Category: News

Vox IoT solutions to take tracking to the next level

Posted on by Duo Marketing

Vox is launching several fully-managed Internet of Things (IoT) based solutions that are secure, power efficient, cost effective and simple to deploy on any scale, large or small.

When coupled with advanced analytics, big data collection will bring new security options including asset and animal tracking to South African customers.

As user requirements expand, tamper and tracking, asset, animal, utility and security devices are being deployed pervasively on movable assets like vehicles or trailers, on animals and in less accessible places. End users want to know much more than just location, with proactive notifications of out of the ordinary behaviour and activity allowing them to identify and track trends, amongst other features.

Vox has positioned itself as a network neutral platform provider and will support NB-IOT, LTE-M1, LoRa and Sigfox technologies. “This is going to be like Beta vs VHS” – du Toit says. Vox has initially partnered with leading operator Sqwidnet, the provider of Sigfox technology in South Africa. Sqwidnet has the lowest price point from a hardware and connectivity perspective and the technology extends to more than 42 countries. These “Things” could include any object embedded with electronics, software, sensors, actuators and coupled with network connectivity to collect and exchange data, communicate and control objects remotely.

Simply put, Low Powered WAN technology (Sigfox & LoRA) works well in situations where devices need to send small amounts of data over a wide area while maintaining battery life over many years. This distinguishes LPWAN from other wireless network protocols like Cellular with regards to bandwidth and range capability.

Adds du Toit, ¨The Sigfox network is unique in that towers can transmit information over long distances – up to 90 kilometres or more in the regions from a single base station with very low emissions and a small visual impact.”

 

Secure, cost-effective asset tracking

While tracking in itself is not new, it has traditionally been reliant on GSM networks – which are expensive to adopt and maintain, and have a higher power consumption requirement to transmit data. Furthermore, GSM devices are now increasingly susceptible to being disrupted, with signal jammers the size of a cell phone making theft of movable assets much easier and untraceable.

“Apart from the signal being harder to interfere with, our IoT devices are self-powered and don’t draw power from an external source, says du Toit,

“Other embedded sensors measure temperature, battery life, occasionally provide GPS co-ordination and detect if someone is trying to tamper with the IoT device”.

Depending on how frequently the device transmits information, the IoT devices support a low power design and up to 10-year autonomy. The IoT devices can support anything from 2 to 50 to 100 to 140 transmission frames per day. At 140 transmission frames – that is 1 message every 15 minutes.

All telemetry information is collected and analysed in the cloud, which is shared with end-users through online websites or mobile applications. Bulk users will have the ability to customise the application to suite their business requirements.

In addition to steadily declining IoT device prices over the past few years, using an IoT network will help organisations to cut down on the operational costs of using traditional GSM networks, including SIM fees, network connection fees, and data costs.

Automated workflows will be a key differentiator for Vox – given the number of connected devices anticipated it will be impossible for humans to make action based decisions. We will be focussing on automation, starting off with basic workflows and advancing into AI and Machine Learning.

The market requires a lot of education wrt understanding the real meaning of AI – it is only the “silver bullet” if you know exactly what you want to achieve. A lot can be achieved without applying AI from inception

 

Tamper Alert

Doors, gates and windows are the weakest security points in a building or farm and as such, we have been able to bring to market an “early warning device” if you will, that notifies one when a door, gate or window is tampered with. This self-powered device is not susceptible to jamming technologies and will alert you once the device’s integrity has been breached, allowing business owners to secure any building at a low cost, while also addressing the main weakness of security

The power supply is the other ‘Achilles’ heel’ of security systems. Our tamper alert devices enable low energy consumption: connected movement detectors can run on batteries for up to 10 years.”

 

Taking OBD out of the workshop

For many years now, vehicles around the world come with an on-board diagnostics (OBD) port, which is typically connected to a dealership diagnostics computer when the vehicle is taken to a dealership for a service, allowing for a mechanic to access your vehicles onboard systems to view and identify faults.

All vehicles built after 2003, have an OBD 2.0 port, which gives the user access to critical driver behaviour data such as vehicle speed, engine RPM, accelerator pedal position, engine load, accelerator data, distance travelled and alert indicators such as low fuel, flat tyre, etc.

While such functionality is already being used by some insurers, these features can also be helpful in improved asset management by fleet managers, rental companies, motor vehicle dealers, asset financiers and more. For logistics, information can be collected regarding deliveries, including tracking of pallets, parcels, and trolleys, improving value chain security and improving efficiencies.

Du Toit believes that the rental market can be disrupted based on driver behaviour. Imagine having the ability to classify driving behaviour and being charged a rate that is applicable to the way you drove throughout the rental period. There are lots of people that are willing to pay a premium while others will want the benefit of a saving for “driving like Miss Daisy”.

Paying a daily insurance rate versus a monthly rate due to good, healthy driver habits is another area open for disruption. Drivers are also able to benefit from an enhanced user service experience by proactively dealing with alerts or warnings picked up the OBD.

Consider a new unfortunate common practice whereby rental drivers in need of new tyres swop rental car tyres out with their old ones and return the rentals with the used tyres. Once again, IoT is able to disrupt theft and similar activities by placing a device on the tyre which is able to detect movement and bank angles on the tyres, thereby providing an alert that the tyres have been tampered with.

 

Enabling the connected farmer

Aimed at small, medium and large-scale farmers, Vox uses IoT to help with animal management, reproductive control, fattening management, and in heat and calving detection. The smart collars used have multiple sensors, are lightweight and easy to use, and improve on previous solutions with network coverage and extended battery life.

In this scenario, each animal is fitted with a IoT collar to monitor its location and condition, with the data being transmitted securely to the Vox cloud, and resulting analytics collected, interpreted and delivered back to web portals or smartphone applications. This allows farmers to set geofencing boundaries, monitor and track their animals and get real-time notifications for theft and other behavioural events.

On the back end, all information collected is securely sent to a multi-platform system in the cloud, which analyses data and displays it in a user-friendly application that allows farmers to set geofencing boundaries, monitor and track their animals and get real-time notifications for theft and other abnormal events.

Think of it as an IoT eco-system which extends to security, humidity and moisture as well as tracking.  Collectively, this provides farmers with a comprehensive management tool to increase productivity, reduce costs and animal losses, and improve operations efficiency by cutting down on the paperwork.

Vox backs Mimecast for Office 365 – becomes customer

Posted on by Diana Martins Prenner

Vox, has reaffirmed its strategic partnership with Mimecast and signed up as a user, ensuring first-hand experience of the products, services and solutions offered by the company in an Office 365-led environment.

“Mimecast is a best of breed product in the email security space and therefore meets the requirements in line with our policy to internally use the products that we take to market, says Craig Freer, executive head: Cloud and Managed Services at Vox.

Vox became a Mimecast managed partner in February 2016 and is extending this relationship by becoming a customer. South Africa has one of the highest rates of cyber-attacks globally, with Ransomware being the biggest risk and up to 90% of all ransomware attacks originating from email. Mimecast protects businesses by offering advanced email security that defends against malware, spam, advanced phishing and other emerging attacks, while preventing data leaks.

Vox believes that it will benefit not only from enhanced security in its own environment, but will be even better placed to consult on the benefits of deploying Mimecast to existing and future customers across all industries, irrespective of size.

Brandon Bekker, managing director of Mimecast Africa and Middle East, said, “When partners become customers, we know we must be doing something right. A strong collaboration between the two companies sends a message to customers that we are better together, delivering cyber resilience for businesses across the country.”

¨The message to market should be clear – any Office 365 engagement should be considered with Mimecast. And we are backing it, by spending money on it,¨ adds Freer.

As a Microsoft CSP and through its strategic partnership with Mimecast, the Vox managed services team is ideally placed to install, support, migrate and integrate Office 365 and Mimecast solutions.

“Vox is an important Mimecast partner and having them as a customer will only strengthen this relationship. The end user experience is an important part of our offering. Allowing Vox staff to experience first-hand our security solution, will empower them to communicate the key benefits and motivate them to educate Vox customers about the need for advanced email security,” concludes Bekker.

Vox Fibre undergoes refresh – drives value to customers

Posted on by Duo Marketing

Vox has refreshed and is relaunching its Vox Fibre product suite, aiming to deliver additional value for customers and partners in a market that is characterised by price for ISP services.

Henda Edwardes, Executive Head: Carrier & Communication Solutions at Vox, says “The market is highly competitive and we are constantly looking for ways to differentiate our products and services, beyond just price. We believe that this approach has enabled us to overcome a number of customer pain points when it comes to connectivity and internet-enabled services.”

The company, which has a number of bundles and packages, has substantially expanded its national footprint. Vox has also prioritised its Broadband Business Fibre as its first enhanced offering – which boasts symmetric, capped and uncapped high-speed broadband internet, a best-effort service with low contention ratios, with price points that start from R2 499 for capped and uncapped services per month. Links range from 20Mbps to 1Gbs and fibre bundles from 50Mbps and above include value added voice services. Vox therefore has the lowest cost-to-value in the market.

In line with the relaunch, Vox has done away with in-and-out of precinct pricing, as well as out of precinct commencing at 50MB. Customers now have access to packages commencing at 20MB.

Pricing, combined with access to the Vox Customer Zone, allows customers to manage their end-to-end Vox services and solutions, and increase their capacity up to 1Gbps, through the instantaneous installation of a 1Gbps endpoint on site.

“Vox will continually identify ways in which to drive value for our customers, so improvements and enhancements across our connectivity portfolio can be expected as 2018 progresses,” adds Edwardes.

According to Vox CEO, Jacques du Toit, the company should no longer be seen as just an ISP, but rather a fully-fledged infrastructure provider through its acquisition of Frogfoot Networks in 2015.

“The launch of the National Long Distance Fibre Project in 2016 is one way in which we are working to ensure that towns and cities outside of major metropolitan areas are getting access to high speed fibre, and wireless connectivity,” adds du Toit.

“This is also a great opportunity for the smaller retail players to be introduced to the benefits of Vox fibre in malls, where Frogfoot has been deployed (prices start at R595).”

Rollout of these services is available in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Cape Town, Durban, Port Elizabeth, East London and Bloemfontein, and is currently underway along the eastern belt of the country, extending from Witbank through Middelburg, Secunda, Ermelo, Piet Retief, Paulpietersburg; Melmoth, Empangeni, Richards Bay and Ballito.

From Watchman to Business Intelligence: the Evolution of Remote Monitoring

Posted on by Duo Marketing

By Kobus van Deventer, Guardian Eye Manager

A growing number of South African companies are taking advantage of advances in remote video surveillance and monitoring technology by using cloud-based analytics to gain new insight into improving safety and security, identify retail trends, understand customer behaviour and more.

According to research firm Markets and Markets, the video surveillance market was valued at US$30.3-billion in 2016, and is projected to grow at an annual rate of 15.4% to reach $75.6-billion by 2022.

Key vertical industries driving adoption of the technology globally include commercial, retail, and infrastructure, with hospitality also providing increasing opportunities for growth. In South Africa, the focus is on industrial, commercial and residential precincts, and the mining and transport sectors.

Improvements in local internet connectivity have also resulted in higher uptake: while video surveillance in itself is not new, the growth in coverage by high-speed fibre or wireless networks together with declining data costs means that organisations can now connect all their cameras to a central network for monitoring and video archival.

Increased Safety and Control

With event monitoring, virtual guarding and fully managed monitoring services, companies can progress from getting ‘blind’ event-based alerts, toward visual confirmation of suspicious activity on premises or within particular perimeter.

Apart from removing the requirement for multiple onsite control rooms, which helps companies with many sites to save on infrastructure, staffing and training costs, remote monitoring further tightens security by ensuring that there can be no coercion of or collusion with onsite security in order to gain improper access to a secured area.

Using the cloud further means that companies no longer need to worry about data storage, backups and disaster recovery, cyber security, or the threat of damage or theft of recording infrastructure.

Advanced Software-Based Services

The real value in this technology for companies goes beyond just security infrastructure, and toward the analytical tools and capabilities that are made possible through the switch to cloud computing.

With self-learning video analytics, operators are not bombarded with endless streams of footage from multiple sources; rather, technology is used to analyse all video recorded, to sift out what is not required, and provide a short synopsis of suspicious or predetermined events.

The security operators can define alerts by actions (people or vehicles traveling in a particular direction or crossing set boundaries), frequency (the number of times a person or vehicle enters a specific area), and even link to relevant databases to flag stolen or suspicious vehicles in real time.

The benefits for companies here are twofold: it allows for one operator to handle up to 100 cameras – as opposed to one operator to 16 cameras for a traditional CCTV system – and archiving only the video reports results in lower data storage costs.

Smart Retail: Going Beyond Security with Analytics

Not only does advanced video analytics further enable companies to effectively monitor areas with high volumes of traffic, such as public spaces and transportation nodes, but is also capable of providing them with business insight.

By analysing in-store behaviour, retailers can learn more about who their customers are, how long they spend inside stores, and which parts of the store they visit the most (heat mapping). Stores can also improve the customer experience by monitoring and actively managing how long it takes before shoppers are attended to, or have to wait at till lines. They can also use video analytics to improve efficiency in warehouse management.

Property owners or managers – at shopping centres and other high footfall areas such as airports – can use this data to design better retail spaces by taking human behaviour into account, and even to justify higher rentals for properties or stands in areas with proven higher footfall.

While video surveillance has been around for many years, combining it with high bandwidth connectivity and cloud computing means the potential applications are myriad, and businesses now have a powerful tool that helps them convert hours of video into actionable intelligence.

Vox launches IT-as-a-Service, Unlocks Products and Services for Business

Posted on by Duo Marketing

Vox has bundled many of its IT solutions into an integrated IT-as-a-Service offering that delivers flexible, cost effective IT resources with the option of fully managed services.

Vox IT-as-a-Service delivers an all inclusive suite of infrastructure, application and managed services, irrespective of whether the business´ strategy is in the cloud, onsite or a hybrid model.

“Our aim is to find flexible, value driven products, services and solutions, that enable companies to focus on their core business. We act as an extension of our customer’s IT team, offering senior level expertise,” says Craig Freer, Executive Head: Cloud | MIT at Vox.

The IT-as-a-Service offering includes (amongst others) fully managed Infrastructure-as-a- Service (IaaS); Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), Communication-as-a-Service (CaaS) and Security-as-a-Service (SECaaS) whilst the broad application portfolio includes Digital Communications, Productivity, Collaboration and ERP.

Adds Freer, “Vox understands the importance of technology to a business and that managing day-to-day tasks can be a distraction to strategic business objectives. Our aim is to become a turnkey partner to our customers through fibre, voice and their entire IT infrastructure and application portfolio”.

 

Fax is Dead – or is it?

Posted on by Diana Martins Prenner

Inevitably, when people and organisations think about fax, it is considered a non-essential and outdated technology that has been replaced by email and scanned documents.  But according to the IDC, facsimile remains a vital communications tool and has an important role in organisations as they embrace digital transformation.

IDC points out that over the last three decades, technology has evolved to change our organisations interact with their stakeholders.  Similarly, fax technology has evolved and today provide software and cloud-based digital solutions that are integrated with enterprise applications, maintaining secure, trackable and auditable information exchange.

The reality is that digital facsimile services, offered via onsite OpenText RightFax or Fax2Mail services, eliminates the need for standalone fax machines and enables increasingly important integration with users’ desktops, email and multifunction peripherals (MFPs).

According to the survey that the IDC conducted, 43 percent of respondents indicated that facsimile usage has increased, with 39 percent indicating that it will remain steady.

These statistics are reflected in the continued utilisation of fax services in South Africa by all major financial, healthcare and legal organisations as well as public sector.

But why is fax still relevant in the 21st century?

Mostly because fax is viewed as a trusted communication method – especially in an era defined by growing security concerns.  Fax offers a means of tracking documents, providing a high level of confidence and leaves an auditable trail.

Digital fax servers and cloud-based fax services eliminate the risk of lost, misplaced or misfiled paper faxes associated with standalone facsimile machines – and most importantly, fax documents are considered legally binding documents.

So what, according to IDC, is the next growth opportunity for this kind of electronic messanging?

Digital transformation strategies mean that paper-based faxing needs to be eliminated and 90 percent of the respondents in the IDC survey have indicated that they will work on integrating fax with business workflows.

The evolution of facsimile to include optical character recognition has allowed companies to implement automatic workflows as well as searchable fax documents (critical for archiving).

These two major developments keep facsimile relevant in the digital economy.

In addition integration of multi-functional printers to RightFax servers has eliminated the need for costly facsimile cards and individual telco lines, savings companies millions annually.

By Carly Sutton, Senior Product Manager for Cloud: Digital Communications at Vox 

Vox Announces IoT Network Partnership with Sqwidnet

Posted on by Duo Marketing

Vox has partnered with local network provider Sqwidnet, to provide individual consumers and enterprise customers with connectivity, data analytics and reporting for Internet of Things (IoT) applications in the near future.

An IoT network consists of three parts: the devices that collect information, the network that connects everything, and the data analytics capabilities that allow companies to turn the volumes of data into actionable business intelligence.

“One of the reasons we partnered with Sqwidnet is that they are the sole Sigfox operator in South Africa. As an international IoT network with a presence in over 30 countries, using Sigfox means that you can use compliant devices on their network across the country and beyond,” says Vox CEO, Jacques du Toit.

Sqwidnet plans to have nationwide IoT network coverage by 2018, allowing for millions of sensors and devices across the country to transmit data to a centralised location for analysis, immediate action, and record keeping.

Vox’s integration and consultancy subsidiary, Braintree, will be used to provide customers with analytical capabilities, reporting, and dashboards to monitor and manage their IoT networks.

While the simpler consumer model will enable individuals to purchase compliant devices and register them via Vox in order to get notifications, enterprise customers stand to benefit from custom built solutions with specialised notifications, reporting, dashboards, workflows, and other advanced features

IoT Market Growth

Research by Africa Analysis shows that the IoT market is a growing segment in the local ICT industry, with the South African market being valued at $485-million – accounting for approximately 25% of total revenue in Africa – and projected to grow by 9% per annum by 2022.

One of the main contributors to this growth being a significant decline in the price of the chips that power these IoT devices, with prices having fallen from over $9 in 2016 to an expected price of 20c by 2018. Usage of narrow-band communication over a low-power wide area network brings down energy consumption on connected devices, further bringing down costs and broadening access to IoT technology.

However, unlike developed countries where there has been a huge focus on smart home and smart city deployments, users in South Africa are looking for cost savings and adding value, and the increasing trend is to leverage IoT applications for agriculture, utilities and manufacturing and industrial processes.

Vox is in discussions with a wide variety of industry players over enterprise IoT applications, with examples including a smart geyser application for the insurance industry that enables remote monitoring and preventative maintenance.

“IoT is going to provide a huge area for growth in South Africa, especially in the area of integration. The network and devices are going to accrue for a small percentage of revenue generated from IoT; the value is in the integration and the analytics that we get out of all the data being collected – and that’s where Vox comes in,” says Du Toit.

Atterbury Property Chooses Vox for Fibre Partnership

Posted on by Duo Marketing

Frogfoot Networks, a wholly owned subsidiary of integrated ICT and connectivity provider, Vox, has been appointed as the exclusive partner for fibre network and connectivity infrastructure for the property portfolio of Atterbury Property Holdings.

Frogfoot Networks will be responsible for the funding, roll out and management of open access infrastructure required as part of Atterbury´s development projects which make up an estimated 1 100 000m² over the next three to five years.  Vox has been appointed as the preferred connectivity solutions provider for all future developments.

“Property developers have realised that having an open access fibre network differentiates their properties and provides the platform for SMART buildings, offices and cities.

Historically, connectivity solutions only offered telecommunications and Internet services to retailers and businesses.  Today, fibre infrastructure investments leverage everything from traditional telecommunications, to point of sale, monitoring and management systems, and ultimately, a SMART environment – be it for retail or offices,“ says Jacques du Toit, CEO of Vox.

“Having connected, smart buildings is no longer optional.  To remain ahead of a growing demand for high speed and always on connectivity, requires planning from the foundations up. Strategic partnerships with infrastructure providers like Frogfoot, coupled with best of breed service providers like Vox are increasingly critical,” concludes Stoffel van Beek, COO Atterbury Property Holdings.

Atterbury will leverage the connectivity infrastructure for mixed use in its retail and commercial property projects.  There is a small component of residential development in Atterbury’s portfolio that will also see fibre rollouts.

Concludes Du Toit, “It’s a matter of association.  Partnerships such as the one with Atterbury not only advances our fibre strategy, but provides a platform for better connectivity services and solutions to consumers, businesses and homeowners.  Better infrastructure and connectivity is good for business and enables an already connected society to benefit from value added services and solutions.”

Vox Launches LTE-A Packages with Rain

Posted on by Duo Marketing

Vox is expanding its wireless portfolio through the introduction of several broadband internet packages using Rain’s Long Term Evolution-Advanced (LTE-A) network, with prices starting at R549 per month.

Rain, previously Wireless Business Solutions, recently announced the rollout of over 1500 LTE-A base stations across the country, with the intention of expanding coverage to a total of 2 000 sites by the end of 2017 and 4000 by the end of 2018.

The LTE-A package is an easy to use, SIM card based service running over a more robust network that offers end users with higher throughputs of up to 50Mbps – speeds that are more associated with fibre links.

“With the introduction of these packages, customers now have a wider range of choice when it comes to selecting a broadband connectivity provider. We further simplify the process by delivering the SIM and Huawei router right to the customer’s doorstep and ensuring that they are RICA compliant,” says Phiana de Villiers, product manager for wireless at Vox.

Vox will initially offer five LTE-A packages: a Basic Plan with 55GB of data, an Advanced Plan with 85GB of data an Ultimate Plan with 120GB, and 220GB Plan and a 330GB plan. The roll out is supported by a double data promotion through which the customer will receive double their data allowance at no additional cost.  In addition, customers will be able to purchase top-up data vouchers ranging from 1GB to 20GB via the company website, ranging from R10 to R200. 

Adds De Villiers, “It is a capped service, which gives customers control over their spending and ensures that there is no bill shock at the end of the month.”

Customers have the option of entering into a long-term contract where the cost of the router is built into the monthly subscription, or by buying the router upfront and paying for their data plan on a monthly basis. Customers can use the map on Rain’s website (http://www.rain.co.za) to determine if they have LTE-A coverage in their area.

“In order to provide customers with an even better internet experience, we will in the near future introduce packages that include a router with an external antenna which will be  delivered and installed at the customer’s premises,” says De Villiers.

The new product offering strengthens Vox’s portfolio of wireless connectivity solutions, which already includes microwave, satellite and 3G services.

Online Marketing Toolbox for SMMEs

Posted on by Duo Marketing

Vox has launched its Online Marketing Toolbox aimed at providing start-ups and SMMEs with bundled services aimed at creating an online presence.

“We wanted to simplify the digital tools available to small (and micro) enterprises, that need to have a footprint online, but either don’t have in-house marketing capabilities, or are not sure where to start,” says Carly Sutton, Senior Product Manager Cloud: Digital Communications at Vox.

The Toolbox consists of three components – domain registration for a .co.za company; Sitebuilder, a do-it-yourself website building and hosting solution, and Bulk Mailer, an email marketing tool that utilises Everlytic software, that comes with 1 000 email credits once off.

Adds Sutton, “We have also included an email address with the bundle that is intended to assist with driving responses from the website, back to the business.”

Sutton points out that the combination of Sitebuilder and Bulk Mailer in a single packaged offering, provides business owners with the ability to create and maintain a subscription database for customer communications.  

The bundles, which comprise similar offerings for Bulk Mailer and domain registration, vary in price to accommodate three Sitebuilder options – Starter, Booster and Turbo – dependent on the storage, number of pages and (insert one other) that might be required.

“For those business owners that would prefer to have the site built for them, there is the Sitebuilder Do-it-for-Me option, and our in-house developers will design and set-up the site,” says Sutton.

Sitebuilder Do-it-for-Me has two pricing options (again based on the size of the site required) and can be paid as a once off amount, or over a 24 month period.

The Online Marketing Toolbox is a 12-month contract with the domain registration requiring an annual renewal and is not limited to existing Vox customers.

Concludes Sutton, “Having an online presence is no longer optional, and by combining the right tools with a simplified (but effective) platform, we believe small businesses can more easily launch their digital shopfronts.”

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