Creating value

We never stop creating value

Pandemic reactions

We all experienced our first pandemic lockdown in 2020. Yet we never stopped. It gave us time to reflect and consolidate our thoughts and emotions about what was happening across the world, in our countries, our communities and our families.

Many of us began working from home and may not have been on the front line as key workers providing essential medical care, transportation, food, security, or the latest news - all contributions we are exceptionally grateful for. However, many of us at u‑blox, our customers, and partners worldwide spent our time under lockdown doing what we individually and collectively could to help innovate our way forward to a healthy and productive post-Covid-19-pandemic world.

Record-breaking ingenuity and collaboration

Humanity’s reservoirs of resilience and ingenuity have helped us during the most devastating pandemic since the Spanish Flu (1918 – 1920). A stellar example: the record-breaking acceleration in vaccine discovery, development, approval, and distribution.

Billions of vials of Covid-19 vaccine require urgent distribution

The vaccine landscape is dynamic, at press time AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, Moderna and Pfizer estimate a total production capacity of minimum 6 billion doses requiring distribution in 2021. Sinopharm, Sinovac, CanSino, and the Gamaleya Research Institute in Russia continue to roll out millions of Covid-19 vaccine doses, while the global Covax vaccine distribution effort is targeting 2 billion doses to developing countries in 2021. With another 200 vaccine candidates in the pipeline typically requiring two doses per person, it is estimated that approximately 12-15 billion Covid-19 vaccine doses will require rapid and efficient distribution to billions of people around the globe in 2021.

Industry 4.0 IoT location tracking, communication, and temperature monitoring devices are paramount to ensure that Covid-19 vaccines are arriving as quickly as possible where they need to be - intact with optimal efficacy.

Imagine millions of glass vials travelling by airplane, train, and truck - and all the transfer points along the supply chain. And in the case of the some of the Covid-19 vaccines, this means a ‘cold chain’ - with at least one type requiring a constant temperature of -70C during transport.

Half of all vaccines are wasted each year, says WHO

Many of us do not realize that the World Health Organization estimates that half of all vaccines are wasted each year, primarily because of a lack of temperature control and the logistics to support an unbroken cold chain. If valued at a non-profit cost of approximately $10 per dose, this represents a staggering waste of investment and potential loss of life.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is already playing a major role in optimizing supply chains and global logistics. Sensors monitor temperature, humidity, light, and other container conditions as well as critical location tracking. Scannable barcodes send data to a blockchain system in the cloud, providing delivery information and supply chain history to the healthcare authorities. Simultaneously, healthcare workers on the ground are receiving details regarding the safety of the vaccines as well as real time advice on how to best preserve them based on their transport data.

Autonomous drones, powered by highly precise positioning, are helping to significantly reduce the time it takes to deliver Covid-19 vaccine to patients in need in rural, hard to access regions around the world.

The last kilometer or mile by van, bike, donkey, camel or drone

Perhaps the most critical stretch of the global Covid-19 vaccine distribution trail will be the last kilometer or mile in a van, on a bike, donkey, camel, or via a drone. Autonomous drones, powered by highly precise positioning, help to significantly reduce the time it takes to deliver Covid-19 vaccine to patients in need in rural, hard to access regions around the world.

Industry 4.0 IoT location tracking, communication, and vaccine temperature monitoring devices are paramount to ensure that Covid-19 vaccines arrive as quickly as possible where they need to be - intact with optimal efficacy.

We never stopped

In 2020, we never stopped developing innovative, reliable positioning, and wireless communication solutions that securely connect cities, industries, buildings, vehicles, and millions of people across our planet.

Our restless legacy of innovation within the Industry 4.0 and Automotive sectors enable connected industries that are safer, more informed, and more efficient. Connected cities, underpinned by our products and services, optimize waste management, traffic regulation, and parking to lower carbon emissions and improve quality-of-life. Connected vehicles make our roads safer and our air cleaner.

Our restless innovation enables life-saving medical care while optimizing healthcare personnel and resources with advanced eHealth technology. In parallel, IoT is powering a paradigm shift to remote, connected healthcare, with the accompanying wave of new devices this demands.

Our exponential sustainability potential and our five pillar sustainability strategy in support of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals is fundamental to our business operations at all levels.

We are anticipating, listening, and leading

We will continue to create value for all our stakeholders by anticipating megatrends, listening to our 9,000 valued customers spanning the globe, and providing leading-edge solutions to power their innovation - securely linking up billions of people and devices.

We are delivering

Our strategy and how we create and deliver value reflect the six megatrends currently shaping our lives, communities, industries, and the planet: mobility, autonomous driving, Industry 4.0, eHealth, urbanization and security.

By living and working in our markets, we have become part of the fabric of society enabling us to work closely with our customers and partners to anticipate and engineer the robust, secure, innovative, ‘Silicon to Cloud’ solutions they require for a sustainable, connected future.

Positively impacting our valued stakeholders

Planet Earth

IoT is poised to make an exponential contribution to a more sustainable world,. As a member of this critical ecosystem, u‑blox has a key role in contributing to the innovation driving sustainability across it – and a responsibility to produce our products and services sustainably. Our five-pillar sustainability strategy aligned with the 17 United Nations Sustainability Development Goals guides us.

Our Shareholders

For decades, we have consistently delivered profitable growth while maintaining high standards of business ethics. Given the role we are playing in the future of vehicles, cities, industry, healthcare, security, and sustainability, we are ideally placed to continue olong this path of profitability while playing a significant role in developing a connected future.

Our Employees

We offer our global teams a safe, healthy, inclusive, and inspiring workplace, rewarding salaries, ample development opportunities, and a generous pension plan as they contribute both individually and collectively in developing a connected future.

Our Markets

We create the building blocks that are powering the billions of devices connecting people and innovations worldwide. And by providing more than 1000 highly skilled and highly paid jobs, we are a major contributor to many national economies.

Our Customers

We reliably deliver innovative, responsibly sourced products and services designed to power our customers’ innovation, help rapidly and effectively get them to market, and provide them with our unique silicon-to-cloud business advantage.

Humanity

u‑blox customers around the world are using IoT to innovate environmental management, agriculture, education, healthcare, social care, transportation, energy management, and building automation, among other aspects of our daily lives. In addition to supporting the immense global logistics challenge the Covid-19 vaccine distribution poses, driving emission reductions, and making healthcare accessible to millions of people who have never had it before, IoT helps overcome barriers to information and much needed human interaction. These actions result in significant, positive, global, and social impact.