Komatsu Australia’s subsidiary, iVolve, has celebrated 30 years of pioneering industrial technology, with an exciting era ahead.
When iVolve co-founders Kim Parascos and David Eagles established iVolve in 1995 in Australia’s heavy industrial sector three decades ago, the landscape was very different. Few industrial sites had wireless infrastructure at all, let alone the automated haul trucks and fleet management software that exist today. In the early 2000s, Eagles developed a hardware box, known as the Nexis device, to provide wireless infrastructure to industrial sites, particularly mine sites.
As a Wi-Fi mesh networking device, the Nexis was a groundbreaking innovation. With its rugged design, which could withstand industrial environments, it became a major success. Its impact is hard to deny, as customers from around the world invested in the solution to bring their sites into the digital age.
“Our blue boxes ended up in some pretty remote places,” Parascos said.
“The reason we built the blue box was that there was no wireless infrastructure on these sites. The overall vision we had was that managers could see what was happening in the plant on a mobile device, but we needed the wireless infrastructure to do that. Back then, imagining a device that was capable of supporting the level of data was pretty tough. It was probably a bit early for its time, but it led us to our other developments.”
All of iVolve’s fleet management tools can be traced back to Nexis, as its sophisticated platform enabled data extraction from heavy vehicles, laying the foundations for Smart Quarry Site (SQS) years later with Komatsu. It marked the beginning of a long legacy of innovation and global success that the company can reflect on as it celebrates its 30th anniversary since its founding. While the landscapes of these heavy industrial sectors have changed, the key aspects of iVolve have remained the same, with Parascos (chief executive officer) and Eagles (chief technical officer) still with the company they founded.
The company is committed to delivering intelligent, customer-centric solutions that can help address customers’ biggest pain points. “We are an engineering team at heart, and as we solve problems with innovative solutions, new challenges emerge, and we’re ready to meet them head-on,” Parascos said. “The technology has moved on, and the problems are slightly more advanced, but, ultimately, customers want their sites to work as efficiently as possible. Our role is to provide them with the tools and solutions to help them do that.” The Queensland-based company is renowned for its fleet management solutions, which have expanded globally after achieving initial success in Australia.
Komatsu partnered with iVolve on its SQS platform, which is designed specifically for aggregates applications. The dashboards were built off the fleet management system that iVolve was selling into the mining sector and had become relied upon by operators and contractors alike. SQS is a digital fleet management tool that enables managers to track key performance indicators across their fleet in real time. This data, which is easily visualised through dashboards, can help managers make informed decisions about their operations to boost efficiency. From fuel usage to idle time, machine data can be used to develop on-site maintenance policies and job cycles.
“It was during the COVID period, that we were approached by Komatsu to start exploring the potential of working closely for the quarry market, and this marked the beginning of SQS. SQS has been successful with quarry customers in Australia and now around the world,” Parascos said. “The global quarrying sector and the quarrying companies are considered very important to Komatsu. So having a product that helped them manage their sites more efficiently was seen as a real advantage.”
The success of that collaboration led to Komatsu acquiring iVolve in 2023 through its Australian subsidiary, Komatsu Australia. The agreement allowed iVolve to provide services as an independent company while also supporting the further development of Komatsu’s products and solutions. Now two years into the expanded partnership with Komatsu, Parascos said the two companies have forged a strong bond. “The reason we agreed to the acquisition with Komatsu was that, throughout the SQS collaboration, we found a real affinity with the cultures in our companies,” she said.
“We really enjoyed working with the Komatsu team, and we appreciated the respect they gave us. They’re a completely customer-focused organisation. “One of the most important things they talk about is the voice of the customer and hearing what the customer wants and needs. They want to match their products and solutions to the feedback they’re getting from customers, and that is important to us as well. We take a customer-driven approach in our business, and we absolutely saw that in Komatsu as well.” Australia’s cities, especially Perth and Brisbane, have a reputation for being a “global centre of excellence” in technology for the mining, quarrying, and construction sectors. Among the pioneers in these cities is iVolve, which has thrived alongside these industries, now employing around 50 people and has earned consistent recognition as a “Great Place to Work,” which is a testament to its strong culture and long-standing team, with many employees contributing for over a decade.
“Australia is exceptional at developing industrial software and technology. Great products have come out of Australia that we should all be incredibly proud of in the mining, quarrying and industrial space,” Parascos said. “I’d love for Australia to be recognised for what these companies are achieving on a global scale.”
Parascos said she was proud of how far the company and the team behind it have come, with a bright future ahead.
“It takes a strong team to do something on a global scale, and we’re immensely proud of our dedicated team and the effort they put in,” she said. “We strongly value our commitment to customer outcomes, and there is nothing better to us than talking to a customer and hearing we’ve made their job easier.” •
For more information, visit komatsu.com.au
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