Palo Alto-based NTT’s startup redefining innovation through CXC, CloudWAN & Hitoe
City, State – Following in the footsteps of Huawei and Samsung, the Japanese telecommunication firm NTT embraced the start-up culture with its NTT Innovation Institute Inc. Founded in 2013 the Silicon Valley-based company has redefined innovation with three of its solutions – the Customer Experience Center (CXC), a multipurpose platform, CloudWAN, and using the functional material, Hitoe, in sports and healthcare.
The first solution of the innovation accelerator is its interactive meeting and briefing center called the Customer Experience Center (CXC). The platform is a place where high-level executives can learn about latest digital products. It showcases new trends and technologies with workshops on them to help big-wigs learn. The center also markets and promotes inventive creations by NTT i3 like CloudWAN.
The second technique through which the innovation center of the NTT Group is disrupting technology is CloudWAN. The launch of the technology was at the Open Networking User Group fall conference in 2017. CloudWAN solves the issue most growing businesses face. When a company needs to expand, it requires a wide area network (WAN) along with hardware like routers, switches, proxy servers, and firewalls to stay connected with each other. To make the new location operational, engineers need to install, connect and test the hardware manually. The cloud-based platform by NTT i3 bypasses this problem. The platform is a commercial initiative that gives ‘complete visibility and control over a distributed network’ according to Ravi Srivatsav, CPO & CBDO of NTT i3.
The Palo Alto-based startup also leveraged a creation by its parent company called “Hitoe.” NTT Data developed Hitoe as a functional material. When added to clothing it acts as a sensor. Hitoe can measure heartbeat and detect other biomedical signals of the person wearing it. NTT i3 created an algorithm that uses the data sets collected from Hitoe and analyses them. This solution and the fabric have been used in healthcare applications like early detection and intervention of strokes. It is also used by F1 McLaren Honda team to supervise and oversee the driver’s condition.
The subsidiary of an Information and Communication Technologies Company is working with established enterprises and startups alike to find technological solutions that promote businesses. Nina Simosko, CEO of NTT i³, states that the R&D center besides “working on healthcare and cloud-based technology is also focusing on enterprise and industrial Internet of Things.” In addition, she believes that the enormous quantities of data companies produce can be used profitably by NTT i3 for predictive analytics and machine learning.
NTT i³ has redefined innovation not only through these three solutions but also with its speed. From the concept to commercialized implementation, the innovation accelerator has the shortest product lifecycle seen in the industry, approximately 12-18 months.