I’m sure you have been noticing the recent announcements regarding larger companies in our industry acquiring smaller ones. Often times this is seen as the strong taking the weaker company and gutting it to their benefit. However, this is not the case.

I don’t want to get mired in the specifics of Company “A” buying Company “B”. I want to talk about the general benefits we will see from these actions as it pertains to machine control, data, and all things positioning.

The story is usually the same in these situations. A new or young company develops technology that can benefit our industry. The business progresses selling core products or ideas, allowing them to spend money on development of new technologies. So far so good. When things slow down however, money dries up for research and development. The first things to go are the conceptual projects, and bread and butter items are pushed and help to keep the business afloat.

Business continues to erode and things get tough. No longer can flagship items keep cash flow up, time to take drastic action. When things were good, calls from larger companies went ignored. Time to look in the files for that person who called you last year, interested in your product. What eventually ends up is good for both parties.

The small technology company has reduced staff to a level where they are lean and productive, making them a good value. The buyer gets to shave several years of product development. These marriages are currently cooking up some great concepts. Here are just a couple;

Connected Job Sites:  For the longest time, I have looked at connected job sites as a nice parlor trick. The promise of viewing a job and monitoring production are the function of onsite project management. If new files need to be loaded, I just put them in the machine when somebody brought them by. To me there are other features that really make this technology exciting.

The issue of equipment health and maintenance are the biggest advantage of connecting the job site. Currently the output stream is encoded and needs to be viewed by the iron manufacturer’s software, usually on their web site. Look for software that will bring all the information together so it can be correctly analyzed.

Mobile Computing: The one thing you can count on when operating a microprocessor, heat will be generated. The flow of power causes heat that needs to go somewhere. In an office or normal portable environment, a fan will move air through the computer and keep things under control. The harsh conditions found on a job site make it difficult to do this. Dirt and semiconductors do not mix. The advent of the Atom Chip by Intel has spawned a generation of “Netbook” computers. These are small, light and can go for hours on a charge because of the frugal power consumption of the processor. Less power means less heat.

We will start to see field and machine computers that have more power and brighter screens. Technology for displays is getting better too. This will mean good color displays on faster computers that run a day or even two on a single charge. They will of course have all the advantages you would need such as Bluetooth, CDMA modem and tons of memory. Many small companies are taking the products from large suppliers and producing unique systems that will benefit everyone.

Keep watching the news here and see what is in store with Companies joining forces to help our industry grow.

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