The covid-19 Pandemic: A True Catalyst for Innovation

You’d be forgiven for assuming that a global crisis such as the one we have been experiencing might result in slowing the pace of innovation, as companies have diverted resources to short-term operations and survival. In fact, in many instances, the opposite has been true, as the Covid-19 pandemic has precipitated a myriad of innovations designed to help governments, companies and individuals cope with the “new normal.”

In the area of smart cities, for example, existing community co-creation cultures and government funding have enabled rapid technology introductions such as Covid-19 apps.

Advantech’s IoT and solution integration expertise has played a key role in supporting our innovations across manufacturing, industrial and smart city applications. We have also supported customers across a number of commercial sectors to drive their own innovation implementations across key technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), 5G and edge computing, strengthening our own market-leading position in industrial internet of things (IIoT) computing and devices.

The planned roll-out of 5G communications networks has gathered pace rapidly to meet the requirements for more rapid connectivity and better digital collaboration demanded by the increase in home working, and also more rapid implementation of IoT technologies such as robotics.

Meanwhile, companies are harnessing the power of analytics to make their operations faster, smarter and leaner, and AI is increasing insight and enables more responsive customer service and communication.

Central to many areas of increased innovation has been Advantech’s strategy of co-creation—collaboration with leading partners across the world to bring together the best of both companies’ technologies to deliver solution-ready platforms for specific customer applications.

Working with Robovision, for example, we launched a no-code software platform that allows users to exploit AI through computer-vision technology. Using the platform, manufacturers can detect and classify defects in real time and automate previously human-driven processes, and thus realize real benefits in productivity and safety.

Elsewhere, our partnership with BrainCreators has delivered an intelligent automation platform for visual asset inspection and monitoring. Not only does this enable real-time asset identification and initiation of required actions, it enables knowledge to be retained within a company through the deployment of AI.

As Charles Darwin said, “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent; it is the one most adaptable to change.” That is what Advantech has always striven to be, and through working with partners with the same ethos, we are supporting an increased pace of innovation across multiple sectors and applications.

Click here to get in touch and learn more about Advantech’s industrial IoT solutions!

— Spokesperson: Jash Bansidar, Managing Director, Advantech Europe
_{This article originally appeared on Business Reporter. Image credit: iStock 1201889079}