Top innovators in IOT revealed at MTN’s IoT Conference & Awards

Today, the premier Internet of things (IOT) focused conference concluded with the announcement of the winner of the 2019 MTN Business IoT Solution of the Year Award.

The Informed Decisions solution took top honours at this year's awards. This will see its developers travelling to Silicon Valley later this year – the grand prize is valued at R200 000.

A proudly South African original equipment manufacturer (OEM), Informed Decisions provides a multitude of full IOT tracking, monitoring and analysing solutions, all produced and designed in-house. Its innovative hardware technology enables IOT in various industries, such as pharmaceuticals, the cold chain and water management, while making it affordable to the mass market.

"We are impressed with the calibre of the enterprise solutions that were submitted for consideration for various categories in the MTN Business IoT & Conference Awards. The quality and maturity of the submissions were confidence-inspiring and indicated that local developers are well poised to play a meaningful role in the future of IOT. Judging by the high standard of the solutions presented, we are certain that the future of IOT is in good hands and the country is well positioned to play a central role in the fourth industrial revolution," says Wanda Matandela, Chief Enterprise Officer: MTN Business.

Winners in the MTN Business IoT & Conference Awards

In the MTN Business IoT & Conference Awards, Informed Decisions was named as the overall winner of the 2019 edition of the awards.

• Informed Decisions is a local company that uses hardware technology to enable IOT in various industries such as pharmaceuticals, in the cold chain and water management sector, while making it affordable to the mass market. It provides a multitude of full IOT tracking, monitoring and analysing solutions, all produced and designed in-house. It is completely independent of any public network provider; the hardware runs on Informed Decision's own private LoRa network and can be deployed in both urban and rural areas.

The Best Enterprise Development Solution Award was conferred to MeMeZa Home Policing Alarm.

• The MeMeZa Home Policing Alarm is the first public, all-in-one emergency system endorsed by SAPS. The app provides a direct communication channel between the police and communities, particularly low-income households, who have no access to the private security industry. The solution also comes standard with an outdoor siren with GPS.

The Best Commercial IT Solution Award was presented to Discovery Vitality Drive Sensor.

• The Discovery app uses vehicle telematics to accurately track driving behaviour. The app has been in the market for three years and consists of a battery-operated sensor that attaches to the windscreen of a vehicle. The device interacts with Discovery's smartphone driving application to measure and reward users' driving behaviour. Since launching, the programme has collected more than 11 billion kilometres of driving data.

The Best Industry 4.0 Solution Award was given to Informed Decisions, which was also awarded as the overall winner.

The Innovative Hardware in IoT Award was conferred to NodeX IoT System.

• The NodeX IoT System allows users to regulate any electronic or mechanical system parameter wirelessly, such as monitoring a reservoir level, movement of a vehicle or turning a pump on and off. Operators no longer must be dependent on third party internet access, with users able to regulate the system to their own specifications and infrastructure needs. With the help of onboard inputs and sensors, the system captures data which is stored on the device or in a cloud database and can be retrieved for real-time tracking and analysis.

The Most Disruptive IoT Solution Award was bestowed on earlyROM Mining Production System using industrial IOT.

• earlyROM Mining Production System is an IoT solution that has been deployed at Exxaro's Belfast Coal Mine. It enables Exxaro to monitor machine performance, tempos, cycle times and machine data of its mining fleet in real-time. The earlyROM Mining Production System is a commercially and technically disruptive Edge Computing system.

"On behalf of MTN Business, we wish to congratulate all the winners and the finalists who made it to this advanced stage of the competition. The contestants have shown determination and demonstrated a good grasp of the challenges facing enterprise customers. We hope that they will use the feedback they have received during the adjudication process to scale up their solutions," Matandela concludes.