Two weeks ago, people from around the world gathered in our German headquarters for two days of training, product updates, networking, and inspiration.
During our annual BRAIN Forum on June 14th and 15th, OPHARDT Hygiene was pleased to host our partners to connect with them and showcase our latest technologies—and even share a sneak peak of what’s to come.
New Products and Product Updates
During our Innovations Update, which we showed at the BRAIN Forum and streamed live on YouTube, we released a number of key product updates.
First, we shared the news that our PRAESIDIO® Mini dispenser won the Red Dot Award. We have also designed a stand tailor-made for the PRAESIDIO® Mini. The dispenser will be able to be ordered this summer. We are excited about the ways that this dispenser takes everything we love from the larger PRAESIDIO® and everything we learned from making the SanTRAL® Plus UDU dispensers and creates a new, refined metal dispenser for everyone.
On the topic of the SanTRAL® Plus, our expansion of the lineup continued. We announced a touchless toilet seat cleaner, a small volume 250ml liquid dispenser in both manual and touchless, a cabinet-mounted version of our X10 platform, and a light-weight aluminum stand.
We showed the latest design for the Cloud Bottle, a compact tabletop foam soap dispenser that’s 100% made of post-consumer recycled plastic and Made in Canada. It will also be the basis of a new Euro bottle that is compatible with our ingo-man® dispensers. We also released a alco-foam Euro pump for ingo-man®, the first alco-foam pump for Euro dispensers. This pump draws on the same pump technology found in the BTF pump that we use in the Cloud Bottle dispenser.
Our colour options for the Hospitality dispenser have expanded with the addition of chrome to the existing black and white options.
OPHARDT’s smart offerings have also undergone transformational changes over the past year. We rebranded our service, giving it the name Kanary—but this was not just fresh paint, our new name signalled a fresh approach and a new ambition. And with over 100 million activations recorded through Kanary, we’ve made a strong start, but we are only ramping up our efforts. With Kanary, we want to make smart hygiene ubiquitous.
Smart from the Start
The product launch that we believe has the potential to transform our industry is the launch of what we are calling Smart from the Start.
Launching this quarter, KX touchless dispensers and X10 touchless drives will include a new board. In the past, smart capabilities were seen as an add-on and they were designed that way as well. But we are changing that with Smart from the Start.
Now instead of having the existing board and sensors to trigger touchless dispensing and an additional board and and sensors to make the dispenser smart, we have created a single board to activate dispensing, monitor bottle weight, and connect to WifI and bluetooth. By combining 4 boards into a single board on the X10 and 2 boards on the KX, the unified Smart from the Start board increases power efficiency.
The model also allows us to offer our smart tech widely at lower costs than before. When you buy a touchless KX or X10 with smart technology included by default, you are paying a fraction of the premiums that other companies charge.
Kanary
We also have an aggressive roadmap for our Kanary software.
First, we will launching an updates authentication framework, upping our security and using the latest standards. Kanary is used in healthcare settings where information security is paramount, so we believe staying up-to-date with the latest industry standards.
We are also creating a push notifications service that will give you timely notifications on your device when you need to see them. You will also have more control over email notifications with the ability to make more choices about what triggers an email alert from Kanary.
With the launch of our Smart from the Start devices, we are taking one of the simplest setups in the industry and simplifying it even further. Our Smart from the Start boards contain a Bluetooth transmitter, so you will now be able to use Bluetooth to configure your devices. This has a key advantage of our previous NFC setup. Using NFC, you had to hold your smartphone to just the right spot on your smart dispenser. But the greater range of Bluetooth means that you just need to be in the vicinity of the dispenser you’re setting up.
This setup has another advantage: you can do all of your configuring through the Kanary app. There’s no need to download an additional app. Once you save your WiFi configuration in Kanary, you can easily connect your dispenser to the local network and the Kanary Cloud with the press of a button.
Adding to our growing list of features for facility management, we will be launching a ‘what to bring list’ to Kanary. This will provide a checklist of the refill supplies a cleaner will need to complete their tasks.
After these features launch, we will be bringing the power of advanced reporting to Kanary. For some of our existing reports, the only parameters you can change are the date range. With advanced reporting you can select which location you want to create a report for, you’ll have more granularity, and better subscription management options.
Sneak Peaks
We were also able to showcase new technologies that we have been hard at work on, like our fuel cell-powered PRAESIDIO® and our floating droplet concept, where a droplet of sanitizer floats in the air, suspended by fans pumping out air, waiting for someone to grab it and disinfect their hands.
Inspiration
At the BRAIN Forum event, we heard from our CEO, Heiner Ophardt, as he shared about the future of hand hygiene. Prof. Dr. Nico Mutters gave us a on overview of the state of hygiene research. And European Space Agency reserve astronaut Nicola Winters shared her inspirational story with us, drawing out lessons about teamwork from her time with the ESA and the German Armed Forces.
Training
On top of the keynote speakers, dinner together, and product launches, we also hosted multiple training sessions, include the TÜV hygiene compliance course and English and German language Kanary training.
Thank you and see you soon
At the end of the BRAIN Forum, when the near-solstice Northern European sun was still covering the headquarters in warm light, we got to thank and say goodbye to all the people who made this years event the engaging time that is was.
Thank you to all the participants and we look forward to seeing you in-person again to share knowledge and push this industry forward.
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