Lowist Toegangsbeheer installs and maintains automatic bollards for the public sector. After 15 years, the company is now an established fact in Bilzen in the Limburg region of Belgium. Lowist has realised many projects for cities and municipalities. An initial small innovation in 2010 consisting of the development of its own control system via a PLC to display error information and to adjust specific settings using the control system was already a step forward.
24/7 rising bollard
One of the systems produced by this manufacturer is a rising bollard for vehicles that is controlled using an operator panel. Lowist identified that its customers would like to manage their systems from a web application and a central platform that could communicate with the PLC in the operator panel. Innovative mobility options have now become standard. Lowist could not find a solution on the market and had a specific concept in mind when discussing options with various potential suppliers. Next, it approached Sirris for support with the development of an IoT-solution.
"We were not able to find the right supplier during the initial stage, one that could help us design the application. We sought advice and support from Sirris with the development of our cloud-based management software Centrigo.” Mathie Lowist, Lowist's Director.
From proof-of-concept to market launch
Sirris started by assessing the concept and the related risks before arriving at an alternative solution. The communication and further cloud integration were proven through a proof-of-concept. Next, the experts helped Lowist to involve commercial suppliers who had the right expertise in-house to help with the project. Four parties were contacted, each regarding part of the entire solution ranging from PLC to web application. Sirris followed up on the development and integration developed by these parties to arrive at a complete system.
With the support of Sirris, Lowist managed to acquire an industrial concept that could be used to connect and integrate automatic bollards in the cloud. The cloud-based management software ensures that the rising bollards can be operated remotely at any time. The panel and bollard are always installed together and the bollard is always in direct contact with the web application and central platform.
The new system has been successfully launched.
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