InGen Technologies comes full circle to IoT while growing fast
When your Internet of Things (IoT) client is a municipal utility, something going wrong is a bit more dire than your typical work snafu. It’s the same with heavy machinery like a rolling mill at a Fortune 100 aluminum company; if things go South, people could get hurt or millions of dollars could be lost.
As a mechanical engineer by degree and trade, Mike Halbig feels like he’s been working in what we now call the IoT field most of his career. “When I founded InGen Technologies in 1983, we specialized in process controls and machine interfacing with manufacturing and pharmaceuticals clients,” Mike said.
As IoT consulting and development has exploded, creative software company InGen Technologies has found itself coming full circle as clients seek out partners with experience in the physical world as well as the digital realm.
“There aren’t many technology solutions firms out there that can offer the depth of experience InGen can with cloud platforms, .NET enterprise application development, custom app development, sophisticated integrations, AND real-world telemetry or physically controlling and monitoring critical systems,” said President Jason Halbig. “That’s a key differentiator for us — being able to offer clients a scope of view that extends far beyond just the software or just the physical world, but we understand the firmware gateways that are essential for getting it right, collecting the data and constantly monitoring and improving.”
Jason explained that there are varying degrees of IoT experience and that there is room enough for everybody to get involved at some level and learn more about exciting new technologies. The stakes between monitoring the temperature of a refrigerator or autostarting a household appliance, however, are altogether different than monitoring the operational health of a public utility or autostarting a robotic workforce.
If you’re not as familiar with InGen Technologies as you think you should be, (since they have been around since the early 1980s), it’s probably because the company has been primarily based in Evansville, Ind., before opening its new Indianapolis offices in the new Novel Coworking managed Circle Tower building on Monument Circle. Since 2016, InGen has had space in the Speak Easy Downtown, and more recently staff and developers have been working out of the Indiana IoT Lab building relationships and finding new ways to get engaged with the community. Interestingly, InGen is also moving into new space in Downtown Evansville as part of the Innovation Pointe high-tech business incubator and IoT Lab there.
“The new spaces are gorgeous and a lot of fun, and they are both part of a larger plan to hire a small army of new talent to continue supporting our clients and developing creative new software as we take on new partners and projects in both cities and around the country,” Jason said.
InGen is currently hiring for its first account executive role. For a company with 12 total employees and nine of them holding engineering, software development and other technical roles, hiring an AE was a necessity as the company prepares to grow significantly at both locations over the next two years.
“We’re the kind of company that is more focused on solving problems and making the world a better place,” said Mike. “I think when people find out more about us and realize we’re growing at 50 percent a year and expect to continue growing like that, it’s something people naturally want to be a part of.”
Most of the team members at InGen are full stack developers who understand front end development all the way down to the server side development. However, the company is also growing its visual design group and UI/UX expertise.
“If you have a creative slant on the world and you value working with people who want to do some good in the world, then we want to talk to you about joining our team and helping our clients coast to coast,” Jason said.
