Deal of the Month October 2018: First Derivatives to supply Kx technology to South Korean firm BISTel

Technology firm First Derivatives has signed a deal with South Korean industrial manufacturing solutions provider BISTel. The new deal will see the Newry-based firm’s Kx technology used in BISTel’s products.

First Derivatives signed a material OEM deal with BISTel, a leading provider of smart manufacturing solutions headquartered in South Korea, for the use of Kx for Sensors and kdb+ in its product line.

Kx is a high-performance database that sets the standard for time-series analytics, with a built-in expressive query and programming language. First Derivatives (FD) has developed a suite of products for a range of industries including Financial Services, Telco, Pharmaceutical and Utilities. It is expected that the first “Kx Inside” products will begin to hit the market in the first half of 2019.

BISTel is a global software solution provider committed to delivering enterprise-wide productivity solutions to the high tech manufacturing industry. Founded in 2000, Bistel has grown to become a major provider of Equipment Engineering System (EES) and Analytical solutions around the world.

Kx will be used as the technology to store and analyse massive volumes of sensor data within BISTel’s real-time, adaptive intelligence applications for smart manufacturing. The OEM agreement was reached after a number of proofs of concept, including direct comparisons with potential competing solutions, during which Kx technology proved to be an order of magnitude faster than the alternative products.

Brian Conlon, founder and CEO, First Derivatives

FD chief executive Brian Conlon said it was an important contract for the company’s technology in the industrial internet of things (IoT) market–the landmark deal is expected to lead to direct discussions with other manufacturers wishing to use the technology. Mr Conlon said:

Kx provides higher performance, greater scalability and lower total cost of ownership than competing solutions and we are engaged in multiple conversations across manufacturing, and other industries, with potential customers attracted by these benefits.”

Chief executive of BISTel WK Choi commented on the deal saying First Derivatives’ “highly innovative Kx technology will integrate seamlessly with our solutions to help factories to make quicker, better and more informed decisions on the factory floor, which in turn will lead to increased engineering effectiveness, improvements in quality and greatly reduced costs”.