With the rapid advancement of 5G networks, the landscape of cellular connectivity is changing. Mobile network operators (MNOs) are now phasing out their 3G networks to make way for 4G and 5G, which will have a huge impact on companies still reliant on 3G connectivity for communications. Here Marcin Bala, CTO at telecommunications networks specialist Salumanus Ltd, explains how the 3G sunset could impact your business and how you can prepare for the transition. (more…)

September 14, 2021

Posted by: Marcin Bala

“The buck stops here” is a saying made famous in the 1940s by Harry S. Truman, 33^rd President of the United States. It still resonates with today’s CEOs, who ultimately bear the responsibility for their companies’ mistakes and misdeeds except when it comes to artificial intelligence (AI), apparently says Dr. Scott Zoldi is chief analytics officer at FICO. (more…)

September 2, 2021

Posted by: Scott Zoldi

(Sponsored News) Uly Dala is a large chain store in Kazakhstan. As the business grows, Uly Dala has opened one of the largest Uly Dala stores in the city of Jezkazgan, selling more than 20,000 items on the opening day. In order to achieve high-performance store operation and management and provide customers with a superior shopping experience, Uly Dala decided to deploy smart data acquisition terminals for intelligent goods management of their warehouses.

Challenges

1. The warehouses of shopping malls had a wide variety of goods. The efficiency of manual identification and record was low. It was not possible to effectively monitor the arrangement of goods on shelves, shelving, and inventory putaway and retrieval.
2. It was not possible to monitor the stock and consumption of goods in each warehouse in real time, thus scheduling to refill in a timely manner.
3. Real-time recording and tracking of goods movement could not be achieved. The entire goods movement from suppliers to end-users could not be effectively monitored. So, the records could not be reviewed later.

Solution

With the barcode identification technology introduced by Chainway C66 Handheld Computer, Uly Dala has achieved intelligent warehouse operation such as identification of goods being moved in and out of warehouse and identification, monitoring and tracking of shelved goods.  The equipment has also been used to manage selling prices and audit expiry dates.  An efficient, real-time and smart stock management has been attained.

The key activities during the entire process, from suppliers, warehouses through to the delivery to order, and the coordination among warehouses, for every single batch of goods, have been recorded in real time and uploaded to backend management system.  The management has been able to monitor the goods movement in real time, audit historical records and perform data analysis.

Outcomes

1. The application of C66 barcode technology has enabled the management to obtain the goods information in no time while the goods were being moved in or out of the warehouses and put on shelf by simply scanning the barcodes on the packages. The information was uploaded to the backend simultaneously.  This application has saved a lot of working hours and improved efficiency.
2. The stock and consumption data in each warehouse has become available in real time in the backend. This has facilitated the management of replenishment, dispatches from the closest warehouses, and optimization of stock allocation.
3. Managers have been able to monitor real-time dynamic information of goods via the backend management system, and file digital records. The records could be reviewed in the future and used for data analysis.

August 31, 2021

Posted by: IoT global network

Almost all buildings in the UK are connected to the mains water supply, coming directly to each property, which is turned on and off by a stopcock, says Matthew Margetts, director of sales and marketing at Smarter Technologies. (more…)

August 26, 2021

Posted by:  Matthew Margetts

Do we need ‘quick wins’ to build public support for smart cities? Or is it the IoT sector’s job (quietly and invisibly) to provide better, safer, greener lives for today’s smart citizens? Should we be winning hearts and minds with dazzling services, or silently enhancing the quality of life? Jeremy Cowan gets some surprising answers from Francesca Serravalle, Colt’s emerging technologies director, and Magnus Melander, founder of Sweden-based IoT Alliance, SMSE and tech hub THINGS. Plus sport takes over from space programmes as a top tech-driver. And <<SHOCK NEWS>> Bill Gates may have backed a winner in electric-powered aviation!

(more…)

August 12, 2021

Posted by: IoT global network

(Sponsored News)  Spanish bookseller Ona Llibres has 50 years of book-selling history.  Last year, the company has opened a new bookstore in the center of Barcelona, not only for customers to experience the fun of shopping but also for them to enjoy an immersive reading experience. They decided to use RFID technology to achieve this goal and enhance the customer experience through automatic access to book content & self-purchase service. While managing inventory, they need to ensure that sold books on the shelves can be quickly re-stocked.

The new bookstore deploys an information solution with Chainway C72 UHF rfid reader that realizes catalog management, equipment management, and inventory management.  It provides a “differentiated shopping experience” for the customers.

According to this solution, when books enter the bookstore, employees generate & paste an RFID tag with a unique code on each book. Each code associates the title & author of the corresponding book to identify the book in the bookstore.

In daily routine, employees use the built-in Chainway C72 UHF rfid reader to scan the book’s labels to obtain the related information of the corresponding book and perform operation management. For example, employees can use Chainway C72 UHF rfid readers for inventory counting regularly. Based on the excellent read and write performance of Chainway C72, employees can quickly capture the IDs of all tags in the inventory by walking through the bookshelves with the readers, without deliberate alignment, which shortens the inventory update time.

To keep the bookstore tidy and beautiful, the retailer needs to display the book in a limited sales space. Thus, the book inventory in the front & backside of the warehouse must be tracked closely. When a book is sold, the company uses the RFID system to ensure that the missing space is filled immediately, so that new customers can see it in selves.

In addition, the C72 handheld device is not only used to check inventory, but also to find the designated books on the shelf. In the specific operation, the employee enters the given book title or author in the device and walks through the bookstore with a Chainway C72 RFID reader to find the relevant tag ID, which greatly reduces working time and improves work efficiency.

Moreover, all data will be updated in real-time in the background system to ensure that the storefront is consistent with the inventory data. At the same time, these data also provide data support for store inventory replenishment and historical sales pattern analysis.

The new application does not only allows managers to monitor the bookstore’s inventory in real-time but also achieves a better customer experience. Customers can view the information of all books through the interactive screen and estimated waiting time in the queue to buy a book. The improvement in these services has also enabled the bookstore to follow the COVID-19 guideline.

July 22, 2021

Posted by: IoT global network

This article first appeared inside the Tech Trends Report

Mobile network operators (MNOs) are investing billions in 5G infrastructure but are they failing to maximise the monetisation opportunities by applying traditional telecoms business models to this new era, asks TechTrends managing editor George Malim?

(more…)

July 7, 2021

Posted by: IoT global network

This article first appeared in Transport 360 magazine.

Although the pandemic has meant passengers are staying home, the retail supply chain has massively increased its utilisation of rail cargo.

To handle this growth and deal with the challenges of attracting passengers back to rail transport, train operating companies are increasingly adopting IoT systems and applications. To achieve this, they’ll need to automate and add industrial computers, sensors, monitors and gateways to gain visibility into passenger flows, offer improved experiences and run their trains to ensure passenger safety and minimised environmental impact.

(more…)

July 5, 2021

Posted by: IoT global network

Sigfox’s CEO, Jeremy Prince says small can be beautiful; you don’t need to build a motorway to ride a bicycle. His company has invested €300 million in a decade rolling out a 72-country network, but in telco network terms that’s loose change. The market has matured since 2010, says Sigfox’s deputy CEO, Franck Siegel. They tell Jeremy Cowan and the Trending Tech podcast they’ve seen a “huge ramp up” in the number of Sigfox connected devices from 2 million in 2017 to 18 million now. Customers no longer ask for proofs of concept, they know it works. The market potential is huge, says Prince. “The analysts will be wrong again, but this time it will be bigger than they predict.”

(more…)

June 22, 2021

Posted by: IoT global network

President Biden has signed an Executive Order on cybersecurity as the latest US step to improve IoT security by introducing cybersecurity labelling for consumer products. The Trending Tech Podcast hears from Steve Hanna of Infineon that the race to the bottom in cybersecurity is ending as governments worldwide are following new standards. Meanwhile, Gartner says 75% of enterprise data is expected to be created and processed at the Edge. But which Edge? George Malim and Jeremy Cowan wonder if telcos will profit from their Edge advantages. History suggests not. Maybe this time will be different!

(more…)

June 11, 2021

Posted by: IoT global network