Numerex has been named in the M2M 100 for the fifth year in a row. Read the press release here.

This post is mainly for my friends, family, and associates to understand what the acquisition of Ublip by Numerex means, in non-technical terms. If you ask 90% of the people in my life what it is I do for a living, they’ll tell you I work with computers. While this is true, I’d like to paint a more colorful picture. On the retail side of our business we sell GPS tracking products that allow consumers and businesses to keep track of their most important assets. This could be a loved one, a vehicle, a machine, or even a campus bus. Ublip is all about simplicity. If you sit in any product or design discussion you’ll hear us say “simple is better”, “less is more”, “avoid the kitchen sink” and so on. While this seems commonplace, I’ve found simplicity to be the exception, not the rule, in our market. If you take a look at some of our competition you’ll find that they focus on a complex sell where “more is more”. While some organizations may think they need complex products, we’ve found that most do not. Most customers don’t have the time to learn yet another software program.

95% of our company are technologists so don’t think for a minute it was easy for a bunch of engineers to get together and say “Hey! Let’s build something simple!” But that’s what we did and I’d like to think the message comes through in our brand, our software, our customer support, and our culture. Collectively, we’ve spent several decades in the machine to machine (M2M) space and have been involved with building complex software. Complex software and endless product release cycles have caused us to lose many deals in the past. But alas, we’ve focused on what we feel are the essential components of web-based tracking applications and continue to incrementally improve the product based on customer feedback.

The other side of our business is all about enabling the rapid creation of M2M applications. Let’s take tracking a remote asset, such as a loved one’s car, as an example. The non-technical version of the story is that a device is installed in the car and information about the car’s location and some sort of state (ignition on/off, door open/closed, etc) need to be accessed by a spouse sitting in front of a computer or on their nifty, new call-dropping iPhone 3G. We provide the software infrastructure that makes this happen. More importantly, we do it for all sorts of different devices, whether they use cellular or satellite communications, or come from different hardware manufacturers.

Who do we enable? Right now we enable quite a few folks: ourselves, small businesses, developers, and universities. We call this part of our business The Foundation. It’s the infrastructure that enables the rapid creation of M2M applications. We’ve done it several times over and it only makes sense to share our expertise with the world.

So how does Numerex fit into this picture? Quite well, if you ask me. The reality of any M2M application is there’s a lonely device sitting in an obscure, remote location. Most of the time these devices will be installed and never touched again. All communication with this device is done wirelessly over a GSM network (identical to how your mobile phone communicates). Numerex is the wireless network that bridges the gap between our software and the remote device. Numerex also has solutions for markets other than the location based market Ublip is focused on. Now under one umbrella we’ll be able to go after new opportunities together and provide, as Stratton puts it, a “one stop shop for M2M applications.”

Thanks for taking the time to read this and for all your support.

We’re off to do great things.

Here at Ublip we are strong believers that strengthening the M2M professional community, developers and otherwise is a very good thing for the industry as a whole. The more efficient people can be at building applications the better. A thriving professional community is a great help, whether you are seeking answers to technical questions, trying to hire good talent, or looking for products to purchase.

In the 21st century, social networks and other online tools are an increasingly important part of professional communities. I have found a number of such things online, some of the started by Ublip, some not. This is all very new, so some of them may never get going, but here is a list, by no means to be considered exhaustive.

M2M Forums - A great forum site for technical and non-technical discussion
M2M Technologist Facebook Group - Requires Facebook account
M2M Communications Group - LinkedIn Group for M2M related discussions
Tracking Group - LinkedIn Group for GPS tracking
GPS Business News Linked In group - LinkedIn Group for GPS Industry

What the Numerex Acquisition of Ublip Means: More of the same, just better

To our customers & partners:

As you know, we announced today that Ublip was acquired by Atlanta, Georgia based Numerex, Inc.
- Here is the official announcement of this transaction
- Also, we’ve posted some thoughts of Ublip’s co-founder and CEO, Jeff Smith about the acquisition

Numerex is one of the most important companies in the entire M2M (Machine to Machine) world. Numerex provides a wide array of secure M2M network services and solutions. The company has almost 700,000 active network connections, serving both large and small businesses – as well as the Federal Government & U.S. Military with its sophisticated Network Operations Center. In addition, Numerex is the first M2M Company in North America to carry ISO 27001 certification - ISO’s highest information security benchmark that ensures data confidentiality, integrity and availability.

To that core strength, Ublip brings to Numerex its Foundation technology that helps jumpstart the development, deployment & customization of M2M and location based solutions – as well as our team of M2M veterans.

Meanwhile, Ublip benefits from:
• The financial backing of a solid, NASDAQ listed public company (Symbol: NMRX), that shares our vision for making it easy to create & implement M2M solutions
• Additional General & Administrative resources (in customer support, operations, accounting, provisioning & shipping, etc.) to help support our rapid growth
• Access to Numerex’s network infrastructure

Ublip will operate as a independent subsidiary of Numerex, and you’ll still be dealing with the same core team members. So that part won’t change. But for customers, the acquisition also means:
• Even greater robustness, reliability and security of our hosting infrastructure
• The ability to purchase airtime (whether GPRS, SMS or Satellite) at extremely competitive rates
• Access to more aggressive pricing on hardware
• A wider range of available services and products
• Additional support personnel available 24 x 7

All of us at Ublip are extremely excited about this partnership. We think the benefit for our customers and partners will be great – yet they will still be working with all the same people who created and built what Ublip has already become. We’re looking forward to continuing to work with you in the coming days, weeks, months & years!

- The entire Ublip Team

A great partnership, like a great marriage, is about value creation. As my wife and I watch our eight year old son Kyle grow up, we mostly are concerned with what values we are helping to create within him. In our community we nurture and promote our shared values. My work has always been towards that same end. Success for me is value creation. That will be my legacy.

For a partnership to create value, a common set of core values is necessary, but not sufficient. Creativity is also paramount. Without creating something (or someone) there can be no value. In business we create products and services. To be truly creative you must make combinations. The values of the partners are supplementary and reinforcing. Everything else, i.e. people, processes, products & services, are complimentary. If that were not true, and you believed in yourself you would go “lone wolf” and compete and win. (If you don’t play golf, read this explanation of Wolf in Chi Chi Rodriguez’s book, “Golf Games You Gotta Play.”)

In my past, I have successfully gone “lone wolf” and successfully partnered. It is more fun to partner. Especially when you know your long game compliments their short game or vice versa. It’s called shared success.
A good example of the supplementary and complimentary aspects of a Numerex and Ublip combination are the following:

Ublip brings a service-oriented architecture
Numerex brings a service-oriented infrastructure
Both have a service-oriented culture

In the coming months you will see what I mean.

Stratton Nicolaides, President & CEO of Numerex and myself realized we have supplementary values, and complimentary people, products, and services. Through this, we will combine, create, and deliver “insanely great” value to the customer.

Just watch.

Or, better yet, come join in the fun.

- Jeff