The competition, which was launched in May to discover new digital cost-saving technology for the mining and metals and oil and gas industries, which would deliver rapid benefits, including full payback, within one year. The competition aims to help firms that have been impacted by recent budget cuts due to factors such as the global pandemic, slump in demand and price wars.

Seven solutions have been shortlisted:

• FYLD's field worker productivity and safety platform (for both the mining and metals and oil and gas industries);
• GoArc's digital ‘Permit to Work' solution, which can drastically reduce the costs associated with paperwork as well as manual errors in authorising planned work procedures (for both the mining and metals and oil and gas industries);
• Hardhat's single, integrated Software as a Service (SaaS) platform to manage safety, projects, stakeholders, and operations (for the mining and metals industry);
• Minerva Intelligence's AI-powered platform for standardising and harmonising mining data sets (for the mining and metals industry);
• Razor Labs' AI-based predictive maintenance to reduce unplanned downtime (for the mining and metals industry);
• Senseye's insurance-backed predictive maintenance solution (for both the mining and metals and oil and gas industries); and
• Tyrion's secure industrial Internet of Things (IoT) solution for integrating multiple datasets (for both the mining and metals and oil and gas industries).

The competition finalists will pitch their solutions in September to a judging panel made up of experts from across the technology, oil and gas, and mining and metals industries, which Axora said will be a ‘Dragon's Den' style setup. Following this, Axora will validate the return on investment (ROI) models and do further vetting on the solutions.

The winner will receive a sales and marketing package, called the ‘Axora Market Accelerator', which is valued at approximately £10,000 (US$ 13,688). This package includes a two-hour workshop as well as promotion via Axora's thought leadership content and inclusion into the company's digital demand engines. Axora said that this will give the winning solution the opportunity to benefit thousands of industrial companies globally.

Dr Nick Mayhew, chief commercial officer at Axora, said: "The response to our global cost-saving technology challenge has been phenomenal in terms of the quality, breadth and scope of the entries we received. The seven digital solutions we shortlisted however all have a common focus on achieving results in just 12 months - instead of the typical three-year ROI - so that industrial firms can become more efficient, more quickly."