Dave Oakes celebrates 25 years at PowTechnology!

Huge congratulations to Dave Oakes, who is celebrating 25 years at PowTechnology!

2001 was a loooong time ago! It was the year of the very first Harry Potter movie, when Sven-Göran Eriksson started as England manager and John Prescott punched a bloke who threw an egg at him!

A time when text messaging was high tech and you couldn’t create an action figure of yourself with AI! Imagine that!

We asked Dave to share some of his highlights of the last quarter century! (and yes … we know … you’d get less for murder!)

“Wow! Where to start?

“Some of the PowTechnology team have been alive less than 25 years!!

“Firstly, I’m so proud to have been around for the whole adventure that took us from sensor distributors to specialists in the Industrial Internet of Things.

“Standout moments include our very first Metron M2M device, sold in 2005 and our own MetronView platform, launched in 2011.

“We even developed the world’s first ATEX-approved GPRS-capable telemetry unit!

“That spirit of innovation has been a primary force within PowTechnology. It’s enabled our agility and evolution into an incredible range of sectors and applications. You need only look at our many case studies to see this … reams of off-the-shelf and bespoke monitoring solution.

“They encompass process improvement in factories to Adblue and cryogenic gas distribution, glue dispense to the reintroduction of beavers and protecting people on level crossings, MOD firing ranges and via flood monitoring!

“You could say that every day is a highlight, bringing previously unimagined ways to help people use their data effectively, achieving goals from safety to service, sustainability to sales. Any organisation can benefit from understanding what’s happening in their operation and we help get the data they need.

“A particular highlight for me is the fact that our IIoT solutions have consistently been developed with a massive focus on the customer, making them easy to use in the application. That is very important to a bloke who started his remote monitoring journey on freezing hilltops, programming radio telemetry for the water industry on a Psion organiser or laptop … fingers getting number by the minute!

“That experience stayed with me and gave a mission to ensure that kit was always designed to be user-friendly and intuitive!

“PowTechnology’s monitoring hardware and software is highly sophisticated, but our customers don’t need an engineering department or even programming skills. Kit is often dispatched preconfigured and literally ‘plug n play’.

“We also offer amazing support, with many solutions remotely configurable by our experienced tech team.

“Customers get an easy, secure, reliable stream of data, helping them focus on their core activities.

“We’ve been ISO9001 quality accredited for many years. An important highlight was gaining ISO27001 in 2022.

“I felt that this Information Management Security Techniques Management System Standard was essential to a cutting- edge IIoT solution provider, offering the structure to maintain the highest standards in protecting our own data and that of our customers.

“Quality, security and sustainability are at the heart of everything we do.

“A massive highlight was PowTechnology’s appointment as a Siemens Solution Partner in 2023. We work with the full Siemens Measurement Intelligence and IIoT portfolio, customising Siemens kit into end-to-end, fully-integrated, ready-to-go and customer-specific digital transformation solutions.

“It represents a fantastic win-win for our customers … blending IT and OT via the exceptional engineering and brand integrity of Siemens and our 35 years’ experience sensing, instrumentation and connectivity.

“This partnership goes from strength to strength and we hope to exhibit at Siemens amazing Transform event in Manchester Central in July.

“The last few years have been a torrent of highlights, in terms of turnover, profit, enquiries and order book, with unprecedented growth in 2025 and Q1 2026 already exceeding expectations on a dramatic scale!

“We expanded our packed agenda of events and exhibitions and we’re launching a range of exciting new IIoT products and solutions, blending IT and OT.

“These will deliver operational benefits from productivity to planning … safety to sustainability … collaboration to compliance … maintenance to market leadership!

“PowTechnology’s brand new MetronM multi-purpose IIoT gateway has already launched to critical acclaim, delivering rich, reliable, digital data via RS485 Modbus RTU.

“The ‘M’ stands for Modbus, but could also stand for the machines, modules, maintenance, meters or motors it’s designed to deliver data from.

“I’ve saved my greatest highlight for the finale! Of course, it’s the amazing PowTechnology team! 25 years ago, I simply couldn’t have imagined working amongst such a talented, inspiring, dedicated group of people.

“It’s their energy and initiative, their willingness to grow, develop skills and take on new responsibilities that keeps PowTechnology ahead of the game! Thank you, Team Pow!

“I would also like to thank our fabulous partners and suppliers … and of course our wonderful customers, who keep bringing us their ideas and giving us the opportunity to bring them to life!”

Well, there’s certainly plenty to celebrate there! Thank you Dave, from all at PowTechnology, for a quarter of a century of hard work and well-earned success!

PowTechnology work with businesses of all sizes, from start-ups to global multinationals and our solutions are trusted across a wide range of industries all over the world.

PowTechnology have been intelligent automation specialists for 35 years, making it easy to connect data from sensors and machines to the cloud.