I'm back with bounds of energy after a wonderful summer of adventures. The Scilly Isles and Schwarzwald seem so far away now but I remember swimming with the seals and biking around beautiful southern German cities. My holiday must have serendipitously led me to my newest assignment with a German ISV, SCHAD, who has one of the coolest mobile apps for B2B.
SCHAD has developed EXTEND7000, a unique mobile application for remote monitoring, control and maintenance of automated industrial systems like fully automated warehouses, high speed baggage handling lines in airports, automated production lines controlled by PLCs and SCADA systems.
It's a slightly incongruous mix to think state of the art German, automated engineering precision crossed with funky mobile app but it's proving its worth across industry. SCHAD are exhibiting at the BlackBerry Innovation Forum tomorrow at ExCel where they've previously won a string of awards.
Using an ordinary smartphone or tablet, highly skilled engineers can monitor PLCs and SCADA systems and get remote access to control operations in the event of problems. With the addition of cameras, they also have the ability to view the plant controls remotely and shut down functions if needed, pending a fix.
By using EXTEND7000, multiple automated systems can be controlled using a single interface from any location, giving engineering staff a 100% remote control room in their pockets which avoids the need to manage costly fixed control rooms. The system works using existing Wi-fi and GRPS infrastructure providing a very low cost monitoring system.
Proof is in the pudding
ROI figures from existing customers have shown the system significantly reduces costs through up to 60% lower downtime, faster throughput levels and better resource utilisation. SCHAD has users across industry in transport and logistics, transportation services/operations (airports), manufacturing - food and beverage, automotive.
EXTEND7000 has been identified as a hot technology and SCHAD received $4m in VC investment earlier this year - see earlier article in TechCrunch. They are also previous BlackBerry, Vodafone and Financial Times innovation award winners.
Examples of benefits seen:
1. Munich Airport - Estimations by the baggage handling operation at Munich Airport have shown that, as a result of using SCHAD's technology, system downtime has dropped significantly and they can service an extra 12 aircraft a day.
2. Lugato - manufacturing and distribution of industrial products - reduced system downtime by 30 minutes each day which allows them to ship an extra truckload of finished goods daily.
Other users: Koln Bonn airport, Berlin airport, LSG Sky Chefs (Lufthansa).
If you are going along to the BB Innovation Forum tomorrow, drop by their booth tomorrow and speak to James Hannay. He can give you a live demo showing how the system works in real time. And there will be lots more from me on SCHAD and what they're up to very shortly.
Find me on Twitter @mundoprlesleym or email lesleyATgood-prDOTcoDOTuk