INTERVIEW WITH INSYS ICOM

INSYS icom are experts in developing and manufacturing secure and reliable industrial routers with customers all around the world. With their core competencies of remote maintenance, remote control, status monitoring and data networking, they form the secure bridge between IT and OT. INSYS icom has a “customer focused development” approach – the company develops solutions the market and customers actually need and will use. 

With more than +30 years working in the business of industrial routers INSYS icom managed to establish themselves as a trustful and reliable supplier.

Interview with Samuel Åkesson, International Business Development Manager at INSYS icom.

Easy Engineering: What are the main areas of activity of the company?

Samuel Åkesson: Our industrial routers are used in several different areas and type of applications, but our customers have one thing in common: secure and intelligent networking solutions are absolutely essential to their industrial applications and critical infrastructure environments, which INSYS icom meets in every aspect. 

E.E: What’s the news about new products?

S. Å: Our latest addition to our product portfolio offer is the compact and secure MIRO. We have two versions depending on your need, one with two Ethernet ports and one with only one Ethernet port. MIRO is the perfect industrial router if you need a secure, reliable, and affordable industrial router with all certifications and standards you need to be able to use it globally.

Samuel Åkesson, International Business Development Manager at INSYS icom

E.E: What are the ranges of products?

S. Å: We have a broad range of products, with everything from our small pocket router MIRO to our modular industrial router MRX. Our compact but broad product portfolio makes our solutions attractive to several verticals, such as Energy, Machinery, Building, Retail etc. Although, that is only our Hardware, the real power lies in our Software. Our market leading UI has made it possible for anyone to configure and set up a secure and well-functioning remote management fleet. We have created a unique ecosystem of solutions and Partners that will help our customers to start, build and grow.

E.E: At what stage is the market where you are currently active?

S. Å: Many of our customers are quite fair in their IIoT maturity journey. They all have seen the benefits of collecting machine -and production data in a secure and reliable manner. A big challenge for many companies in our market is that they don´t know what to do with all the data and how to make something out of it. Therefore, we work with the proven process of the IIoT maturity journey. The IIoT maturity journey shows the different steps in being IIoT ready for the customer. No company can start with collecting big data and try to analyze it – you need to start small, and you need to start smart. It’s very important that you learn to master the first steps in the IIoT maturity journey and then start building your knowledge and experience before moving forward. Every day we talk to our customers about this and guide them to the different steps.

E.E: What can you tell us about market trends?

S. Å: I see a big mindset change in the market during the last 2-3 years. The big companies are not only chasing cents, but now see the value of increasing the lifetime of their solutions and broaden their offer. The global economy and the recruitment challenge have really driven the market to push for more centralized support and remote maintenance, that´s where our solutions fit perfect. With our industrial routers and remote management software our customers can decrease travel cost and increase the turnover with a predictive maintenance offer. After the pandemic and with the current component shortage, many companies see the need for a second and even third supplier. They are afraid to be one of the companies left without having anything to sell and are taking actions to avoid that. At the same time, we see that the need for connected machines increase more and more. In our predictions the number of sold Cellular IoT gateways in Europe will increase by 85% during the next 5 coming years.

E.E: What estimations do you have for 2022?

S. Å: Many probably already experienced it, 2022 will be a very busy year – many countries have opened up and many exhibitions and events has started again after the pandemic. I think that we will not see any big changes or steps with new technologies and features during 2022. The last two-three years have been quite unstable and unsecure for many companies, and they will focus on what actually create business and to build up the workforce again. The technology of LTE450 that is a more stable and secure communication technology will grow a lot in Europe and be more on everyone’s lips in 2023.