at the level, and in some instances ahead, of international counterparts. We believe that IoT.nxt is to become a leader in IoT in SA and internationally and seeing the CEO included in this impressive list is testament to the success the company achieved thus far,” says IoT.nxt Chairman, Wayne Fitzjohn.
Apart from Steyn the nominees list includes respected professionals including Annette Muller, founder of on-demand workforce platform Flexy and DotNXT; Baratang Miya, founder of GirlHype Coders Academy; Karen Nadasen, CEO of PayU South Africa; Sashi Hansjee, CEO of Entelect; Mixo Ngoveni, founder of Geekculcha; Reshaad Sha, Chief Strategy Officer and Executive Director of Dark Fibre Africa and CEO of IoT network Sqwidnet; Yvonne Thobile Mabuza, founder of Elangeni Consulting Services and Jaco Maass, Senior Manager ICT at BKB.
The finalists, evaluated by a nine-member industry panel, will undergo face-to-face interviews with the judging panel before the winner is selected. Well-known industry leaders like Prof Helena Barnard of the Gordon Institute of Business Science, Neville Willemse, Senior Managing Partner Gartner South Africa, Ulandi Exner, President of IITPSA and Tony Parry, CEO of IITPSA serve on the judging panel.
The winner will be announced at a gala event to be hosted in Johannesburg in early November. Sbu Shabalala, CEO of AdaptIT, was the IT Personality of the Year in 2016.
IoT.nxt is the winner of the 2017 MTN Business IoT Award, a Microsoft Gold Partner for Data Platform and was selected as one of six aspiring innovators in SA ahead of the 2016 Gartner ITXpo and Symposium hosted in Cape Town.
ISSUED BY: IoT.nxt
For further information please contact:
Daleen van Wyk, Media Liaison, Tel: 083 302 0827, Email: daleen.vanwyk@iotnxt.com
SA companies ready to implement IOT strategy
Johannesburg, 5 October 2017
Three quarters of SA companies plan to implement IOT strategies in the near future, with 33% saying they have plans to start a strategy in the next six months and 40% planning to start in the next year or two.
This is one of the key findings of an IOT survey conducted by IoT.nxt on technology and IT web platform ITWeb.
“This shows that understanding of the value of implementing IOT strategies and how this can unlock business value and drive efficiencies has grown dramatically in the past two years. We have experienced rapid growth in interest in what IOT can deliver in the past year and many companies we engaged with fast-tracked their plans once they realise how using IOT can address business challenges,” says IoT.nxt CEO, Nico Steyn.
The survey showed that respondents expected to see the biggest benefit in operations, as 54% of companies indicated this as the business unit most likely to benefit most from IOT according to their understanding. In second place, with 20% of responses, was that using IOT will benefit the company’s executive committee and its strategic guidance for the business.
The survey further showed that companies expect to gain the most value through implementation of IOT data for their business intelligence and data analytics. Almost 40% of respondents listed that is the biggest value to be gained, while 30+% said that using IOT will deliver value in operational applications.
Read more: http://bit.ly/2z2aNjk
http://pressoffice.itweb.co.za/iotnxt
SA executives: IoT is a business strategy
Business leaders and senior executives in South Africa see the Internet of Things (IoT) as forming part of their business strategy.
IoT.nxt conducted an Internet of Things (IoT) survey on ITWeb and the results have validated the company’s experience in where businesses stand with regards to their digital transformation road map. 62.7% of respondents in the survey said IoT is a business strategy, compared to only 27.5% who said they think it is a set of applications. The small remainder said they were not sure.
At the time of launching the survey, IoT.nxt CEO Nico Steyn said South African enterprises are ready for the IoT revolution. A revolution happens whether you are ready or not, and South African businesses – by all indications – want to be ready the fourth industrial revolution. This survey outcome is yet another validation of the pressing fact that the time has arrived, with local business leaders becoming more and more in tune with both awareness and adoption of IoT strategies.
This was echoed by Chief Sales Officer Andre Strauss earlier this month when he said:
“The market has significantly matured over the past year and it is generally accepted that IoT is a key underpin to unlocking the value of digital transformation.”
IoT.nxt
It is therefore little surprise that the majority of respondents in the IoT survey answered that IoT strategy implementation is driven from the CEO down.
In yet another validation of IoT.nxt’s approach to Industrial IoT (IIoT), the vast majority of respondents in the survey, 68.8% to be exact, said that the ability to connect to existing equipment was a driving factor in implementing IoT.
Ahead of the survey, Steyn said:
“We have made great inroads with our innovative solutions that require no immediate replacement of legacy systems. Because our solution is technology-agnostic, the process of implementation happens quickly. Then, moving intelligence to the edge helps us circumvent traditional data transfer issues.”
Almost two thirds of all respondents in the survey said that intelligence at the edge is very important to their company. It is by utilising this intelligence at the edge that IoT.nxt’s platform is able to unlock true business value and demonstrable return on investment, leading to increased competitiveness, relevance and profitability. That is ultimately engine behind every business strategy.