BICS and Gurtam Partner for Global Telematics Services

29 October 2020 – International communications enabler BICS today announces its partnership with telematics software provider Gurtam to provide IoT asset monitoring and fleet management on a global scale. The collaboration combines BICS’ global IoT network connectivity with Gurtam’s GPS tracking and IoT platform, Wialon, which is the largest transport monitoring platform on the market.

BICS connects IoT devices to more than 700 mobile operators in more than 200 countries. This enables devices to roam seamlessly around the world and switch networks depending on quality and coverage needs. By combining this with Gurtam’s GPS monitoring platform, telematics resellers and GPS tracking service providers will be able to deliver flexible, reliable, and global connected services to customers looking to improve their business.

“We’re a global player with over 2.5 million vehicles being tracked via Wialon, and we are proud to work with more than two thousand partners,” said Kseniya Dolia, Technology Partners Community Manager, Gurtam. “Flexibility is at the heart of our offering, as evidenced by our hardware-agnostic solution. By selecting BICS as our technology partner, we are able to enhance this flexibility and offer cellular connectivity to our users, meaning businesses using Wialon no longer have to rely solely on local connectivity providers. Instead, via embedded SIMs, our platform gives companies the freedom to choose the cellular coverage that best suits them, and to take advantage of the stability, quality, and global reach of BICS’ network.”

The Global System for Mobile Communications Association (GSMA) predicts that between 2019 and 2025, the number of global IoT connections will more than double to almost $25 billion, while global IoT revenue will more than triple to $1.1 trillion. Thus, BICS and Gurtam’s partnership is an important step for businesses looking to deploy flexible, reliable, secure IoT connectivity for their devices.

“Reliable, flexible, and global mobility is fundamental in a digital economy.” said Mikaël Schachne (above), CMO & VP of Mobility and IoT Business, BICS. “It is vital that this need is met with a robust cellular connectivity offering, allowing assets to not only remain seamlessly connected while traversing borders, but also easily managed to meet their specific business needs.”

Partnership Powering IoT in Africa 

BICS and Gurtam’s IoT and connectivity solution is now being used by geolocation suppliers and resellers, such as Tazi360°, a West African company which specialises in fleet management. Through the collaboration, customers like Tazi360° benefit from employing the Wialon platform from Gurtam, combined with always-on connectivity from BICS.

The African and Middle East IoT market is the second-fastest growing region, second only to Asia-Pacific. It is forecast to double in the next three years, to reach over $20 billion by 2023, with the IoT automotive market alone expected to reach $2.71 billion in the same year.

 “Our customers are increasingly demanding seamless international connectivity to support their IoT strategies”, explained Mohamed Coulibaly, CEO, Tazi360°. “With the support of Gurtam’s state-of-the-art software, combined with BICS’ global reach, we can provide logistics and fleet management companies with a truly unrivalled offering of GPS tracking capabilities for vehicles, wherever they are.”

Source: BICS

Lenovo Announces IoT Solutions to Improve the COVID-19 Shopping Experience

15 October 2020 – Today Lenovo announced a set of ThinkIoT Smarter Store Solutions to help “brick-and-mortar” stores thrive in today’s new normal environment. These will improve the customer experience by enabling improved inventory availability and product interaction while simultaneously driving labour efficiency.

The ThinkIoT Smarter Store Solutions also promote a safer environment in stores during COVID-19, giving shoppers confidence during the upcoming holiday season. Today’s announcement extends Lenovo’s expertise in Smart Retail, and provides retailers with a complete set of solutions from the front-of-store and sales floor to the back-of-store.

Today’s announcement marks Lenovo’s third Smarter Solution set from the Commercial Internet of Things (CIoT) Business Unit. The solutions will help the company execute its service-led transformation strategy as it moves from a hardware provider to a software and services model.

A recent Lenovo survey found that nearly half of consumers reported that they began shopping online more frequently over the past month and 66 percent said it’s the retailer’s responsibility to keep them healthy while they shop in-store.

For in-store shopping, consumers’ main concerns are:

• Product availability
• Ensuring mask policies are in place/mask policy compliance
• Occupancy levels

When it comes to future store experiences enabled through technology, consumers are most excited about greater transparency, product availability and targeted advertising for relevant deals.

“Brick-and-mortar retailers offer a unique experience for shoppers that cannot be fully replicated online,” said John Gordon (above), President, CIoT Business Group, Lenovo. “With ThinkIoT Smarter Store Solutions, we’re helping these important retail businesses create even more differentiated customer experiences while improving their bottom line so they can continue to grow during challenging economic times.”

ThinkIoT Smarter Store Solutions offer end-to-end, pre-tested and validated IoT solutions to address key customer experience, productivity, and safety needs of stores. By working with proven hardware and software partners, including Avalue, L Squared, Spacee, and Viper Imaging, ThinkIoT Smarter Store Solutions help store operations leaders create a smarter shopping experience by:

• Bringing in new customers through targeted advertising and the tracking of in-store marketing effectiveness through custom QR-codes from digital displays. (Avalue)
• Driving inventory productivity with out-of-stock detection, inventory counts, planogram compliance, and price checking leveraging smart shelves and smart pushers. (Spacee)
• Increasing customer purchase rate by allowing customers to learn about products in a dynamic and self-serving way using smart displays with interactive product information and tailored ads. (Avalue)

ThinkIoT Smarter Store Solutions endeavour to make shopping spaces safer by:

• Identifying potentially sick employees proactively through the use of FDA-certified temperature screening to help keep sick employees from entering the store (Viper Imaging)
• Enabling policy communication with digital signs to convey policy changes, mask requirements, and occupancy levels to customers simply and easily with digital signs (L Squared)

Customers can pick their set of solutions based on what’s most important to them. Lenovo serves as the one-stop shop for these practical ThinkIoT Smarter Store solutions. The company provides validation, deployment, and management, which is especially important to simplify the complexity of large retailers with stores distributed across regions and countries.

Lenovo’s ThinkIoT Smarter Store Solutions are backed by:

• Validation processes for software solutions. These include up to 140 steps covering security, serviceability, scalability, and reliability
• A field network of more than 20,000 technicians for global deployment
• Customers in more than 180 markets, and expertise supporting more than 125 million devices

Lenovo’s ThinkIoT Smarter Retail Solutions complement Lenovo’s other Smart Retail solutions. The company is helping to create an ecosystem of inter-operable technology and aggregated data to transform business.  With a customized, integrated network of Smart Retail solutions, store-wide IT management is simplified and improved.

For example, Lenovo’s turnkey POS and self-service kiosk solutions help retailers grow beyond siloed digital point tools. This enables retailers to unlock data and insights, reduce their hardware footprint and expense through connected self-service solutions. In addition, Lenovo AI Innovation Centers can help optimize the business with analytics and machine learning capabilities in order to understand customer behavior, reduce shrinkage, and meet complex logistics and inventory challenges.

For more information visit the ThinkIoT website.

Source: Lenovo