Case: Crowdsoft

Meet Alf Eriksson from Crowdsoft Technology AB and learn how Airbus' SmarTWISP application developer programme can help grow their business.

Redefining Situational Awareness

The Stockholm-based Crowdsoft Technology AB was instantly drawn to SmarTWISP, as the company got a whiff of the emerging ecosystem in early 2017. CEO Alf Eriksson says that it was obvious from the beginning that Airbus is building something really interesting here.

“There is huge untapped potential in the market, but as a small organization, we need partners in exploring all the opportunities,” Eriksson says, calling Airbus “a fantastic partner” for his company. Furthermore, he believes that the critical communications sector could use a healthy dose of “disruptive thinking”:

“You can take common technology and find ways to disrupt it. In the next couple of years, this thinking will impact the way we work, the way we solve problems as well as our working environments.”

Don’t Miss the Train

Despite the industry’s reputation as a rather conservative one, the change is coming. Eriksson points out that as apps have taken the entire world by storm, the critical communications sector can not let the tech evolution pass them by.

“Everybody in the industry recognizes the development that will take place in the next 5-10 years.”

Crowdsoft already has an “ace in the hole”, so to speak, in this regard. The new C-One solution boosts real-time communication for critical environments, enhancing crisis management, response time and situational awareness. Specifically designed for high value resources and locations with a need for fast end-to-end communication, the first order of C-One shipped out in summer 2016.

“C-One is designed to create situational awareness and provide the customers with the proper communications in those situations when operational teams need minute-based communication,” Eriksson explains.

Going Deeper

The company adds extra edge into the solution by using the employees of customer organizations as eyes and ears on the ground:

“Through communications collaboration, you can use the people as a real resource for situational awareness, instead of simply being observers.”

But what’s the compatibility of C-One from the point of view of SmarTWISP? Eriksson says that with minor adjustments, the solution is good to go: presently, C-ONE uses notifications and maps from Google and if SmarTWISP wants to use something else in place of the Google offering, those functions will have to be replaced.

“There will be some development needed to accomplish that and its fully doable,” says Eriksson who has over 25 years’ experience from the Telecommunications and IT industry. His resume spans both large-cap multinationals and smaller growth companies, such as Ericsson, Netcom Consultants, SmartTrust/Giesecke & Devrient and Edgeware.

Next Level Appeal

In his days as a developer, Eriksson worked also with Nokia’s Action Net, the predecessor to present-day TETRA. Being very familiar with the terrain, he is confident that Airbus-led SmarTWISP can go far:

“When you glue together TETRA and Android, you have a very powerful combination that can really expand the market.”

According to Eriksson, SmarTWISP has also another distinct advantage: the network is built in such a manner that it can be rather quick on its feet. “When you look at the capabilities of SmarTWISP, it is clear that the ecosystem can move fast and adapt to changes.”