A North West innovation hub has formed an exclusive industrial Internet of Things partnership with ifm electronic, one of the world’s largest and most innovative suppliers of sensors and sensing systems.
HOST – the Home of Skills & Technology – is operated by IN4 Group in Salford.
ifm provides professional guidance and support for HOST members in MediaCity and across all its programmes to introduce and implement tailored digitisation solutions towards the creation of smart factories of the future for startups and SMEs.
IN4 Group has established a pedigree in enabling industrial digital technology adoption within SMEs. The partnership will further enhance the support and upskilling of teams to accelerate digitalisation to achieve higher productivity and business growth.
Alongside its expansion to the North West, ifm has provided two demonstrators for HOST’s Labs that allows companies to use the latest technology to test and verify IoT business use cases.
In addition, HOST will be working in collaboration with Amazon Web Services and CloudRail, providing a complete end to end solution from industrial sensors to AWS services, enabling companies to connect industrial machines in hours instead of weeks.
As an automation technology specialist with 50 years of experience in industrial manufacturing, ifm offers a range of industrial IoT solutions including sensor parameter setting and condition monitoring, plug and play operational technology (OT) and IT products.
Paul Stansfield, head of Industry 4.0 Systems for ifm, said: “This partnership brings the manufacturing knowhow of ifm together with IN4 and HOST’s training networks to really enable businesses to develop their digital futures.”
Mo Isap, CEO of IN4 Group, said: “I’m delighted to establish this key industrial manufacturing and IoT partnership with ifm as we continue to bring world-class support to the HOST community.
“SMEs and start-up businesses will benefit immensely from the industry-leading expertise that we can offer by enabling access to industry 4.0 technologies through our programmes and networks, creating sustainable prosperity and growth for the region.”