Telecommunications giant MTN’s latest Internet of Things (IoT) conference recognised several South African developers playing a meaningful role in the future of IoT.

The winner of the overall 2019 MTN Business IoT Solution of the Year Award was original-equipment manufacturer Informed Decisions, which develops solutions that enable affordable IoT in various industries, such as pharmaceuticals, the cold chain and water management.

The company offers a multitude of full IoT tracking, monitoring and analysing solutions that run off its own private LoRa network and can be deployed in both urban and rural areas.

Informed Decisions’ developers will head to Silicon Valley, in the US, later this year, as part of the grand prize, which is valued at R200 000.

Informed Decisions also secured the Best Industry 4.0 Solution Award.

Low-Income Households

Securing the top spot in the Best Enterprise Development Solution Award category was MeMeZa Home Policing Alarm, which is the first public, all-in-one emergency system endorsed by the South African Police Service, providing a direct communication channel between the police and communities, particularly low-income households with no access to the private security industry.

The Best Commercial Information Technology Solution Award was presented to the Discovery Vitality Drive Sensor application, which uses vehicle telematics to accurately measure and reward users’ driving behaviour and interacts with Discovery’s smartphone driving application.

NodeX IoT System, which allows users to regulate any electronic or mechanical system parameter wirelessly, such as monitoring a reservoir level, movement of a vehicle or turning a pump on and off, won the Innovative Hardware in IoT Award.

The earlyROM Mining Production System secured the Most Disruptive IoT Solution Award for its IoT solution deployed at Exxaro’s Belfast coal mine.

The solution enables Exxaro to monitor machine performance, tempos, cycle times and machine data of its mining fleet in real time.

“The contestants have shown determination and demonstrated a good grasp of the challenges facing enterprise customers. “We hope that they will use the feedback they have received during the adjudication process to scale up their solutions,” Matandela adds.

Meanwhile, the eighth edition of the 2019 MTN Business App of the Year Awards saw Naked Insurance taking the top spot as overall winner with its artificial intelligence- and chat-bots-based app that provides consumers with insurance cover “at the touch of a smart-screen” in less than three minutes.

Naked Insurance also won the Best Financial Solution Award for a locally developed app focused specifically on the financial services sector.

The Accenture Best Enterprise Solution Award for a local business app, which is specifically targeted at solving business challenges, was presented to Digger, while SI Realities secured the IDEMIA Most Innovative Solution Award for a first-to-market, unique, ground-breaking and disruptive app.

Vula Mobile won the Sentech Best Health Solution Award for the app that best supports health and wellness, and the Pioneer Best Agricultural Solution Award for solving growing agricultural challenges went to Hydra Farm Awareness.

Matric Live was awarded the Fundi Best Educational Solution Award; the Coca-Cola Best South African Solution Award went to Franc; the MiBlackBox Best Consumer Solution Award to Over; and the Best Women in STEM Solution Award to LocTransi, which also won the LaunchLab Best Incubated Solution Award.

Further, the PlayStation Best Gaming Solution Award went to Loot Defence and the ITWeb Best Breakthrough Developer Award was presented to MoWash.