Corporate Vision Issue 4

40 CORPORATE VISION / Issue 4 2018 , MultiTech designs, develops andmanufactures communications equipment for the industrial internet of things – connecting physical assets to business processes to deliver enhanced value. Recently, we spoke with Senior Director, Marketing, Sara Brown to find out more about the innovative business. History of Innovation MultiTech’s commitment to quality and service excellence means you can count on the firm’s products and people to address your needs, while their history of innovation ensures you can stay ahead of the latest technology with a partner who will be there for the life of your solution. The firm’s business and ongoing strategy relies on their vision and mission, as well as the three core values; Creativity, Performance and People. MultiTech’s vision is to be the preferred provider for innovative connected technology destined to transform their world. As for their mission, it is to make connected technology easy to adopt and use by focusing on customer needs, developing innovative solutions, outpacing market change, leveraging best-in-class processes, and empowering their team to achieve and grow. As for the three core values, the firm’s creativity stems from them delivering ground-breaking innovation for more than 40 years. This requires visionary thinking, a culture of continual learning, inspired invention and a relentless focus on finding new ways to solve real-world problems. The performance is shown through both the products and the team, who are committed to optimal performance. The team hold themselves accountable for the quality and reliability of the technology they produce, as well as the discipline required to produce it. Lastly, the people. Collaboration, understanding, mutual respect is central to the firm’s effectiveness, innovation and longevity. As such, the team extends kindness and transparency to everyone who touches or is touched by MultiTech – the customers, partners, suppliers and, most importantly, the team. When undertaking a new client, Sara explains the process MultiTech takes to ensure all needs of the client are met. “Product Management decides which projects we want to pursue based on roadmap, potential revenue, market positioning etc. Once they determine what project we will start, they write a Marketing Requirements Document to get the project started. This kicks off the discussion between engineering/ operations/Project Management on scoping and requirements, as well as what the high level time line looks like. After we have agreed, we move onto risk assessment - to further determine what impacts and possible issues this project will have. Then, we call the project group together into weekly meetings, to create the project site, begin project activities and come up with a timeline. “For new customers that need lots of development, they follow the new project path. New customers that just need minor customisations to the existing product, go into the onboarding process. Customer Service calls a meeting with engineering & operations, once the onboarding form (requirements document) is filled out. The team then approves (or declines) the project moving forward. If it does move forward, it gets a portal case, a product spec and a timeline, then continue on with legal, pricing, production setup, etc.” When discussing how the firm has changed throughout the years, Sarah reflects on the steps MultiTech has taken to get to where it is today, and how these have affected the company. “MultiTech was founded back in 1970, and has been connecting the Industrial Internet of Things ever since – as such, there have been a numerous amount of changes. Back then, we used analogue technology to transmit data from machine to machine. Today, everything is IP based. It is hard to quantify the changes from a time before the Internet itself was broadly used. Probably the biggest factors have been the accelerating pace of technological change, coupled with the miniaturisation of computing power, which together have really changed not just MultiTech’s business and that of our customers, but our very way of life.” Bringing the interview to a close, Sarah reveals to us the industry trends the firm follows to ensure their success, and how she sees these changes over the next five years. “Hot topics today include low- power, wide-area networking (whether it be unlicensed like LoRaWAN or licensed like NB-IoT); security and distributed intelligence. We’re already commercial with offerings that address these issues, and will continue to evolve our product lines around these areas in the future. Some forward looking things likely to impact the IoT include blockchain, artificial intelligence and machine learning. These things are already making an impact on the consumer Internet, and we are seeing experimentation in the IoT space around these topics as well. Overall, I think all three offer real promise and I expect to see us, our partners and, most importantly, our customers leveraging these technologies in really exciting ways in the next five years.” Looking ahead, Sarah highlights the future aspirations she has for the business, such as problem solving and providing the clients with exceptional services. “Our biggest aspiration is to continue to provide tangible value for our customers through ongoing innovation, solving the problems they bring to us and those they may not even yet foresee.” Name: Sara Brown Web Address: www.multitech.com Address: 2205 Woodale Dr., Mounds View, MN 55112 Telephone: +1 919 699 7093 1711CV10