Our Founder and CEO, Lucas Funes was interviewed by IDG Connect on its C-Suite Career Advice series.
Lucas shared his perspective on a number of topics, including the best - and worst- business advise he's ever received. From his beginnings in tech with his first job working with databases at a very young age to building a company, he gave out advice for each situation: how to get into coding, career growth, skills, certificates, and even work/life balance. He also covered his do's and don'ts for interviews. What he looks for in candidates and what puts him off of them. Read through the entire interview on IDG Connect's website.
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As another year came to a close, we wanted to take a moment to share some of our top moments of 2021.
To this day, IoT implementations face a myriad of challenges, and connectivity is one of them. Legacy systems are costly and hard to implement, when they aren’t obsolete, hampering agility. Some other technologies like Wi-Fi are very affordable, but also very insecure for industrial applications and their high-security standards. Innovative communication protocols are now disrupting the industry and making it possible to cost-effectively implement compliant solutions. In this article, get to know one of these innovative technologies: LoRaWAN®. Its fundamentals, scope, how it operates, and some of the many Industry 4.0 applications that it enables. Introduction Disruptive technologies like LoRaWAN® are facilitating the adoption of Industry 4.0 where legacy tech would not work or not meet the necessary compliance requirements. And this is where LoRaWAN® truly shines: wirelessly, with a range of up to 15 kilometers and low power consumption allowing for years worth of battery life - added to a no-code approach - it makes implementing unobtrusive monitoring a breeze. The use cases are limitless and they are already deployed in many successful implementations all over the world. Defining LoRaWAN® The LoRaWAN® specification is a Low Power, Wide Area (LPWA) networking protocol designed to wirelessly connect battery operated ‘things’ to the internet in regional, national, or global networks, and targets key Internet of Things (IoT) requirements such as bi-directional Ceccommunication, end-to-end security, mobility and localization services. Specifics of operating with LoRaWAN® There are typically three main components on a Network: Sensors, Gateways, and Cloud Network Servers. Sensors, acting as nodes, forward the information they collect to a Gateway or multiple ones. These Gateways are the ones that connect to the cloud and send the information to the Network Server for processing, either via ethernet or cellular depending on availability and ease of getting a hardwired connection to the company’s network. ![]() How is LoRaWAN® being used in the Manufacturing industry?
LoRaWAN® applications are the perfect choice for providing innovative solutions, increasing efficiency, reliability, safety and security, and so much more within industrial processes and products. A network of stick-and-play sensors providing workers with real-time data via the Cloud is a powerful tool that can affect all aspects of the manufacturing process. Here are a few use cases of LoRaWAN® technology solutions being implemented in factories:
Get started with LoRaWAN® Still need more information? You can check the LoRa Alliance website for more resources on LoRaWAN® or download the entire technical overview here. If you are ready to take the next step, our experts are ready to assist you and get to know your company’s particular challenges. Feel free to reach out to us or schedule a meeting. Webee has been selected to join the Endless Frontier Labs 2021-2022 cohort alongside 75 ground-breaking companies! We look forward to working with EFL mentors, NYU Stern MBA students, and the rest of the companies selected for the Digital Tech track.
"It is a great recognition to our efforts that we have been chosen out of the 780 very talented applicants that went through the process this year. We are honored to be joining the 2021-2022 cohort and cannot wait to get started working with our EFL mentors to get to the next level in digitally transforming our client's operations through our easy to deploy, fast turnover IIoT solution." - Lucas Funes, Webee Founder & CEO. Endless Frontier Labs (EFL), a program for early-stage science and technology-based startups at New York University Stern School of Business, is structured to optimize each startup’s chance of scaling into a successful company through a goals-based mentoring process. EFL mentors are experienced entrepreneurs who have built and exited successful companies, world-renowned scientists and technical experts, and well-known venture capital and angel investors. Over nine months, EFL mentors work with admitted founders to set goals for the startups to accomplish and act as an informal advisory board to guide founders on how best to scale their businesses. Startups making progress are able to attract financing from investors in the program. Consistent with its mission as a non-profit, EFL is a founders-first program and charges no equity or fees from participating startups. No NYU affiliation or relocation to NYC is required to participate. The program is appropriate for founders from around the world seeking deep connections to the thriving New York ecosystem or U.S. markets. “Our mission is to bridge the gap between science and markets. We believe business strategy, validation by scientific peers, and connections to investors are critical for the successful commercialization of scientific breakthroughs. To that end, EFL provides founders access to an unparalleled network of business coaches, scientists, investors, and Stern MBA students to help transform their ideas into high-growth businesses,” said NYU Stern Professor Deepak Hegde, Founding Director of EFL. More About EFL Endless Frontier Labs (EFL) is a nine-month program at NYU Stern for early-stage science- and technology-based startups. Startup founders are advised by serial entrepreneurs, investors, and technical mentors to accomplish individualized business goals at eight-week intervals. These goals are designed to maximize each startup’s chance of growing into a high-growth business. Startups that fail to make progress can be cut from the program at mentor discretion in order to optimize resources for startups that are excelling. Those that meet their goals are likely to attract investment from EFL mentors, as well as from one of the many venture capital firms that are represented in the program. While companies in the EFL program do not require an NYU affiliation to participate, all companies will benefit from access to and support from NYU scientists and Stern MBA students. Startups can also benefit from access to several in-kind services from EFL’s corporate partners, such as advice on intellectual property issues and related matters from global law firm Greenberg Traurig, LLP and server credits from Amazon Web Services. As EFL is a non-profit academic initiative of New York University’s Stern School of Business, EFL does not take equity or collect fees from startups. Further information and FAQ can be found on EFL’s website and follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram for regular updates. About Webee Webee develops IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things) and AI solutions that save enterprises millions of dollars and facilitate sustainable operations through actionable access to real-time data about complex business processes. The company's unique, no-code visual platform for building complex IoT applications for the industrial and commercial markets enables customers to immediately realize ROI from IoT technology without interrupting operations. Webee's patented toolset allows organizations worldwide to improve operational efficiency through easy-to-install sensors and intuitive software that allows the development and deployment of smart applications without coding. ![]() ENTELEC is the world’s leading energy operator member association. At their latest conference and expo on August 10-11, we were invited to participate in a panel with thought leaders from Chevron, Orbiwise, MultiTech, and Oxit on a panel titled “LoRaWAN®: a Digital Revolution for Oil & Gas”. Like many other industries, the Oil & Gas landscape has changed significantly over the past two decades. Optimizing processes and getting real-time data in complex and remote locations are no longer nice-to-haves, they have evolved into real needs to keep a competitive edge. The particular conditions on which Oil & Gas operations take place make it very difficult to solve these issues with traditional technology solutions, where hard-wired connections would have to span tens of miles, becoming cumbersome, hard to maintain, and cost-prohibitive. Here’s where Digital Transformation comes in: disruptive technologies like LoRaWAN® are facilitating the digitization of the industry where legacy tech would not work or not meet the necessary compliance requirements. And this is where LoRaWAN® truly shines: wirelessly, with a range of up to 15 kilometers and low power consumption allowing for years worth of battery life - added to a no-code approach - it makes implementing unobtrusive monitoring a breeze. The use cases are limitless and they are already deployed in many successful implementations all over the world. From pump and valve monitoring to pressure and temperature sensing, as well as human safety. With fast deployment times and the ability to easily scale from PoC to production, the results start piling up quickly, leading to easily measurable ROI with significantly lesser impact on CAPEX than traditional solutions would warrant. Are your Oil & Gas operations struggling with digitization? At Webee, we are eager to take on the challenges of Industry 4.0 and bring on the next level of digital transformation to your business. Feel free to reach out to schedule a meeting. Ready to take the next step? You can also book a demo.
SUNNYVALE, Calif. - September 1st 2021 - Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and AI innovator Webee today announced that its SmartFarm IIoT platform won the “Best SaaS Product for Agriculture and Farming” category in the 2021 SaaS Awards Program. The SaaS Awards celebrate software innovation and excellence, accepting entries worldwide. “We are thrilled to be recognized as the winner for the Best SaaS Product for Agriculture and Farming as it is another validation of our efforts to make efficient agriculture and farming possible, without sacrificing sustainability. In farming, timing is everything. This acknowledgement highlights Webee’s ability to enable producers of crops, grains, livestock, poultry and seafood to quickly increase production and reduce disease, for a rapid, measurable ROI.” Lucas Funes, Webee co-founder and CEO. Webee’s no-code, end-to-end SaaS toolset for connected agriculture deploys non-disruptively in minutes. It includes pre-built applications for multiple use cases such as irrigation, soil monitoring, animal wellness, etc. It works with an infinite array of wireless sensors and across the long distances common in farming. Webee’s toolset leverages LoRaWAN® technology to provide long-range and low-consumption connectivity making it possible to connect in remote places with scarce connectivity, extending the battery-life of wireless sensors, and making data consumption many times more affordable. Webee integrates heterogenous data across sensors and third party data sources – like weather data – using AI to derive contextual and predictive insights in a unified view. Real-time notifications are pushed to handheld devices in the field so that actions can be taken the moment anomalies are detected. Queries and answers are communicated in natural language that anyone can understand. “So far, 2021 has been a year of transformative growth for successful organizations, with disruptive change across most areas of business,” said Head of Operations for the SaaS Awards, James Williams. “Congratulations are due for every organization that made the shortlist, but we reserve the utmost respect for all our category winners, whose successes were clear and hard-won.” To view the full list of winners, please visit: https://www.cloud-awards.com/2021-software-awards-shortlist/ About the SaaS Awards The SaaS Awards is a sister program to the Cloud Awards, which was founded in 2011. The SaaS Awards focuses on recognizing excellence and innovation in software solutions. Categories range from Best Enterprise-Level SaaS to Best UX or UI Design in a SaaS Product. About Webee Webee develops IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things) and AI solutions that save enterprises millions of dollars and facilitate sustainable operations through actionable access to real-time data about complex business processes. The company's unique, no-code visual platform for building complex IoT applications for the industrial and commercial markets enables customers to immediately realize ROI from IoT technology without interrupting operations. Webee's patented toolset allows organizations worldwide to improve operational efficiency through easy-to-install sensors and intuitive software that allows the development and deployment of smart applications without coding. Business Wire SaaS Awards Contact James Williams – head of operations https://www.cloud-awards.com/software-as-a-service-awards/ james@cloud-awards.com ![]()
![]() Recognized as a Top Woman in IoT for her Dedication to Leading Innovative Change in the Industry SUNNYVALE, CALIF. – August 11, 2021 – Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and AI innovator Webee today announced its Chief Operating Officer (COO) and co-founder Cecilia Flores has been named a winner in Connected World’s Women of Technology and IoT Awards. Connected World selected winners by evaluating the unique lens each woman brings to their respective companies that helps push connected technologies forward. “I am so proud to be recognized by Connected World alongside these impressive recipients and would like to personally congratulate Donna Moore, CEO of LoRa Alliance for whom I have much respect for and Webee works with closely,” said said Cecilia Flores, COO and co-founder of Webee. “This recognition shines a light on the disruptive IoT innovation my team and I are developing to help reduce food waste and lessen the impact of food manufacturing operations on the environment.” Webee’s no-code, intuitive end-to-end toolset eliminates the friction of IoT implementations and identifies inefficiencies in food, beverage and agriculture manufacturing processes in real-time. The platform’s live metrics help farmers and manufacturers maximize the use of their data, making real-world, actionable insights possible. From intuitive onboarding of sensors and legacy devices, to building applications, users take full control and program the system and dashboards on a virtual drag-and-drop canvas that doesn't require any technical expertise. “The list of broken processes in manufacturing and agricultural operations is seemingly never ending, but Webee fortunately and firmly believes that IIoT can greatly help,” explained Flores. “Some of the challenges faced by manufacturing customers include the extensive amount of manual controls leading to human error, the lack of visibility into legacy machines and delayed problem detection. Webee’s goal is to quickly and efficiently collect information that will allow our customers to set up workflows in a drag-and-drop environment. Webee customers can simulate scenarios and manipulate information in an agile way, enabling them to connect disparate machines and then make sense of the subsequent data.” The full list of winners for Connected World’s Women of IoT and Technology Awards can be found here: https://connectedworld.com/2021-women-of-technology-rising-after-the-storm/ The Connected World’s Women of IoT honor is the latest recognition awarded to Flores. Also in 2021 Flores was named a winner in M12's Global Female Founders Competition; a winner in the Globant Awards; recognized as one of Silicon Valley Business Journal’s Most Influential Women; and was welcomed as a fellow in the Tory Burch Foundation Annual Fellows Program. Webee has also received numerous industry recognitions by Fast Company’s 2021 World Changing Ideas Awards, IoT Marketing: Going Green with IoT Awards and is a finalist in the SaaS Awards. See more in Business Wire. ![]() Webee Earns Industry Recognition for its No-code, End-to-end Toolset for Connected Agriculture That Eliminates the Technical and High-cost Barriers to Entry for IoT Implementations. SUNNYVALE, CALIF. – July 27, 2021 – Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and AI innovator Webee today announced it is a finalist in the 2021 SaaS Awards Program in the Best SaaS Product for Agriculture and Farming category. Now in its sixth year, the SaaS Awards recognize excellence and innovation in software solutions. “We are honored to be selected as a finalist, as it recognizes our commitment to eliminate the technical obstacles of deploying IoT in agriculture and farming,” said Lucas Funes, Webee co-founder and CEO. “With Webee’s non-invasive platform, users can quickly reap massive benefits in efficiency, sustainability and end-product quality that real-time sensor data provides. Our mission is to make smart farming and manufacturing simple without the need for deep technical expertise.” Webee’s no-code, end-to-end SaaS toolset for connected agriculture deploys non-disruptively in minutes. It includes pre-built applications for multiple use cases such as irrigation, soil monitoring, animal wellness, etc. It works with an infinite array of sensors and across the long distances common in farming. It integrates heterogenous data across sensors and third party data sources – like weather data – using AI to derive contextual and predictive insights in a unified view. Real-time notifications are pushed to handheld devices in the field so that actions can be taken the moment anomalies are detected. Queries and answers are communicated in natural language that anyone can understand. Head of operations for the SaaS Awards, James Williams, said, “Just as SaaS technologies have been vital in pivoting organizational functions to respond to global crises, they will be essential as we look forward to returning to normal levels of productivity. The shortlisted candidates announced today, however, have made it through that first round. They represent truly innovative thinkers in the SaaS industry, whether they’re freshly-funded disruptors or established names.” Final SaaS Awards winners will be announced in late August. Hundreds of organizations entered, with entries coming from North America, Canada, Australia, UK, Europe and the Middle East. To view the full list of finalists, please visit: https://www.cloud-awards.com/2021-software-awards-shortlist/ About the SaaS Awards The SaaS Awards is a sister program to the Cloud Awards, which was founded in 2011. The SaaS Awards focuses on recognizing excellence and innovation in software solutions. Categories range from Best Enterprise-Level SaaS to Best UX or UI Design in a SaaS Product. About Webee Webee develops IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things) and AI solutions that save enterprises millions of dollars and facilitate sustainable operations through actionable access to real-time data about complex business processes. The company's unique, no-code visual platform for building complex IoT applications for the industrial and commercial markets enables customers to immediately realize ROI from IoT technology without interrupting operations. Webee's patented toolset allows organizations worldwide to improve operational efficiency through easy-to-install sensors and intuitive software that allows the development and deployment of smart applications without coding. Business Wire SaaS Awards Contact James Williams – head of operations https://www.cloud-awards.com/software-as-a-service-awards/ james@cloud-awards.com ![]() It’s been a tough year for the manufacturing industry, with COVID-19-related shutdowns creating a host of logistical, financial and labor challenges. In early June, the Biden Administration issued a series of recommendations to address near-term and long-term supply chain bottlenecks in a number of industries, including manufacturing. Shortly after the White House announcement, Microsoft coincidentally held its inaugural M12 Manufacturing Summit, ‘Futureproofting the Enterprise’. The event featured a panel discussion about the global supply chain and how to handle disruptions. It also showcased six M12 portfolio companies - the list of which included Webee (along with Acerta, FarEye, Prevedere, Rescale and Wandelbots). During the summit, the panelists (Robert Locke, SVP of Corporate Development of Johnson Controls; David Petrucci, Microsoft Industry Strategy Leader; and Samir Kumar, GM and Managing Director at M12) discussed how to best leverage technology to bolster the manufacturing sector. Here are some observations and recommendations from the conversation:
Following the panel discussion and a short Q&A series, the Summit transitioned to its M12 start-up showcase. The showcase kicked off with Prevedere, an intelligent forecasting and predictive analytics company that gives companies the ability to look beyond their four walls and use external data as easily as they can internal data. Prevedere was followed by FarEye, an intelligent delivery management platform helping scale delivery operations and rescale, a provider of high-performance computing technology. Following rescale, our co-founder and COO Cecilia Flores presented. She shared an overview of our product and mission – we are an industrial IoT and AI company building a no-code toolset for industrial manufacturing to help organizations obtain real-time insights. She also discussed some of the challenges manufacturing customers are facing and the feedback they have shared with us, such as the extensive amount of manual controls leading to human error, the lack of visibility into legacy machines, and delayed problem detection. We noted the goal of our solution is to quickly and efficiently collect information that will allow our customers to set up workflows in a drag-and-drop environment. We pointed out that Webee allows customers to simulate scenarios and manipulate information in an agile way and enables them to connect disparate machines and then make sense of the subsequent data. We concluded by sharing use cases that best captured how the product works. Following our session, Wandelbots, a no-code robotics company based in Germany, expanded on its goal of teaching industrial robots without writing a line of code. Closing out the showcase was Acerta, a company with the goal of empowering manufacturers with the data that’s being collected across manufacturing, assembly and production lines and then connecting that data with in-service operational information. This in turn drives cost-savings and improvement in how the data is being leveraged. Interested in learning more about the Summit? Both the panel and showcase talks were recorded and can be found here. Last week we attended in the 2021 IoT Evolution and Expo that was held in Miami Florida, the first show after the COVID-19 pandemic. What a tremendous event! Coming off Coronavirus and the global pandemic, it was phenomenal to see so many companies and leaders across IoT participate in this event. Companies from all across the globe from all the different IoT stacks were at the event; hardware, software and connectivity. The ability to finally get back to traveling for business, networking and hosting in-person meetings with partners, customers and clients was a great value for us here at Webee. Also, the ability to see the latest trends in IIoT, IoT, LoRaWAN, 5G and other market disrupting technologies was phenomenal. There were so many great presenters, panelists and cool new things to explore in the Expo hall. The IoT Evolution and Expo had many shows & informative sessions within this world class event:
One of my main takeaways is that, due to the global pandemic, companies are needing to adopt remote solutions, drive better operational efficiencies and scale their IoT deployments globally. These key trends and needs have only accelerated IoT market growth over the last 12-18 months. The conference had a ton of great panels, breakout sessions, and also an expansive expo featuring over 120 different companies showcasing their products, solutions and technologies. Some of the new and more disruptive solutions that are center to the discussion are around Artificial Intelligence, Edge Computing, LoRaWAN, Industrial IoT and new ruggedized hardware options. Also, we can not forget about 5G and it's impact in IoT adoption, one of the most used buzzwords and incredible network deployments occurring globally right now. A common challenge and issue that still seems to be arising as a commonality for organizations is integration. Still companies seem to be confused on where to start and how to select the right IoT partners as well as which will enable them to achieve their IoT goals and initiatives. This has been a common challenge over the years and continues to be in the IoT market. With even more technology providers, hardware options and the ever growing cumbersome challenge of integrating legacy assets, infrastructure, hardware, systems and devices, there is now more noise than ever before. It is always important to focus inward on the reason you are looking to deploy an IoT solution and what it will enable. Here at Webee, we were able to share all the exciting things we are doing and working on to provide the IoT sector and companies the ability to leverage intelligence based software to drive more successful IIoT deployments at scale. We also got to talk about our SmartFactory, SmartFarm and our no-code, AI and computer vision visual IoT designer tool set. As the world opens back up and as trade shows and conferences are hosted in person again, we look forward to participating in more of these global events and sharing the Webee story! ![]() New York, NY: Friday, June 25, 2021 – The Tory Burch Foundation announced today the 50 early-stage women entrepreneurs selected for the 2021 class of the Tory Burch Foundation Fellows Program, now in its seventh year. Receiving over a thousand applications, the Foundation selected a cohort of diverse small businesses for the year-long education program. The Fellows also have access to a premier online peer-to-peer network, a $5,000 grant for business education, inventory loan-fund and extensive mentorship opportunities. Traditionally providing four days of workshops in Tory Burch’s New York office, the program evolved in 2020 to focus on virtual learning due to the pandemic. “We pivoted quickly and redesigned our programs to navigate women through the crisis,” noted Laurie Fabiano, President of the Tory Burch Foundation. “As a result, we found better ways to deliver programming and meet the greatest needs of our community.” Tory welcomed the new group of Fellows. “To amass this group of women is why I started the company,” said Tory Burch in a virtual welcome address to the incoming Fellows class. “I don’t talk about it a lot, but 17 years ago, that was my business plan: to start a global fashion company so I could start a foundation for women. To see it come to fruition like this; to see this beauty on my screen; hearing you speak, is so inspiring.” Hailing from 18 states and Washington, D.C., and ranging in age from 24 to 60, the 2021 Fellows are diverse in every sense of the word. The top industries represented are retail, apparel, food/beverage and technology, with two entrepreneurs making strides in the male-dominated construction industry. Several of the companies represented are purpose-driven, with many focusing on sustainability initiatives. Fifty-eight percent are founders of color. The majority of the entrepreneurs have been in business less than five years, and considering that nearly half of all small businesses fail within those first five years, it is a critical time. In addition, women founders are less likely to pass $1 million in revenue. The Foundation is dedicated to helping the Fellows reach and surpass these key indicators of success. The 2021-2022 Fellows program is made possible with support from: BDT Capital Fossil General Atlantic Foundation Rene Kern Trott Family Philanthropies American Express Deloitte Luxottica PayPal Shiseido ![]() Silicon Valley Business Journal Honors Webee Co-Founder and COO Cecilia Flores in 2021 Women of Influence Awards Cecilia Flores, Co-Founder and COO of Webee, has been named one of the 100 most influential women in Silicon Valley by the Silicon Valley Business Journal’s Women of Influence Awards program. This award honors established business leaders who have a strong record of innovation in their fields, outstanding performance in their companies and meaningful community involvement. SVBJ recognizes women from all industries and professions who have made a remarkable difference in their communities, blazed a trail and are making a mark in Silicon Valley. Honorees were selected from the private, public and nonprofit sectors. Originally from Salta, Argentina and now based in Silicon Valley, Cecilia Flores is a tech entrepreneur who is passionate about the social impact of disruptive technologies and innovation. An advocate for inclusion and equal opportunities for Women in Tech, she is a mentor in the Stanford Latino Entrepreneur program, a member of the Vital Voices Network, and a board member of We-Evolution, a non-profit leading the women's third revolution. Cecilia frequently speaks to students around the world, sharing her learnings and encouraging them to pursue their dreams – she believes that no goal is too small to achieve. In 2013 she co-founded Webee, a hardware and software Internet of Things and AI company headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif. that has attracted an impressive roster of Global Fortune 50 customers. “It is truly an honor to be selected as a Woman of Influence. It is my number one priority to lead with empathy and compassion, while keeping community values at the forefront of everything we do,” said Cecilia. “At the core of our mission at Webee is to create technology that will directly reverse the negative effects of global food waste and positively impact lives.” The Silicon Valley Business Journal will be virtually honoring and celebrating the 100 most influential women in Silicon Valley on Wednesday, June 30. For more information on the ceremony and view the full list of SVBJ’s 2021 Women of Influence Award Honorees visit: https://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/event/166291/2021/women-of-influence-awards Read Cecilia’s interview with SVBJ here: https://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2021/06/17/cecilia-flores-webee-woi-2021.html ![]() Industry 4.0 brings a new set of technologies to enable the Internet of Things (IoT) and more importantly the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) revolution. It can often feel like a daunting task to find a starting point to plan for IIoT implementations. Here at Webee, we focus inward on the customer and take a consultative approach to help our customers develop, deploy and scale their IoT initiatives. Mostly importantly, we provide real world solutions for our customer’s real world challenges. During the past LoRa Alliance Industry 4.0 webinar, Webee joined a panel of experts from; Chevron, Multi-Tech Systems Inc., Yokogawa, Aloxy, and Worldsensing to discuss the long-term implications of technology for cost efficiency through digitization. During the webinar, we explored several IIoT use cases that come into play in large, often hazardous, industrial environments, such as event monitoring, large construction monitoring, warehouse management, infrastructure, and asset tracking. Here are some highlights from the insightful conversation:
[WHITE PAPER]
LoRaWAN® A DIGITAL REVOLUTION FOR OIL & GAS FROM SCADA TO INDUSTRIAL IOT In this white paper learn about LoRaWAN® applications and deployments within the Oil & Gas (O&G) sector. Players around the world who are driving the long-term implications for O&G cost efficiency through digitization present examples of LoRaWAN deployments that have proven to be successful for day-to-day operations. They are Actility, Aloxy, Chevron, Lansitec Technology Co., Ltd., Multi-Tech Systems, Inc., OrbiWise, Pepperl+Fuchs Group, TEKTELIC, Webee, and Yokogawa. Download in the link below →→ ![]() Webee Named to Fast Company’s Annual List of World Changing Ideas for 2021 IIoT Innovator Webee Recognized with an Honorable Mention in the General Excellence and Software Categories for Its No-code, End-to-end Toolset That Eliminates the Friction of IoT Implementations Business Wire MAY 4, 2021 – SUNNYVALE, CALIF. – Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and AI innovator Webee today announced it has been named to Fast Company’s 2021 annual list of World Changing Ideas. Webee received an honorable mention in the General Excellence and Software categories. Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas Awards recognize the businesses, policies, projects and concepts that are actively engaged and deeply committed to pursuing innovation when it comes to solving health and climate crises, social injustice or economic inequality. “We’re thrilled to receive this prestigious recognition as it demonstrates Webee’s growing business traction and commitment to developing technology that directly reverses global food waste and positively impacts lives,” said Lucas Funes, Webee co-founder and CEO. “We put the power of simple connectivity, intuitive data processing and instant remote monitoring in end-users’ hands with Webee’s easy-to-use, non-technical platform. Webee makes efficient agriculture and manufacturing possible, without sacrificing sustainability.” Webee’s no-code, intuitive end-to-end toolset eliminates the friction of IoT implementations and identifies inefficiencies in food, beverage and agriculture and manufacturing processes in real time. The platform’s live metrics help farmers and manufacturers maximize the use of their data, making real-world, actionable insights possible. From intuitive onboarding of sensors and legacy devices, to building applications, users take full control and program the system and dashboards on a virtual drag-and-drop canvas that doesn't require any technical expertise. A panel of eminent Fast Company editors and reporters selected winners and finalists from a pool of more than 4,000 entries across transportation, education, food, politics, technology, and more. The 2021 awards feature entries from across the globe, from Brazil to Denmark to Vietnam. “There is no question our society and planet are facing deeply troubling times. So, it’s important to recognize organizations that are using their ingenuity, impact, design, scalability, and passion to solve these problems,” says Stephanie Mehta, editor-in-chief of Fast Company. “Our journalists, under the leadership of senior editor Morgan Clendaniel, have discovered some of the most groundbreaking projects that have launched since the start of 2020.” See Fast Company Award list here About the World Changing Ideas Awards World Changing Ideas is one of Fast Company’s major annual awards programs and is focused on social good, seeking to elevate finished products and brave concepts that make the world better. A panel of judges from across sectors choose winners, finalists, and honorable mentions based on feasibility and the potential for impact. With the goals of awarding ingenuity and fostering innovation, Fast Company draws attention to ideas with great potential and helps them expand their reach to inspire more people to start working on solving the problems that affect us all. About Webee Webee develops IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things) and AI solutions that save enterprises millions of dollars and facilitate sustainable operations through actionable access to real-time data about complex business processes. The company's unique, no-code visual platform for building complex IoT applications for the industrial and commercial markets enables customers to immediately realize ROI from IoT technology without interrupting operations. Webee's patented toolset allows organizations worldwide to improve operational efficiency through easy-to-install sensors and intuitive software that allows the development and deployment of smart applications without coding. ![]() How organizations can ensure they choose the right industrial IoT solution so that their project succeeds. By CEO Lucas Funes at IT PRO PORTAL There is a growing need for IIoT technology that can streamline business operations and costs. A study from Juniper Research found that the global number of industrial IoT connections will increase from 17.7 billion in 2020 to 36.8 billion in 2025, representing an overall growth rate of 107 percent. At the same time, however, implementing successful IIoT projects is typically an arduous and expensive undertaking. A 2020 Beecham Research study found that 50 percent of companies across industries failed to take IoT initiatives past proof of concept (POC) because of the sheer complexity of implementing IoT solution components. And in Microsoft’s 2020 IoT Signals report, 28 percent of organizations polled cited budget as a barrier to further IoT adoption. IIoT is complex by nature – but that doesn’t mean it has to be too complex and costly to implement. Choosing a platform that makes things more simple is critical. This is the first step on the path towards bringing projects to fruition and empowering end users so they can effortlessly interact with IIoT technology and utilize the data generated in a way that improves day-to-day operational efficiencies and delivers ROI. How can enterprises ensure they are choosing the right IIoT solution to bring their projects from POC to production faster and with a higher success rate? With a dizzying array of options on the table, organizations need to ensure they are selecting a fully featured yet uncomplicated solution that is customizable to best fit their unique needs. Here are some of the selection criteria buyers should consider when looking for the right IIoT solution. Reduce implementation friction and complexity An ideal IIoT project starts with a platform that is easy to deploy, scalable and flexible. It’s important to choose one that can integrate successfully with existing infrastructure. It should be seamless to connect heterogeneous sensors, devices, machines and data streams to eliminate possible sources of friction. Future-proofing must be a key consideration so that users can always access the full potential of the data they already own. Moreover, some companies have already embarked on large investments in production management systems but they aren’t able to act on the data that’s being collected and need a way to gain actionable insights across disparate systems. The chosen solution should be able to normalize data across diverse data sets, accommodate heterogeneous technology and future innovation to prevent data fragmentation and siloes that result in added complexity. Avoid hidden costs Implementing and scaling IIoT solutions shouldn’t require exorbitant investment. Some solutions seem very low cost to start with, but then they hide costs in the long term. Many platform vendors charge hidden fees that can stack up, so be extra sure to read the fine print about what is included and which fees are incremental. Additional costs can be hidden when scaling to larger volumes of data, increasing the quantity of data points, or adding more sophisticated functionality such as alerting or reporting. IIoT solutions also commonly require advanced technical skills which means outside hiring is needed to get projects off the ground. This can inflate the total cost of ownership even more. Choose a platform that will dramatically simplify IoT implementation and utilization costs as well as time. The ideal platform ensures easy adoption of comprehensive IoT and AI solutions through a no-code toolset that can be deployed without technical expertise. Solutions that natively integrate with and call third-party APIs and work with various cloud infrastructures are able to automate onboarding of sensors, eliminating the costs and complexities of solutions that need manual configuration. It is important to consider platforms that are compatible with communications protocols that are robust enough to connect in places with scarce connectivity or require long range connectivity, without adding infrastructure costs. Organizations that need long range connectivity, for example, should consider selecting a platform that works with LoRa (long range, low power) sensors. These battery-powered sensors send data through the cloud public or private networks, can connect over distances of up to 15 km and last up to 10 years. LoRaWAN networking provides greater range than cellular networks and is compatible with existing infrastructure, making it a reliable and low cost alternative for organizations that traditionally had to rely on spotty WiFi networks. Choose customizability and ease of use by anyone In evaluating IIoT platforms, businesses should look for customizability and flexibility in how users visualize and access insights and information through dashboards and alerts. You should also be able to create custom applications to meet your specific needs for monitoring operations. This shouldn’t require coding or technical expertise; rather, users with little to no prior experience should be able to take full control of and program their IoT system and dashboards in a simple visual programming interface. It should be straightforward and easy to set up alerts and monitoring of operations via the information collected from sensors. An ideal solution has intuitive tooling that allows users to concentrate on the configuration of their information systems – not backend programming – and make changes and updates on the fly. This streamlines the continuous improvement process and helps drive adoption of the IoT platform among users. A robust platform will be able to aggregate and normalize real-time data from multiple sources and provide end-to-end visibility while consistently updating with the most accurate and up-to-date information in real time. Prioritize search-driven AI and natural language querying capability Gaining actionable insights from IoT-generated data has historically been challenging. A solution that offers AI-driven analytics puts you one step closer to driving more value from IoT deployments. Seek out platforms that offer innovative technologies that work in concert with AI analytics to make the diagnostics process more specific and actionable. For example, NLP-powered search functions make it possible to easily ask for insights about or to identify problems with business operations being monitored, in natural language. Responses should pull from all relevant data, dynamically surfacing insights tailored to the user asking the question. Choose a partner not just a vendor A final consideration as you evaluate IIoT vendors: pick one that is collaborative, flexible and transparent. The implementation process will only work if both parties acknowledge the value of partnership. Don’t make IIoT projects more complex than they already are – select a vendor who understands that strong communication is crucial. All communication should be seamless with the common goal of customer satisfaction. This makes the process of deploying and managing IoT in your environment a less painful process at every stage. Webee co-founder Cecilia Flores is continuing to share her expert insights on IoT and tech industry panels. In March she spoke with Protocol about low-code and no-code developer tools. This month, she appeared on Constellation Research’s DisrupTV program to discuss the combined power of AI with industrial IoT.
Hosted by Constellation founder and chairman R “Ray” Wang and Salesforce chief digital evangelist Vala Afshar, Ceciia was also joined on the panel by Snehal Antani, co-founder and CEO of Horizon3.ai (discussing cybersecurity, AI, automated hacking) and Michael Saylor, chairman at MicroStrategy (discussing bitcoin). The panelists are each focused on their common goal of reducing the friction of digital transformation and making life easier for their customers through innovative products and business strategies. Reducing Friction Through Efficient, Intuitive Out-of-the-Box Solutions Cecilia kicked off her part of the conversation by noting commonalities with the other panelists: Webee reduces friction for users by providing tools they can immediately use to access real-time information. This avoids the need to spend months on implementations and millions of dollars on software that generates information no one can act upon. Webee’s bottoms-up approach helps customers adopt new technologies that allow for more organic digital transformation within their organizations. She described how it took the onset of the pandemic for customers to really come to terms with the value of combining AI and IoT, since both technologies enable remote work and remote control of operations. IoT, explained Cecilia, is about much more than connecting sensors and extracting data. It’s also aggregating data from different sources and adding AI so customers can derive real-time insights and position machines to make decisions on their behalf. Cecilia also noted that friction is reduced through the use of Webee’s no-code toolset, which negates the need for engineers and can be set up quickly. The toolset’s rapid deployment capabilities give customers flexibility to play around with its interface and customize dashboards, instead of confronting technological glitches and then wasting time worrying about troubleshooting. Reducing Friction Through Digital Transformation In sharing his perspective on bitcoin, MicroStrategy's Michael Saylor honed in on why he considers bitcoin such a smart and strong investment for companies with excess cash on their balance sheets. He conceptualizes bitcoin as a digital savings account, but notes it is unique from a savings account in that it rapidly appreciates in value. This in turn leads to higher profitability, which has positively impacted MicroStrategy’s ability to invest in both its product line and its employees. He then segued into an overview of MicroStrategy’s latest business objectives, which include an acceleration towards complete digital relationships with clients and an acceleration towards cloud-based technologies. The general theme, said Michael, “is to take the friction out of the value proposition.” In a nutshell, this means reducing all the touchpoints typically required of potential customers who are interested in deploying a new product. Reducing Friction Through Disruptive Technologies Horizon3.ai’s Snehal Antani believes the cybersecurity environment is broken. Modern-day vulnerability scanning tools can identify hundreds of problems, but of those problems only a couple are worth patching. On the cybersecurity penetration testing side, he has noticed vendors are only able to assess a small chunk of their customers’ environments. Leveraging AI-driven technology, he’s focused on creating tools that assess threats not just once a week or every couple weeks, but in a continuous manner. He’s also prioritized building out a team of employees that has a mix of offensive cyber expertise, machine learning and data science expertise and enterprise-grade SaaS expertise. In certain cases, Antani also believes humans are a bottleneck to patching cybersecurity vulnerabilities and can actually create greater friction for customers. One example he cited is an algorithm making 1,000 decisions per second about an attack entry point and a human defender making one decision per minute. Said Antani, “attackers have adapted to the point where humans are now the inefficiency on the defensive side.” In closing out the conversation, Vala said that speed, personalization and intelligence are what is most important to customers in order to reduce friction and give them power. Agree? Disagree? We’re interested in your take on the panel discussion. Tweet us @WebeeLife or visit us on LinkedIn. Deploys Quickly Without Coding Into Existing Environments for Complete Real-time Visibility into Growing and Processing Operations of Crops, Grains, Livestock, Poultry and Seafood ![]() APRIL 15, 2021 – SUNNYVALE, CALIF. – Webee SmartFarm™, a turnkey platform purpose-built for connected agriculture that deploys in minutes without technical know-how, was launched today by award-winning industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and artificial intelligence (AI) innovator Webee. The no-code Webee SmartFarm platform cuts implementation time – even across large operations – from months to days. This enables producers of crops, grains, livestock, poultry and seafood to quickly increase production and reduce disease, for a rapid, measurable return on investment. Webee provides a much-needed alternative to advanced agricultural monitoring solutions that are too time-, engineering- and capital-intensive to justify despite benefits in operational efficiency and product quality. Compatible with existing infrastructure and data sources, Webee SmartFarm makes it easy and affordable to connect an infinite array of sensors for the industry’s most accurate real-time anomaly detection and visibility into any agricultural operation as it scales. Webee SmartFarm aggregates heterogeneous smart farming sensor data with third-party environmental and other contextual information to create a highly granular picture of the wellness and productivity of live plants and animals or the condition of stored agricultural products. With Webee’s NLP-powered analytics, users can make sense of sensor-generated data by asking questions and receiving answers about the state of their agricultural operations in natural language. In sharp contrast to solutions that require technical talent to code use-case specific applications and dashboards, Webee’s Visual Designer does not require coding or specialized expertise. “Webee combines the best aspects of data engineering and intelligence on top of time series data, putting actionable insight into the hands of users at the exact moment they need it,” said Mike Leone, senior analyst at ESG. “Their flexible platform allows customers to make changes and adjustments in real time across a multitude of use cases out of the box.” Smart Farming Made Simple and Cost Effective Agriculture operators often struggle with the overall complexity of their infrastructures as well as connectivity issues pertaining to geographically dispersed sensors. The inability to immediately correlate anomalies in environmental or disease conditions to harmful effects on plants, animals and stored products can lead to delayed problem detection, inefficiencies and millions of dollars in losses. Since margins are tight, producers also need to see ROI fast, which deters them from making investments in modern but complicated software and hardware technologies that would lead to more streamlined operations. Webee’s cost- and time-effective no-code solution deploys quickly, allows sensors to be connected in places with scarce connectivity without adding any significant additional costs and sends users real-time notifications about anomalies, so they can promptly make necessary changes to preserve and improve agricultural assets. By detecting diseases and other anomalies early, protocols to lower their impact can be activated before disaster strikes. “Webee drastically removes the technical barriers, time and cost for farmers and enterprises to obtain real-time information about their yields and agriculture operations. By supporting a full range of LoRa® devices connected through a LoRaWAN® network , monitoring items such as soil moisture, leaf wetness and among others, the growers can access real-time visibility to prevent diseases in the crops, evaluate the growing process and make decisions related to irrigation without the need for technical skills—improving the quality and efficiency of their production,” said Marc Pegulu, vice president of IoT for Semtech’s Wireless and Sensing Products Group. A renowned coffee company uses leaf wetness sensors to capture the temperature, humidity in the air and the luminosity of the coffee plants. This data is combined with other environmental information and then accessed, processed and analyzed in real time by Webee SmartFarm. This enables them to improve the accuracy of their coffee planting strategy and get ahead of potentially severe problems early on. “We democratize access to the most advanced smart farming technology available today. Many different kinds of agricultural producers approach us with specific indoor, outdoor and in-transit problems that can be addressed with connected solutions. Our customers experience around a 20% increase in operational efficiency or more,” said Webee founder and CEO Lucas Funes. “One such use case involved partnering with a systems integrator to boost egg hatchling results by improving egg hatchling birth rates for poultry producers. The sensors monitoring the industrial egg incubators capture real-time information about factors such as temperature, humidity and ventilation, which is then displayed on a scalable and secure dashboard that can be accessed anytime, from anywhere.” A vast range of agriculture use cases benefit from Webee SmartFarm, including:
Organizations interested in learning more about connected agriculture with the Webee SmartFarm platform can sign up for a live demo. About Webee Webee develops IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things) and AI solutions that save enterprises millions of dollars and facilitate sustainable operations through actionable access to real-time data about complex business processes. The company's unique, no-code visual platform for building complex IoT applications for the industrial and commercial markets enables customers to immediately realize ROI from IoT technology without interrupting operations. Webee's patented toolset allows organizations worldwide to improve operational efficiency through easy-to-install sensors and intuitive software that allows the development and deployment of smart applications without coding. Non-intrusive SmartFactory Platform Integrates Easily Into Existing Infrastructures, Gives Users Real-time, End-to-End Visibility into Operational Processes Using Search-driven AI Analytics ![]() APRIL 15, 2021 – SUNNYVALE, CALIF. – Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and AI innovator Webee today announced Webee SmartFactory™, its no-code, turnkey IIoT platform designed specifically for industrial manufacturing enterprises. It makes it possible to connect operations in minutes without the need for technical expertise and cuts industrial IoT deployment time from months to days. Coding-centric solutions for connected manufacturing on the market today create logistical barriers and technical talent gaps that impede manufacturers from moving IIoT projects from POC to production quickly enough to achieve success. Webee SmartFactory upends the status quo by allowing industrial manufacturing enterprises to do so 10 times faster and start realizing ROI right away. Its seamless integration with existing infrastructure and compatibility with heterogeneous data sources is especially beneficial in factory settings. Before Webee SmartFactory, launching workable IIoT projects was prohibitively time- and capital-intensive, making them challenging to justify despite obvious benefits in long-term operational efficiency and product quality. In sharp contrast to other IoT solutions, Webee’s Visual Designer does not require coding or technical expertise. It enables production line and business users to easily create customized dashboards and IoT applications to aggregate and process heterogeneous industrial sensor data and any relevant third-party data sources to surface actionable insights in real time. Most industrial manufacturing organizations invest millions of dollars in equipment and don’t have time or resources to modernize legacy systems or disrupt business operations. As Senior Analyst at ESG Paul Nashawaty explained, “The last thing customers want is someone interfering with their production lines, so having the ability to access real-time manufacturing data through Webee's non-intrusive approach is a big win. Gaining insights from IoT-created data should be as easy as typing a question into Google. Webee's AI analytics engine has the ability to empower its customers to do exactly that and has been shown to rapidly produce insights no matter the amount of data being processed.” Scalable, Flexible Solution Integrates Easily and Identifies Inefficiencies for Rapid Remediation Rather than making industrial manufacturing users comb through a complicated, disjointed UI, Webee SmartFactory enables users to observe all relevant information about manufacturing status and factory productivity on one screen and make necessary maintenance decisions based on real-time insights. The platform also includes various pre-built modules for connected manufacturing applications and measurements. The NLP-powered search function permits anyone to type in a question in natural language to ask for insights about or to identify problems with any manufacturing operations being monitored. They receive a response – in natural language – that pulls from all relevant data, dynamically surfacing insights tailored to the user asking the question. Data is aggregated from multiple sources in real time, so the user is able to obtain end-to-end visibility with a non-intrusive approach and take corrective action as needed. Webee founder and CEO Lucas Funes noted, “Webee SmartFactory eliminates the need for a costly hiring spree by providing an IoT solution that works out of the box, for a multitude of use cases. Our flexible platform also allows customers to make quick changes and adjustments on the go. It’s a necessary change from how things have been done until now.” Webee SmartFactory is broadly applicable, from standalone manufacturing operations to large multinationals at any scale. Prior to implementing Webee, a Fortune 50 multinational Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) leader relied on a manual, scattershot approach for pulling operational information related to their plants and laboratories. With Webee, they access multiple dashboards centrally and generate data visualizations that give them the insights they need about all elements of production and manufacturing cycles in real time. Leveraging battery powered, long-range LoRa® devices connected through a LoRaWAN® network they are able to gain visibility from non-connected machines to alert plant managers about production bottlenecks and machine maintenance needs. They now receive instant alerts that eliminate product losses and give them visibility. Webee has also made it easy for them to replicate processes and normalize monitoring across their factories around the world, which is particularly useful when they acquire new companies with different operations. End-to-end Industrial Manufacturing Solution Processes IoT Data Without Engineers Getting IoT projects off the ground the traditional way is especially challenging due to the intricacy, scale and high costs involved with most industrial manufacturing operations. Accessing information about factory status often requires manual programming, and with it, specialized engineering skills. Additionally, the repetitive and monotonous nature of this work can lead to errors and squander valuable time that would be better spent elsewhere. Implementing and scaling IIoT projects typically requires lengthy deployments and specialized resources. Retrofitting legacy systems so they’re compatible with newer equipment and connecting sensors is cost-prohibitive and can cause significant business disruption. Organizations must decide on their technology, hardware and sensors, then have engineers program workflows and create applications. A 2020 Beecham Research study found that 50% of companies across industries failed to take IoT initiatives past proof of concept because of the sheer complexity of implementing IoT solution components. And in Microsoft’s 2020 IoT Signals report, 28% of organizations polled cited budget as a barrier to further IoT adoption and 26% cited lack of technical knowledge. “The biggest problem with industrial manufacturing IoT implementations is that they’re too complex,” Funes continued. “You need engineers who understand how to extract data and put it into a database. You need data scientists skilled in processing data. You need programmers who can write code for APIs or to send SMS or emails to notify the business that the temperature of a given machine in a facility needs to be adjusted to avoid downtime and improve efficiency. Then you need to put all these pieces together. This is all expensive and takes too much time. There has to be a better way. This is why we purpose-built the Webee SmartFactory platform.” Patented Technology for Sophisticated Real-Time Industrial Manufacturing Diagnostics Webee’s patented smart object recognition and anomaly detection technologies work in concert with its search-driven AI analytics to drive granular diagnostics of complex industrial manufacturing systems in real time.
Industrial manufacturing enterprises interested in learning more about Webee can sign up for a live demo. About Webee Webee develops IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things) and AI solutions that save enterprises millions of dollars and facilitate sustainable operations through actionable access to real-time data about complex business processes. The company's unique, no-code visual platform for building complex IoT applications for the industrial and commercial markets enables customers to immediately realize ROI from IoT technology without interrupting operations. Webee's patented toolset allows organizations worldwide to improve operational efficiency through easy-to-install sensors and intuitive software that allows the development and deployment of smart applications without coding. Our co-founder and CEO Lucas Funes recently joined Eric Kavanagh on his DM Radio show to share perspectives on IoT and why IoT is just getting started. DM Radio is the longest running broadcast show about data where industry experts come together to discuss hot topics in tech.
When asked about Webee customer deployments, Lucas detailed how end-users want actionable insights while accessing data in real time. Non-technical users are building and scaling solutions and connecting existing technologies within Webee’s easy-to-use low-code canvas, Lucas explained. This solves an overwhelming and prolific IoT industry challenge; the lack of highly skilled IoT talent. Closing the IoT Knowledge Gap Legacy IoT solutions require highly technical engineers to keep up with the code-centric platforms. This is both expensive and time-prohibitive; the process can take up to ten months, Lucas explained. “If someone in the world already built a piece of code, why would you need to rewrite it yourself?” Webee eliminates the knowledge gap, freeing end-users to easily operate its solution with a drag-and-drop interface, regardless of skill level. It’s Time to Stop Reinventing the Wheel Lucas also shared how Webee eliminates the need for customers to constantly reinvent the wheel: “Any user that generates applications or code/pieces of code can publish it in an open marketplace, allowing other enterprises to leverage the knowledge.” He explained that users pulling existing information from the marketplace do not need to be trained as data scientists. Any user can simply drag and drop the portion of code or application they want to use and implement it into their Webee dashboard. To date, Webee has thousands of enterprise users and supports over 700 device types and protocols, eliminating the need to put engineers through onboarding processes for new devices or sensors. Supporting the Food, Beverage and Agriculture Industries with Out-of-the-Box Solutions Eric was interested in learning how Webee markets its product to target clients. Lucas explained that the Webee platform can be used in various verticals, and their current focus is the food, beverage and agriculture industries. “We focus on the beginning of the supply chain in manufacturing and agriculture. We believe that digital transformation will not be successful through a top-down approach.” In speaking with production and plant managers directly, Webee can determine the organization’s pain points. This, in turn, enables organizations to create the foundation for their digital transformation initiatives from the bottom-up. To hear more from Lucas and other IoT experts, listen to DM Radio’s full episode. Earlier this month our COO and co-Founder Cecilia Flores joined Google Cloud’s VP and Head of Platform Amit Zavery and Protocol moderators Tom Krazit and Joe Williams in a conversation about the transformative nature of no-code and low-code developer tools. The panel, titled “Today’s Transformation, Tomorrow’s Developers: What Enterprises Can Do to Encourage Innovation,” explored the current landscape of low-code and no-code technology, including how the technology is defined, its evolution and the cultural challenges it sometimes confronts and its future. Webee is clearly no stranger to the no-code approach. Every day our no-code end-to-end IoT toolset increases the visibility, sustainability and efficiency of industrial and agriculture operations. The success and customer satisfaction we’ve achieved is in no small part due to the accessible nature of our no-code toolset, which obviates the need for highly skilled engineers to assemble and interpret IoT installations. This saves time, money and headaches over securing highly technical talent to get IoT projects from POC to production successfully. Given our experience, Cecilia was keen to share her perspective. They ‘Why’ Behind No-Code and Low-Code The Protocol panel kicked off with a discussion about the present use of low-code and no-code. Amit noted that many low-code tools, which started with ideas about pre-defined ways to build applications, have become much more powerful and have removed the need for organizations to understand software engineering and data models in order to build powerful applications. Cecilia shared Webee’s motivation for delivering a fully no-code product to a field as highly complex as the IoT that struggles to find ways to move POC to production with ease, so that projects that typically took months now potentially only take days to deploy and show value. When Change Brings Cultural Challenges The Protocol team pointed out that developers are not always used to ceding IT control and can be skeptical of the idea that ‘non-technical’ employees can operate low-code tools. Amit suggested that organizations address this by developing a governance plan and offering training. Cecilia concurred and underscored the importance of having internal buy-in from developers and other teams within the organization and how no-code tools can help free up time for more complex projects within the organization. She also noted how no-code tools can help free up time for more complex projects within the organization. Common No-Code and Low-Code Use Cases The Protocol team asked for real-world examples of what organizations are building with low/no-code tools and why the tools allow them to do it faster. Cecilia addressed the proliferation of no-code technology in the manufacturing world. While most manufacturing organizations have systems already in place to collect data, aggregating the data, making sense of it and contextualizing it is an immensely complex task that can take months. Webee’s no-code toolset, for example, makes this possible with a drag-and-drop visual UI environment. Amit noted that Google has seen a huge amount of use cases over the last 12 months, with telemedicine increasingly at the forefront in a year marked by a pandemic. Other examples included mortgage lenders who want to digitize the process of mortgage applications and an organization building tools to better automate factory plant inspection. In many cases, the resulting low-code-driven application connects to other databases, such as Salesforce. The Democratization of Technology The Protocol team also explored how organizations could best encourage non-developer employees to own their workflows and prioritize resources. Cecilia pointed out that Webee’s customers don’t often approach Webee with a focus on technology; rather, they come to Webee with a specific problem in mind. They need a method for working more quickly and efficiently - and aren’t in need of a comprehensive technological overhaul. Because of that, Webee’s no-code technology gets much quicker buy-in from key stakeholders. Amit said his experience has shown the movement towards low-code and no-code tends to be more bottom-up or departmental because IT doesn’t always have time to spend investigating these tools. While they may not be developers, employees advocating for low-code and no-code tend to be technically savvy or at the least, more interested in technology than the average person. They have an idea about what they want to build and what it should look like. The Future of No-Code and Low-Code The Protocol team then asked what people can expect from these tools in the future. Would the tools themselves become more capable in that they could develop more sophisticated applications? Or would they become easier to use? Would one element take priority over the other? In Webee’s case, they go hand-in-hand, according to Cecilia. No-code is powerful because it enables users to access the information they need in the moment. She then discussed a use case involving mortality issues with swine production. The customer seeking to remedy this issue found Webee’s application intuitive and easy-to-use, and the application was also well-received by non-technical employees. Career Prospects for No-Code/Low-Code In wrapping up the conversation, the panelists focused on career opportunities for those interested in low-code and no-code. Is there a fast track for someone wanting to break into the field? Or more broadly, what educational path could interested parties pursue? Technologically-inclined individuals should focus on what most fascinates them from a big picture standpoint versus trying to specialize in low-code/no-code, particularly as the technology becomes more advanced, Cecilia pointed out. Amit said the combination of low-code and a firm grasp of the business use case was where most of the value lies. Understanding the details and nuances behind business operations and then using low-code and no-code tools where they might fit in was the best course of action, versus trying to apply one particular tool to all use cases. Are you currently using low-code or no-code technologies? We’d love to hear from you and we’re interested in your take on the panel discussion! Tweet us @WebeeLife or visit us on LinkedIn. ![]() Webee and Semtech Simplify LoRaWAN® connectivity for growing low-power IoT application market Mar. 17, 2020 – SAN FRANCISCO – Webee’s No-Code End-to-End Solution Builder running on Microsoft Azure, operating on the LoRaWAN® protocol and leveraging Semtech (Nasdaq: SMTC) LoRa® devices simplifies the development of enterprise IoT use cases including industrial remote monitoring, smart farming, and smart cities. LoRa devices have been pre-integrated and work out of the box, including the LoRaWAN network server. Additionally, the Webee platform provides unique tools to accelerate and facilitate IoT including no-code Cloud services, visual drag and drop integration, and a natural language ask feature. The Webee solution recently won the M12 Microsoft Venture Fund Female Founders award for best U.S. Enterprise Software. Analyst firm ABI Research estimates that total non-cellular LPWA connections in 2026 are expected to reach 1.3 billion with LoRa forecasted to comprise one-fourth share of all LPWA network connections and more than half of all non-cellular LPWA connections. To date, the Webee solution is in production at over a dozen enterprise customers, supporting data collection from over 300 different types of sensors operating on the LoRaWAN protocol in industries ranging from agriculture to industrial manufacturing. “Customers with complex connectivity issues turn to Semtech’s LoRa devices, but customers still need help to get their IoT projects off the ground quickly and efficiently. WeBee's No-Code End-to-End Solution Builder powered by Azure provides for very easy creation of IoT solutions using LoRaWAN connectivity,” said Alistair Fulton, Vice President and General Manager of the Wireless Sensing Products Group, at Semtech. “Webee removes the technical, time, and cost investment barriers for organizations to successfully move their IoT projects from POC to production across the manufacturing, industrial, agricultural, supply chain, and smart cities industries,” said Lucas Funes, CEO and Co-Founder, Webee. Tony Shakib, Partner/General Manager Azure IoT, at Microsoft added, “Using Webee's Visual IoT for LoRaWAN, customers can easily set up public and private LoRaWAN networks by connecting pre-integrated Semtech LoRa devices to Azure without developing or managing a LoRaWAN network server. By making it easy to connect LoRa devices to Azure and by providing insights generated with Azure Cognitive Services and Azure AI, Webee and Semtech are simplifying IoT for our joint customers.” ![]() 2020 Edition: Winners "Entrepreneurial Force" It's a great honor to receive this incredible recognition from La Voz del Interior, a daily newspaper based in Córdoba, Argentina with a national influence and readership. "Córdoba Empresaria" is an annual edition where the business leaders and entrepreneurs recognize those that are making a difference in the local ecosystem. This year the Webee team has been recognized for their entrepreneurial force in which they have driven the business, grow it internationally, and most certainly navigated the unpredicted scheme of the pandemic. "We feel immensely proud of this recognition from an ecosystem that saw us grow and gave me many opportunities from the very first moments of my career. This most certainly represents a huge milestone for our team and the future of our company". Lucas Funes, CEO & Founder. "It's such an honor to receive this recognition from our peers and leaders in the City of Córdoba. We hope this truly serves as a reflection of the importance of building an ecosystem that values and create conditions for entrepreneurs to thrive". Cecilia Flores, CMO & Co-Founder Learn more about the award here. ![]() Webee celebrates Cecilia Flores, after being named a finalist in the Globant Awards: Women that Build in the United States and Canada. The award is a part of Globant's initiative to encourage women that generate a positive impact in the IT industry and inspire more women and non-binary people to become interested in STEM. The awards first edition had more than 12,000 nominations and more than 70 recognized world-class organizations and institutions supporting the initiative in the first edition. Cecilia was selected from thousands of applicants as a winner in the GAME CHANGER category in the United States and Canada that recognizes a leading professional without formal training in STEM who holds a leadership position and who has made a direct impact in the IT industry. "I feel immensely honored to receive this award and recognition that comes from an incredible judging panel as well as women and men in the community with whom I collaborate in our efforts towards gender equality. It's incredibly rewarding being recognized along with wonderful leaders that are working hard and committing to making an impact in technology for women around the world". Cecilia Flores, CMO, and Co-Founder at Webee. Cecilia is already a winner and an example for other women in IT. We wish her the best of success in the next stage. Meet the outstanding women from each country that are rocking the IT industry ABOUT GLOBANT: a digitally native company where innovation, design, and engineering meet scale. Globant uses the latest technologies in the digital and cognitive fields to transform organizations forward in every aspect. They have more than 14,300 employees, and are present in 16 countries working for companies like Google, Rockwell Automation, Electronic Arts, and Santander, among others This past month, we had the opportunity to participate in a series of webinars organized by our technology partner LoRa Alliance, in which Data in Agriculture was the central theme. Various smart agriculture and animal wellness solutions were presented focused on showing real-life use cases and exemplifying how LoRaWAN networks truly enable efficient deployments to extract and process any type of data in the agricultural industry, even with limited or no connectivity available. On this occasion, our VP of Sales had the privilege of moderating these panels, and at the same time, our CEO and Founder Lucas Funes presented an extraordinary use case in which we demonstrated how it is possible to reduce pre-wean mortality up to 17% through the access to real-time data powered by LoraWan protocol. It is undoubtedly a very exciting time for the Agriculture Industry to enhance all the various solutions that are fast making progress in terms of productivity, efficiency and sustainability. Here are some of our most important takeaways from the insightful discussions. Connectivity and long-range in the most remote places LoraWan has managed to make a great contribution to the industry through its long-range wireless sensors that send data from the farm to the cloud, through public or private networks connecting over distances of up to 15 km from sensors with batteries that last up to 10 years. This results in lower maintenance costs, connectivity in remote areas with scarce infrastructure, and giving farmers valuable information to make decisions and scale their businesses. This connectivity infrastructure is helping the IoT solutions truly take-off in Agribusiness and help by doing it in a seamless and cost-effective way. The importance of data integration from disparate data sources There is a reality today in agribusiness, and it is that while technology solutions continue to emerge, multiple sensors, databases, and other sources of data generate valuable information to great use of those managing these complex processes. As this acceleration on adoption continues to happen, another major challenge arises which is the need to improve the way data is managed and visualized. To fully embrace its power, each data source needs to be interrelated and put at the disposal of those responsible for the day to day decision making in a simple way. Integrateding data sources saves time, effort, and helps agribusinesses truly achieve the full potential of their existing infrastructure. An opportunity for "self-service" IoT Each agriculture organization knows with precision the characteristics of the challenges they face and what their ideal solutions look like. Even though technology can help fix many of those challenges, it often requires an extra effort from farmers to understand what are the solutions that better serve them. So, one of the challenges of technology adoption is really moving the conversation from a technological one to a problem-oriented one. To do that, we need to continue to share success stories and build technology that makes it even easier to deploy and prove their ROI from the get-go. The LoRa Alliance has a large number of partners around the world who provide solutions to farmers in the process of implementation and adoption of its technologies. These solutions are particularly much more affordable for medium-size farmers that want to start improving their current processes with a moderate budget. As LoRa Alliance partners we have the ability to help farmers customize a solution in record time. Webee technology the time can be shortened to just weeks or even days, obviously, this can vary according to the size of the project, but it is a fact that LoraWan allows this flexibility and optimal use of time. See the webinars in both Spanish and English in the links below.
![]() This past week UN Global Compact held a 3-day conference, Uniting Business LIVE, where the WE Empower awardees and finalists came together for regional discussions on tangible, innovative business solutions for advancing the UN SDGs, both locally and globally. Webee's CMO and Co-Founder Cecilia Flores, joined Vital Voices CEO Alyse Nelson alongside women entrepreneurs in a discussion around how collective action can bring transformative and sustainable change around the world. They shared their efforts in advancing the SDGs and the challenges and Cecilia explained how the pandemic challenged the food system to find long term solutions to guarantee the continuity of food supply chain, and reduce the impact of food loss on the environment. Access the recording of the discussion here. |
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May 2023
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