Intelligence with tech #2

Welcome to my second newsletter. I hope you found the first one insightful.

I started this newsletter to try and demystify technology, particularly cloud and IoT. I aim to keep Jargon and Acronyms to a minimum. It’s unlikely that I’ll deep dive into a topic, but instead, give an overview of it so that if you’re a techie not working with these technologies already, you can go and do your own deep dive (or message me for a chat) and if you’re a non-techie then hopefully you’ll on occasion think “oh that’s how it works” and maybe one day it will help you in your business.

This week’s kind of an exciting one at the Intelligent Industries HQ. We’ve finally launched our new website under the Intelligent Industries banner (https://intelligent.industries). Ok, it’s not perfect yet, but it’s a massive step forward from our old site. We’ve included an e-commerce store but more on that in a minute.

2 years ago we started working with a new client. Usually, our IoT engagement would finish with us supplying software to run on the edge, typically on a client-provided device or some basic sensing solution, but this project was different and has brought about the transformation of Innovative Creations to the Intelligent Industries brand.

This client needed an end-to-end solution, including hardware and everything in between. We couldn’t simply provide them with an industrial PC to install on-site. Other requirements meant we needed to find a more innovative solution.

At this point, I became an industrial panel builder providing a “black box” solution that their electrical contractors just needed to wire in. It was Covid times, and everyone else was working from home, and while awesome at what they do, I knew this wasn’t a task for them. Initially, I’d never done this before and knew little about panel building. Some of the early prototypes were rough, but I knew we could do better, so we did. Various electrical installers have since complemented us on the quality of the panels we build in-house today, and the ones we’ve deployed are all running great in the field.

Once we tackled the panel building elephant in the room, we next realised the client needed us to be an expert on industrial equipment and systems - now, I had a fairly good understanding from my time working in the industry, but I’ve still learnt a lot over the past couple of years. Their engineers started asking us for advice, and specifications on specific cabling for various industrial comms, asking us to review CAD drawings and other diagrams to ensure that they were correct from our perspective. We transformed from being a software company that did a little bit of hardware to an end-to-end solution provider that can successfully consult on various aspects of industrial scenarios. I won’t pretend I know it all. Google is still very much my friend, especially when we get a curve ball question, and I’m sure it will continue to be. I love a sandbox hardware environment, but that can be difficult or extremely expensive to set up. We can’t have a million pound bit of equipment at our offices just so we can “try” something out or test everything fully works before deploying. We emulate where we can, but that often requires expert knowledge on what you are trying to emulate.

Since making the transition to end-to-end provider, we’ve worked with other clients with similar requirements. I guess I always thought the industrial controls guys and girls would be the go-to for the knowledge we’ve been asked to accumulate and provide but often, on large industrial projects, there are many different contractors involved who each have responsibilities for their own individual area in a siloed manner. Company x provides all the pump installation and controls, and company y provides something else etc. While these projects are run very well, they can lack someone with the overall deep technical understanding of all of the systems, and that’s where we can try and bridge the gap.

Back to our new website and the e-commerce store. The products you see on sale there today are products we’ve already provided to clients. My aim with the store was to remove some of the pain that other “software” companies might have when working with clients like ours. Not all software companies are in a position to build their own industrial panels, and I’m looking to scale Intelligent Industries in a controlled and sustainable way, so enabling other companies to enter this market isn’t a threat to my business but instead a win-win.