Buddy Technologies announces Microsoft certification for LIFX smart light connector

Buddy Technologies (ASX: BUD) has announced its LIFX Power Automate Connector has been officially certified by Microsoft and is being deployed to all 58 Azure regions around the world.

The Internet of Things (IoT) developer’s consumer division trades under the LIFX brand and offers a suite of Wi-Fi enabled smart lighting products.

The LIFX Power Automate Connector is designed to seamlessly and automatically link LIFX smart lights to business actions using Microsoft’s robotic process automation platform, Power Automate.

Buddy said this support from Microsoft allows LIFX to sell smart lighting solutions alongside enterprise-deployed software and into corporate environments including working-from-home situations.

Worldwide deployment

Microsoft Azure, a cloud-based computing service designed to manage applications through Microsoft-managed data centres, currently has 58 global regions reaching 140 countries.

Buddy said its Connector is now live in the South East Asia, East Asia, Europe, Brazil, Canada, Japan and India regions.

Deployment to the remaining regions is expected to follow by the end of May, the company stated.

Integrating smart lighting into business workflows

According to Buddy, the connector’s technology is designed to work even if the business actions don’t include Microsoft software, meaning LIFX smart lights can be used as virtual business dashboards, indicators or warning lights.

Examples of uses for smart lights connected to business processes via the Power Automate software includes flashing office lights to serve as a reminder before the scheduled start of meetings, video conferences and phone calls.

It could also be used to turn a light outside a meeting room red when a meeting has started, to change a light when a prospect advances in a cloud-based sales account, or to indicate when emails arrive from certain people or documents require signing.

COVID-19 increases use of cloud-based business software

Buddy said LIFX’s integration with Microsoft Power Automate was driven by the recent rapid growth of the team collaboration platform, Microsoft Teams, which surpassed 75 million daily users in April.

“With the COVID-19 pandemic forcing much of the world’s information workforce to work from home, usage of Microsoft Teams has skyrocketed, creating a need for integrations into technologies found in homes, and for making work from home environments more efficient,” Buddy stated.

“The certification and deployment of the LIFX Power Automate Connector will enable LIFX’s sales teams to sell into commercial and work-from-home environments, and alongside enterprise software vendors that also offer Power Automate Connectors, of which there are over 130 – including SAP, Salesforce, DocuSign, Twitter, Dropbox, Facebook, Atlassian Jira and many more,” it added.

LIFX launches in Singapore

Today’s announcement follows Buddy’s news earlier this month that LIFX has launched sales of its smart lighting products in Singapore.

According to the company, 24.3% of Singapore households have smart home technology and the segment’s annual consumer expenditure is forecast to grow to $410 million by 2023.

LIFX general manager of Asia Pacific sales Matthew Lau said being selected to sell almost LIFX’s entire range on the Alibaba-owned LazMall flagship online store is a “tremendous entry in this attractive market”.

“As we add prominent retailers such as Apple Stores in the coming weeks, we expect to see continued growth through this year and beyond,” he added.