May 6, 2015
By Rumasa Noor
iButtonLink, a small sensor manufacturing company privately began working with the world-renowned technology corporation, IBM in 2008.
This collaboration resulted in new technologies that helped IBM data centers save 12 percent in their annual energy costs, said Patrick Johnson, project manager and marketing lead of iButtonLink.
Consequently, IBM was able to save $18 million in “annual savings,” according to iButtonLink’s Creative Director and Marketing Specialist Caleb Kimball.
This collaboration was kept out of the public eye until April 21, 2015, when the company decided to reveal it has been working with IBM for the past few years, he said.
A UW-Whitewater alum, Johnson, said the company is still going strong in its collaborations with the technology giant.
In the forthcoming weeks, they will be releasing information on the new developments with IBM including a corrosion monitoring system, that “measures gases and particles in the air that erode and decay electronics,” wireless products and Data Center Environmental Monitor Solutions (DCEMS), he said.
Apart from being a sensor manufacturing company, iButtonLink also assembles 1-Wire products such as temperature logging and humidity logging. Johnson said the company was born as a 1-Wire company.
Originally based in East Troy, iButtonLink relocated to Whitewater Innovation Center in 2014 to operate in a bigger space that is suitable to their needs, according to Johnson.
“[IBM] help build the software, we help develop the sensors,” Johnson said. “It’s been a great collaborative piece, but definitely has taken a long time, over six or seven years to get to where we are now.”
He added that the company’s CEO, Rob Olson, and many of its original members have been very involved in the company’s operations, which is one of the reasons for its success.
iButtonLink only operates with 12 to 13 full-time employees and a few interns, said Johnson.
iButtonLink designs and manufactures its products at its Whitewater facility, according to ibuttonlink.com.
“We have definitely come a long way,” Johnson said. “I joined this company in 2013 and IBM was still a very big part of it, but not even as large as where it has come through now. We are excited possibilities where we could take it to local businesses, regional businesses, international businesses.”
