Multi-Tech Systems: Transforming Business Communication through Remote Monitoring

Stefan Lindvall, CEO

The Machine-to-Machine (M2M) market has been growing steadily and will continue to do so at double digit CAGR for the foreseeable future. As the marketplace becomes more mature, the focus shifts from discussion of the enabling technologies to a discussion of the business value being enabled. But this creates some confusion about all the different pieces of the stack required to develop, deploy, and manage a complete solution. MultiTech, a Minnesota based company commits to help the clients in navigating the entire ecosystem by collaborating with service providers across the entire value chain. “MultiTech directly addresses the edge infrastructure for such solutions: the actual connectivity hardware,” introduces Stefan Lindvall, CEO of MultiTech.

With all the technology changes that take place it has now become critical to reach out to remote devices for firmware updates, provisioning, and even application changes. The company’s new software offering DeviceHQ is a cloud-based tool set to manage the latest generation of MultiTech devices. It incorporates all the functionalities of MultiTech Device Manager on which many M2M and internet of things (IoT) applications rely for remote monitoring, upgrading, and configuring the entire device population. “DeviceHQ provides the opportunity to manage a set of remote devices and deploy them from their control center to the edge of the network quickly and easily,” opines Lindvall. The platform features a device manager portion and an application store that enables clients to publish their proprietary applications and helps to leverage shared knowledge along with expertise from others in the industry.

With features like reduced cost and complexity, DeviceHQ simplifies the field deployments of gate-ways with zero touch provisioning. It updates custom applications remotely and enables edge intelligence by processing events at the point of incidents.

DeviceHQ provides the opportunity to manage a set of remote devices and deploy them from their control center to the edge of the network quickly and easily

Through this device the client would be able to build their own applications, leverage industry expertise, and access the development efforts to the broader M2M community.

Another solution the company offers is a suite of low-power, wide-area communications devices leveraging the new LoRaWAN protocol. The technology uses the industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) band to deliver cost-effective, low bandwidth communications across wide areas, and optimize battery life. “LoRa is well-suited to a subset of the clients’ applications and, unlike LTE, CAT M, narrow-band IoT or 5G, it is available today and is likely to remain a complement to other communications protocols in the future,” says Lindvall.

MultiTech’s M2M solutions were utilized by one of their clients, SMS WorldWide, to develop the first major incident text communication system that can handle emergency communication management needs. The system required a no-fault text messaging foundation that could enable messages within the system to be successfully transmitted from desktop, laptop, or tablet computer to any cell phone on any network worldwide. MultiTech offered a reliable cellular modem solution, which, with the help of a platform, would broadcast Major Crisis Text message alerts from the SMS Gateway to its recipients in a protected Gateway environment.

MultiTech continues to invest in capital that is designed to bring about innovation in the fields of technology, manufacturing, and support. “Our in-house manufacturing and custom design services deliver flexible and customized solutions to our clients,” says Lindvall.

The company plans to grow in the European market over the next few years. “In terms of products and services, we continue to grow in response to customer demand and will deliver quality product and excellent service today and in the future,” concludes Lindvall.