How can small and mid-size businesses (SMBs) – specifically manufacturers and warehouses – gain an operations digital thread that connects from materials movement through production and quality? Ideally, with well-integrated, easy-to-deploy software. Alpiconn has been delivering a combination of MES, WMS, CMMS, QMS, and traceability for the past decade. By focusing on practicality, flexibility, and depth, this company has served various companies from its headquarters in Athens, Greece. They are now ready to expand into the rest of Europe.
Breadth for Digital Continuity
Alpiconn enables a digital thread from production to quality to traceability, including the warehouse. The company started in 2008 and was rebranded as Alpiconn in 2014, so it has been building for over a decade. The Plantecho digital operations management system has four major components: MES, WMS, QC, and CMMS. From the beginning, the company’s vision was based on ISA-95. It includes all major elements of the Purdue Model’s Level 3 for seamless data flows. This end-to-end functionality is designed for small and midsize manufacturers to adopt as a digital transformation accelerator.
Plantecho is also hardware and ERP agnostic, aiming to integrate with existing systems. Minimizing the integration headache can accelerate value and enable smaller companies to adopt such a comprehensive software suite. Plantecho is designed to be a unified system that orchestrates all operations. They believe their job is to connect people, data, and processes in a way that turns complexity into clarity and sound decisions. The company has won numerous Greek awards for software, IoT, science in business, and services over the years, and seems to have loyal customers.
SMB Focused
To serve small and mid-size businesses (SMBs), Alpiconn says this system can go live in weeks, not quarters or years. They have also focused on making the system easy to use.
Alpiconn’s focus on smaller companies began to make advanced industrial technologies accessible and practical for companies that may not have the IT capacity or know-how to implement them on their own. By doing so, Alpiconn helps modernize and elevate SME operations by applying best practices and proven tools..
They have deployed Plantecho across a wide range of industries, including chemicals, aluminum and other construction materials, as well as food and beverages of many types. The foundational structures can work with any industry due to the ISA-95 basis.
However, Plantecho can serve larger multi-plant enterprises. Its multi-tenant (not cloud) approach can support multiple plants and partners. Customers have started small and grown, some using the system for over 10 years. Customer growth has also driven new capabilities and functionality in the software.
Another key factor is that Alpiconn is a turnkey provider. They enter into long-term partnerships with customers, delivering software, services, and hardware. They tend to become trusted advisors, helping customers model and optimize their business, both initially and as things change. Alpiconn also provides ongoing consulting and support services tailored to each customer’s evolving operational needs.
Beyond Basics
In addition to the broad Plantecho digital operations management system, Alpiconn offers Flexus, a low-code, event-based data and process automation platform. Customers can use Flexus to build custom workflows and business logic to respond to situations. This flexible tool has been used to develop:
- Alerts to the workforce when they should take action
- Machine control to prevent failure or quality issues
- Trigger ERP actions to pay a supplier or bill a customer based on material movement or weighing
- Access control and monitoring for a site for deliveries or pickups
Through technology partners, Alpiconn also offers connected industrial labelling from Loftware and AR-powered indoor navigation and guidance from Insider Navigation. Alpiconn is also an Independent Software Vendor (ISV) and Machine Vision partner of Zebra Technologies, integrating industrial-grade scanning, coding, labeling, and vision solutions into its systems for full visibility and control across shop floor operations. Alpiconn also has integration partners for more complex or specialized projects, such as robotic warehouses.
Looking Forward
The software is already available in English, and the company plans to expand more aggressively into the rest of Europe soon. Alpiconn regularly introduces major releases of Plantecho that include improvements and new features. It is exploring working with companies; this is logical, given its background in chemicals and regulated food and beverage.
AI is on the roadmap, but Alpiconn management is being conservative, ensuring they introduce AI solutions that address specific customer problems. SMBs typically balk at new technology that does not deliver clear business value.
Thank you, Theodore Papadopoulos and Athina Fysekidou, for explaining Alpiconn’s business and offerings to us. We look forward to following your expansion into the rest of Europe.
