Stuttgart, Germany / Liberec, Czech Republic – September 28, 2026. i-flow GmbH has entered into a new partnership with FOXON, a Czech specialist in industrial automation and manufacturing digitalization. As an i-flow distributor and system integrator, FOXON will support manufacturers in designing, implementing, and scaling modern industrial data architectures based on the i-flow Unified Namespace.
Together, FOXON and i-flow combine deep industrial integration expertise with an open, scalable data infrastructure. The partnership enables manufacturers to simplify heterogeneous OT and IT environments, reduce integration complexity, and make industrial data reliably available across applications, sites, and the enterprise – without creating new vendor dependencies.
i-flow & FOXON: Better Together
Manufacturing companies typically operate a wide range of machines, PLCs, SCADA systems, databases, MES, ERP, and cloud applications from different vendors. Over time, individual interfaces and custom integrations often create complex system landscapes that are difficult and costly to operate, maintain, and extend. At the same time, manufacturers need the flexibility to introduce new systems, digital use cases, analytics, and AI without continuously redesigning their integration architecture.
FOXON brings extensive manufacturing experience, broad connectivity capabilities, and expertise across the industrial data stack – from machine connectivity to higher-level OT and IT systems. i-flow complements this with an open, event-driven industrial data infrastructure designed to scale from individual use cases to production lines, plants, and enterprise-wide architectures.
Together, the companies help manufacturers move beyond fragmented point-to-point integrations toward a future-proof, open architecture that reduces integration effort and vendor dependency while remaining flexible as requirements evolve.
From Industrial Connectivity to a Scalable Data Architecture
A successful Unified Namespace starts with reliable access to industrial data.
FOXON brings deep knowledge of production environments, including PLCs, machines, sensors, industrial networks, OPC UA, MQTT, SCADA, and other OT technologies. This allows existing production systems to be integrated without replacing technologies that already work. i-flow brings these data flows together with information from MES, ERP, databases, cloud services, and other enterprise applications. Industrial data can be structured, contextualized, and enriched with business information such as orders, products, materials, or serial numbers.
The result is a shared, contextualized data foundation that can support applications ranging from MES and ERP to analytics, automation, cloud platforms, and AI.
“Manufacturers do not need another isolated integration solution. They need an architecture that connects existing systems while remaining flexible for what comes next. With FOXON, we combine deep industrial integration expertise with our open and scalable data infrastructure. Customers can start with a concrete use case and expand the architecture over time without creating a new vendor dependency.” Daniel Goldeband (Director, i-flow GmbH)
Start Small, Scale Across the Enterprise
A key principle of the joint approach is the ability to start with a concrete business or integration challenge while building on an architecture designed for future growth. This helps manufacturers address common challenges such as heterogeneous system landscapes, high integration and maintenance effort, dependence on specialized knowledge, and limited flexibility when technologies or enterprise systems change.
As requirements grow, the same architecture can be extended to additional machines, systems, production lines, plants, and use cases.
“Our customers operate increasingly complex production environments with technologies from many different vendors. Together with i-flow, we can connect these existing systems through an open data architecture while giving customers the flexibility to evolve their landscape over time. The combination of FOXON’s industrial integration expertise and i-flow’s technology creates a strong foundation for future digitalization projects.” Jaromir Peterka (CEO, FOXON)
An Open Foundation for Digital Manufacturing
Through the partnership, manufacturers can:
– Design and implement open, scalable Unified Namespace architectures
– Connect heterogeneous machines, PLCs, SCADA, MES, ERP, databases, and cloud applications
– Integrate existing OT and IT systems without replacing established technologies
– Reduce point-to-point integrations and ongoing maintenance effort
– Avoid new dependencies on proprietary integration technologies
– Structure and contextualize industrial data across machines, lines, and plants
– Enrich OT data with business context from enterprise systems
– Scale from focused use cases to plant-wide and enterprise architectures
– Build a reliable data foundation for analytics, automation, cloud, and AI applications
Together, FOXON and i-flow help manufacturers do more with less – reducing integration and maintenance effort, increasing architectural flexibility, and creating a long-term data foundation for digital manufacturing. Visit FOXON website for more information about the company.
