The Israeli Brain Behind Millions of Smart Devices

Billions of smart devices operate in today's world, many designed to perform just one core task for their operating company: payment devices in restaurants, streamers from TV service providers, devices streaming information to digital signage, digital kiosks, and control of operation systems. These are just a few examples. More and more of these devices are based on the Android operating system and can be found across various industries: retail, medicine, education, tourism and hospitality, logistics, and others. Companies that maintain fleets of thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands or millions of smart devices, need to effectively and efficiently manage and maintain these devices throughout their lifecycle, including initial setup, application management, security, privacy, and remote maintenance.

One company that has been doing this successfully in recent years is Radix, an Israeli firm with headquarters in Or Yehuda, where we met with Michael Shoham, CEO, and his brother Iddo Shoham, CTO, who founded the company together.

"Radix' focus and specialization in Android-based endpoint devices has led us to strategic agreements with some of the largest hardware manufacturers and telecom companies in the world, including Samsung, Lenovo, Foxconn, Fujitsu, Vodafone, and the local Yes," explains Michael Shoham. "We identified the gap between what manufacturers produce and what customers require in order to be able to manage fleets of thousands and millions of smart devices; we entered this niche with unique management and control capabilities that no one else in the market currently has."

When the market thrives for innovation
Radix was founded in 1992 as a company specializing in computing and communication systems for academic institutions and training centers. Michael Shoham, holding bachelor's and master's degrees in economics and business administration, was among the founders of the company and initially served in technological roles. Over the years, the company evolved and focused on developing central management and control systems for smart devices. The strategic decision to focus on the Android operating system led to a significant breakthrough, after Michael Shoham was appointed CEO and led the company to rapid growth in global markets.

"When we started developing smart device management, we identified that the market was thriving for innovation," says Iddo Shoham. "The existing solutions were outdated and offered a limited range of options, far behind what new operating systems and devices could support. The second major insight was that no one had taken up the challenge of building a management platform flexible and modular enough to address the specific needs of each market."

"If you add a digital distribution or advertising system, a hotel guest management system, or a credit card reader in a restaurant chain to the same device—these are completely different functions that need to be managed in different ways, but with the same core solution," adds Michael Shoham. "We ensure operation and control of all required functions and configurations through an API in the core of the device, so that the customers receive a solution tailored for their specific application and requirements. Our solution also handles software updates, acts as a 'watchdog' for device security and performance, and enables analysis and insights for the entire device fleet, all from a single dashboard."

Smart devices: Ready for management right out of the box
One of the strategic advantages Radix has created is a network of agreements with dozens of the largest hardware manufacturers in the world, such as Samsung, Lenovo, and others. "When a customer wants to operate a fleet of devices produced by a manufacturer we are connected with," explains Michael Shoham, "they just need to take the device out of the box and turn it on—that's all! The device is already incorporated in their fleet and ready to be managed by our platform. Radix' management platform is already inside the core of the device, at the firmware level. This allows us to define and enable entire device fleets before they leave the box and provide a range of control and management features and access permissions that maximize the customer's management capabilities. The device arrives from the manufacturer not only ready to work but also in full compliance with customer requirements."

"This offering led us to develop a very unique proposition for device manufacturers. In addition to selling the device, we offer them to add a SaaS model that creates a revenue stream throughout the device lifecycle, enhancing their image and relationship with their major customers, all with maximum ease."

Close relations with Google and constant competitive advantage
Michael Shoham explains that "we identified manufacturers' need to offer end-to-end management for their devices, thus shortening the platform customization time for the customer. If endpoint device manufacturers try to develop such a solution independently, they will need to make significant and long-term investments and can provide only a partial solution. Therefore, it's advantageous for manufacturers to implement a mature and proven solution like the one offered by Radix. We know how to adapt and operate an Android system for a given application in a specific market within three-to-four days, which is phenomenal time-to-market at very low costs." He went on to say that "we provide solutions in both open-source Android and Google's Android. This expertise has placed us in a position where Google, in certain markets, offers Radix as a preferred solution for device management. Many manufacturers also prefer to work with open-source Android, for example, for digital signage systems, and there too we have the solution with the best cost-benefit ratio in the market and with alternative capabilities to the Google stack, such as access to the app store and Google services API."

In every streamer and every screen
"Our management platform offers new capabilities for our customers and increases the value they receive from our solution. Television service companies like Vodafone and Yes provide their end customers with streaming devices to stream advanced television services to the home screen," explains Michael Shoham. "Our management platform manages millions of such Android TV-based streamers, ensuring the best possible user experience at home. For this market, we have developed support tools that allow responding to service calls directly from the device, enabling efficient and fast service and saving millions in provider operation and service costs. The Radix platform checks the 'health' of each device in real time, updates it when necessary, and alerts about issues requiring additional attention. Device management is done automatically for groups and all devices simultaneously."

"The luxury hotel chain Caesars Palace," Michael Shoham provides an example from another vertical, "uses our solution to enable the delivery of entertainment and information services to the hotel rooms. Our platform allows guests to enjoy the streaming services they are familiar with from home, and after checkout, clears browsing history to allow a new guest to use the room. This solution is perfectly designed for the needs of the hospitality industry and represents a huge leap forward in their ability to acquire cheap, off-the-shelf Android devices and adapt them to network requirements instantly. It completely changes the rules of the game and puts us in a position to play a new role in our customers' business world."

Accelerated growth against period challenges
We asked Michael Shoham about the challenges they faced during the war. "We are receiving only encouragement from our partners. Almost 30% of our team was called up for reserve duty when the war began. It wasn't easy at first, but it didn't affect our ongoing work and deliveries to customers. Customers like Vodafone called to check if we were okay and how we were doing. The trust and support we receive from partners worldwide is heartwarming."

"Until recently, we worked with a small sales team in Israel handling the entire world, and most of our marketing to new customers took place by word of mouth. We were happy to discover that growth in several markets simultaneously required us to expand our sales and marketing force, and today we are opening front offices in the US and China to be closer to manufacturers and major customers. We are growing by about 50% annually, but we want to reach significantly higher annual growth, which can happen if we become more proactive."

The vision: Horizontal growth in new verticals
"We are at a turning point in the smart device management industry," notes Iddo Shoham. "Our vision is to lead the next revolution—AI-based that not only monitor and manage devices but generate significant business insights and improve user experience. The next generation of Radix solutions already offers advanced analytics identifying usage patterns and trends, fault prediction capabilities, automatic optimization of device performance, and even campaigns running on them. We are already seeing impressive results across different verticals: content providers, tourism and hospitality, smart signage, medical services, and more."

"I want every device manufacturer in the world to add Radix as the preferred option for device management services for their customers," concludes Michael Shoham. "We are approaching the implementation of advanced AI and analysis technologies, so soon, our solution will not only manage devices efficiently and save our customers significant money but also turn their smart devices into a source of business growth for them."

Company website >>

In collaboration with Radix