Steve Jobs once said, “I’m convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance.”
Likewise, often discussions about entrepreneurship boil down to the difference between patience and perseverance. Entrepreneurs believe patience is the key to survive in today’s ever-changing digital world. But for many, it is perseverance and not patience – the key to virtue. One such tenacious entrepreneur, Erik Bjontegard has always been driven by the challenge to combine science and innovation in ways that improve our lives. Currently, President and founder of Total Communicator Solutions, Erik is bringing unprecedented value to millions of people by enabling smart devices to become even more powerful even smart cities to become intelligent – giving you personalized, contextual relevant curated experiences that make life even better.
Leading from front, Erik has guided Total Communicator to become a fully integrated, contextually intelligent mobile communications platform. The solution leverages real-data analytics with real-time sensor data to deliver “augmented reality communication ™” that combines location, user, and activity knowledge, to deliver curated experiences on mobile devices and other connected displays. The company’s patented, contextually intelligent communications platform, Spark Compass™, integrates proximity beacons, NFC, augmented reality, smart city sensors, NFC and other IoT and smart city sensors. With several installations, Spark Compass is used by enterprises such as airports, hospitals, university facilities, sport venues, stadiums and convention centers. Total Communicator is headquartered in San Diego, CA, with locations in USA, Spain, Mexico, UK, Norway, and New Zealand.
The Journey that Traces back to 90s
Erik’s journey to become an entrepreneur roots back to his four-year term in the University of Salford, UK in 1986. His academics had run its course, and it was therefore time to bid farewell. The days that followed left Erik questionable about his choice of profession after working at the Norwegian Underwater Technology Center developing underwater robotics he yearned to explore further beyond the shores of the North Sea. He was soon found packing his bag for an expedition to the U.S. – a nation with promises in store for a young engineer, seeking to explore and develop aerospace and deep space vehicles instead of subsea terrain. After years working on fighter jets, Space Shuttle and commercial airliners and rocket science engineering, followed by a couple of years in real estate and land development, Erik joined Qualcomm, the telecommunications giant and before long, he ascended to join the executive leadership in the Corporate R&D division. It was here, that it occurred to him: science and advancement that encompassed technology lacked real-life value and vision. He saw a need to establish a solution and platform provider that can leverage their technologies into usable and powerful platforms and end-to-end solutions. Assembling a little group of dedicated, like-minded specialists, in the midst of limited resources and budget, Erik laid the foundation for Total Communicator Solutions, Inc. in 2012.
Development and Growth of Precise Mobile Marketing Platform
He along with a team of industry experts, architected and developed a one-of-a-kind platform (PaaS) that connected existing sensor networks, devices and their users. The platform was designed to deliver compelling relevant content within a unique localized experience to the user, while capturing appurtenant user-behavior data for platform stakeholders. Together, they developed a complete precise mobile marketing platform with dynamic mobile apps – the Spark Compass platform. Today, Spark Compass is covered by an awarded US patent with numerous pending patents in USA and worldwide with providers and partners, channel partners and system integration partners ranging from ATOS, Qualcomm,CGI and Samsung to smaller local BOT (Build Operate Train) partners. “We are finally out of stealth mode and are deploying with some powerful brands and partners. The Spark Compass platform has been tested and validated in real commercial enterprise deployments, across multiple vertical markets. It drives conversion and result, now endorsed and promoted by our channel partners globally” Erik affirms.
Helping Businesses Expand their Brands
Total Communicator’s customers are typically big brands and they have a very big asset in their brands. Total Communicator – going beyond the conventional business approach – proposes to help them expand their brands – not its own apps. The firm therefore provides the tools, the plumbing if clients want – to deliver their branded messages to their fans.
“Our INCLUSIVE approach enables us to integrate with legacy systems – from client databases to existing apps for our clients. We work to enhance the communications for our clients and drive a loyalty with their customers and fans. We do this by ensuring that it’s the BRAND’s app we build and interact with, and then we enable the BRAND to communicate with THEIR fans. We can even leverage the platform to enhance and improve internal dialog and communications too for improved operations” he further explains.
Revolutionizing the Way Location Based Businesses Work
The Spark Compass™ mobile proximity platform is the ‘brains’ that’s enabling a wide range of experiences. Based on its patented technology, it takes advantage of the latest innovations in proximity beacons, sensor integrations, geo-fences, augmented reality and virtual reality to name a few – creating a layer of “Augmented Intelligent Communication (TM)” to enable businesses and organizations drive dynamic marketing, services as well as internal and external communications. The end result is the ability to easily bring real-time, contextually intelligent experiences to people in places like convention centers, universities, airports, medical centers and hospitals, events, convention centers, office buildings and tourist destinations. Spark Compass is already in all of these.
The Internet of Things industry has emerged rapidly and looks all set for a great future. Some interesting business models have emerged as well and Total Communicator Solutions seems poised to revolutionize the way the location based businesses work! Led by Erik, the firm is looking for innovative, self-starters that are eager to make things happen as they set to make the Smart City Intelligent™.