Our journey, our values

We write a lot about our technology, the challenges across multiple industries that we have made our mission to resolve, and our fantastic partner network. We don’t spend a lot of time talking about us, Entopy.

In this blog, we are going slightly off-piste and going under the bonnet of Entopy. Our journey thus far has been full of excitement, ups, and downs and has involved a huge amount of work.

As well as a potted history, this blog will give us the chance to write about what’s important to us and which values we put at the forefront of everything we do.

The first steps into the supply chain

We actually fell into the supply chain. Some of us have backgrounds in supply chain environments so we have a good understanding of the challenges present today but it wasn’t until a couple of large companies contacted us and asked us to track goods through their respective supply chains that this journey began.

Tentatively, we embarked on the task of making a GNSS/GPRS sensor that was capable of working in the supply chain environment (metal kegs/warehouses/trucks, etc.), offering next-level visibility, and lasting for a long enough time (battery life) to deliver the exploratory trials.

We were simply amazed at the information we got back as well as the feedback and reaction from the respective clients. It was from this point, we took the bull by the horns and made it our mission to develop the ultimate supply chain visibility platform. This journey started a few years ago now and what has become of that initial inquiry is truly staggering.

The hard work began

The development process of any solution is hard. But an IoT solution – probably the toughest. We had to move from our rough and ready MVP to a fully, enterprise-ready solution. Building the solution involved extensive development spanning multiple disciplines.

We have had setbacks, surprises and have spent hours and hours looking at the most trivial parts. Over the past 12 months (since our first production runoff) our devices have communicated hundreds of thousands of data packets to our servers, traveled thousands of miles and have only been thrown in frustration once.

The software has continuously evolved, changing over time as we get more instruction from our customers as to what they desire.

The setbacks have been tough. But these have also brought our team closer together. Many people have helped us along the way from colleagues to partners to friends. We are truly, so very grateful for all of the support we have had.

Pushing boundaries

At the centre of everything, we knew we were going to have the break the mold. Many people said RFID was the only way to make this happen, we’ve proved those people wrong. We’re constantly looking at new technologies, bringing some into the fold throughout the development process.

But, we’ve also done things right. I remember a quote (apparently) from Steve Jobs quite simply saying “don’t ship crap”. This means extensive testing and quality control but it also means making decisions you know will extend development timeframes, simply because they are the right things to do.

We have made security a key focus. Whilst this is a feature that customers can’t see, it doesn’t necessarily affect performance (immediately anyway), it will have knock-on effects. We are seeing the press pay more attention to it now and ultimately, it will have a huge impact on IoT adoption and determine how much influence the technologies will have. We could have ignored security and released the product many months before we did. But the team stood strong and resisted and I’m very proud of this.

Our product roadmap is full of game-changers, overcoming key challenges that still exist and turning data into the most powerful commodity in the supply chain.

Success stories

We’ve won awards, deployed the solution for major brands, secured exciting partnerships and are widely recognised in the space we operate. The team is fantastic, past and future, and we’ve even had a visit from a Secretary of State (title image).

We are so excited to see where Entopy will be in the future and to continue helping our customers bring their supply chains online. With the product live, supporting major brands already, we continue to push and develop the solution capabilities helping businesses to transform their networks.

It wouldn’t be possible without our values

I think the way the blog has naturally come out articulates Entopy’s values well. We are open to everything, that’s how all of this started. We will not ship crap. We value our people, and never forget those who have helped us get to where we are. We believe in doing the right thing, even if it slows us down. We push boundaries, always challenging what’s possible. But above all else, we are driven by optimism that there is a better way of doing things. Bringing these networks online will change the game and open up a world of opportunities for future business leaders.

We will continue to stay true to these values and the others that are not mentioned. This isn’t a mission statement, it’s our journey. We are Entopy.