Black Box, a global solutions integrator, today announced that it has established an IoT practice in Asia that will allow the company to embrace abundant IoT opportunities across Asia's manufacturing hubs. Through its IoT solution suite and integration services, Black Box will help Asian manufacturers realize the vision of Industry 4.0 - interconnected factories where all equipment is online, intelligent and capable of making its own decisions.

"The explosion in connected devices and platforms, combined with the abundance of data from field devices and the rapidly changing technology landscape, has made it imperative for manufacturing companies to quickly adapt their products and services and move from the physical world to a digital one," said Martin Willemsen, general manager - APAC, Black Box. "With the IoT practice, Black Box is building an ecosystem of partners and suppliers to address the entire fulfilment chain, from consultation, design and solutioning to deployment and managed services covering IT and OT. It's a one-stop-shop solution for Industry 4.0 transformation."

Industry 4.0 allows manufacturers to have more flexible manufacturing processes that can better react to customer demands. The IoT practice will put together Industry 4.0 solutions with key strategic partners that not only help manufacturers to be more competitive, but also to build a more sustainable and smarter infrastructure for a greener economy.

Black Box has formed strategic partnerships with such leading companies as UnifyTwin and Sxtreo, a Black Box business unit out of India. The IoT practice will combine products from those partners with Black Box deployment and managed services to support Asian manufacturing companies looking to implement the industrial internet of things (IIoT) into their operations.

Sxtreo's AlertWare RTLS solution provides real-time indoor location tracking for gaining insight into asset usage and performance and ensuring employee safety. Since GPS is not available inside buildings, AlertWare uses Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). In addition, both AlertWare and Black Box's AlertWerks enable ambient condition monitoring and data acquisition from integrated sensors to predict failures before they occur, prevent unnecessary downtime and increase efficiency, with AlertWerks using a proprietary protocol to cover greater distances. Both solutions work with UnifyTwin's IIoT cloud solution, addressing Industry 4.0 demands with capabilities including interface connectivity, edge analytics and predictive analytics enabling industrial automation, as well as with Black Box's VISIBLE enterprise IoT platform for connected buildings and factory environments. Operating on a SaaS cloud framework, VISIBLE provides intuitive dashboards and is powered by analytics, which allow microdecisions through a big data approach.

Black Box has hired IIoT professionals throughout Asia to ensure the practice has the right talent and capacity to meet customer demand. The company has also appointed several channel partners with specific domain knowledge and industry focus to represent Black Box across the Asia region.

Further information about Black Box and the company's Global Solutions Integration services offerings is available at www.blackbox.com.