Den has announced the launch of a suite of smart products designed to change the way people control and monitor electrical equipment, lighting and power usage in the home. Den’s vision is to use smart home devices to change the way people control and monitor power usage in homes. Its first
Fixmart Limited, the UK supplier of construction products, has implemented the PODFather System, in order to improve its customer service, productivity, visibility and client communication. With the help of the System, Fixmart’s customer service team will be able to schedule and monitor time-critical deliveries for clients to sites across London
Although the overall rate at which the sales of construction-related products is increasing has slowed down, the overall sales figures of such products are still on the rise for the eleventh year running, says a report by the Construction Product Association. The report highlights that over the final four months
BDC 319 : Aug 2024
Den has announced the launch of a suite of smart products designed to change the way people control and monitor electrical equipment, lighting and power usage in the home. Den’s vision is to use smart home devices to change the way people control and monitor power usage in homes. Its first wave of products includes Smart Light Switches, Smart Sockets, Motion Sensor, Smart Remote and Den’s Smart Home Hub. Den also includes its revolutionary Smart Tags for tracking the location of appliances even if they are moved around the home & monitoring appliance power usage – whether laptops or phones from room to room or the location of high-risk appliances like irons and hair-straighteners, Den can track them at all times. Den is the only firm in the world with the patent for truly smart switches and plugs that fit seamlessly into the home – deliberately identical to the plugs and switches the UK is most used to. Den deliberately adds modern tech driven functionality without changing the habits and rules of the household. “Conventional light switches and socket outlets have been around for more than 100 years and have barely changed – we’re not the first to build wireless switches, they have been available for more than 20 years, however every single wireless switch in the world today has replaced the switch we’re familiar with for buttons or touch pads that are complicated and hard to use. We’re the only company in the world who’ve built wireless switches without taking away the original switch we’re so familiar with. Super excited having released products today. We are looking forward to following up with additional features and products in the coming months and years,” commented Den’s Founder and Chairman, Yasser Khattak. All devices can be controlled and monitored via a smartphone app, and can integrate with both Amazon Alexa and Google Home as of today. Den’s Smart Tags allow users to track which appliances are draining the most energy and alert users to safety concerns. In the case of irons and hair straighteners, for example, Den can inform users about what they’ve left running too long, and if not responded to, automatically switch them off. Den has also received its latest round of funding of £2 million, bringing its total investment to £5 million. This will be used in the production of the next range of devices for the home, including Den’s Smart Dimmer Switches as well as the entire range with chromed metal finishes. Funds will also be used to expand operations and the team, to enable further product integrations such as Homekit and explore opportunities with further integrations like IFTTT.
Fixmart Limited, the UK supplier of construction products, has implemented the PODFather System, in order to improve its customer service, productivity, visibility and client communication. With the help of the System, Fixmart’s customer service team will be able to schedule and monitor time-critical deliveries for clients to sites across London and the M25 corridor, straight from the company’s extensive warehousing facility in Kent. “Delivering products that are scheduled to arrive at a construction site are often time-critical with tight delivery windows so there are no delays to a particular phase of work. Failure to meet these can result in possible time and cost implications as well as financial penalties. The PODFather system will ensure that we deliver materials to our customers when they need them and also enable us to optimise our route planning to make the most efficient use of the fleet. It is just one of a number of recent initiatives we have undertaken to help our customers save time and money, maintain a competitive advantage and mitigate risk,” said Carl Ghinn, Managing Director of Fixmart Limited. Improved estimated times of arrival will be communicated to customers when the delivery is en-route with traffic information and delays provided in real-time. The system will also enable Fixmart to evaluate mileage, vehicle weight capacity and to create the most optimal delivery runs within the set time-window requirements of their customers. “Effective route planning should sit at the heart of any logistics team to help ensure the best chance of delivering on customer promises. Fixmart has taken PODFather to provide accurate delivery ETAs to their clients and they now know in advance if these are going to hit the required delivery time window. Electronic proof of delivery documents are sent in real-time back to the office and the customer stating the exact time of delivery, who received it, and where it was delivered,” commented Colin McCreadie, Managing Director of PODFather. Fixmart offers construction related products including fixings, containment, pipe support, brackets and ductwork.
Although the overall rate at which the sales of construction-related products is increasing has slowed down, the overall sales figures of such products are still on the rise for the eleventh year running, says a report by the Construction Product Association. The report highlights that over the final four months of 2015 overall sales have risen at a slowed rate than previously, yet manufacturers of such products still remain very positive as to the future of the industry over the course of 2016. Another positive aspect of the report was that many UK manufacturers have, in fact noticed a notable reduction in costs associated with energy, fuel and even on the exchange rate. However, on the flip side, the costs associated with staffing organisations has been noted to rise somewhat, which, while a very positive figure for employees in the sector, will also be reducing the benefit employers are seeing from the decreased operational costs. As Rebecca Larkin, Senior Economist for the CPA explains, the figures do highlight positive growth for construction-related products yet, with regard to heavy manufacturing, the figures actually highlighted the lowest balance within a quarter over the past 3 years. She commented that this: “Echoes weakness in overall construction output data for the closing months of last year.” Yet, those operating within the sector do seemingly remain confidence of its success. One of the key factors to which we can attribute the lessening of energy prices is the oft-reported fall in oil pricing around the world, which has greatly assisted manufacturers in maintaining commercial growth despite relatively shaky economic climate. With regard to the change in employment costs, the rise in pay did not, in fact show up the figured expected by inflation and recognition for performing employers, but the widely-reported skill shortages have acted as a catalyst for employees demanding increased wages which have consequently increased bills.
