• Telkom Business and its new partner Advannotech aim to make IoT and AI-cloud solutions accessible to organisations of all sizes.
• This will be accomplish through Advannotech’s VantageX data fusion platform and Telkom connectivity.
• Both the public and private sectors could stand to benefit from the cost savings, efficiencies and automation the pair are offering.

Internet of Things solutions are popular among large corporations and enterprises that need to keep track of or control many tools or devices remotely. As you might imagine, these solutions come at a cost and for smaller businesses they may not make sense.

Telkom Business and its new partner Advannotech hope to change that thinking by making IoT and AI cloud solutions accessible to businesses of all sizes. The collaboration will leverage Advannotech’s VantageX data fusion platform. The platform integrates with existing business applications, providing intelligence data automation, and machine learning capabilities. This gives businesses the ability to get an overview of separate systems and turn raw data into actionable data.

This, combined with Telkom Business connectivity will unlock a range of solutions for both the private and public sectors. Some of the solutions Telkom Business notes are:

• Smart utility monitoring – Water and electricity meters that track abnormal usage and leaks to help reduce waste.
• Asset tracking – Real-time tracking of any organisational asset and provides a consolidated view of the asset location and status, ensuring operational visibility.
• Smart farming – Monitoring and automation of environmental conditions provides data-driven insights to improve crop yields and resource use.
• Smart security – AI-Enabled vision solution that provides contextual summaries and alerts based on video streams from existing CCTV systems for better monitoring and risk management.

“Many businesses believe that IoT is only for enterprise-size operations, but that’s simply not true anymore,” Tjaart Bester, Head of IoT Products and Propositions at Advannotech, said in a statement. “Our solutions are designed to be accessible for organisations of any size looking to digitise and optimise their operations with proven technology.”

The hope between the pair is that through this offering there is an increased appetite for modern infrastructure and solutions from the private and public sectors. By leveraging data and automation combined with IoT technology, businesses can save costs and the public sector can improve its service delivery.

“These technologies reduce costs and improve efficiency, making them a valuable investment for businesses and government entities alike,” said Lunga Siyo, Telkom CEO: Consumer and Small Business (pictured).

As Siyo tells it, both Telkom Business and Advannotech will offer an end-to-end service from consultation to maintenance.

“We offer continuous support and upgrades, so businesses can scale without having to reinvest in new infrastructure.” This ensures that even small and medium-sized businesses can take advantage of digital solutions without needing in-house expertise,” the executive says in a statement.

The two companies will be working together moving forward. There are already plans afoot to expand the solution to include the ability to monitor and control operations in rural areas. This solution will be, as most things are these days, AI-driven. What we find interesting however, is the claim that this solution will simplify data analysis for businesses without requiring technical expertise or complex sensors usually used for large scale applications.

“We equip businesses with the right tools to stay competitive and agile in a fast-changing digital world,” said Bester. “With our scale-as-you-grow model, we support businesses throughout their entire growth cycle.”