At Tele2 IoT we work with a lot of different companies around the world, helping them getting their devices connected. We have customers in industries such as telematics, smart metering, asset tracking/monitoring, security, health care, automotive, and so on. Working with a mix like this gives us the opportunity to analyze what companies do with their IoT initiatives, depending on the industry. Let’s see how IoT impacts real-life situations, based on our own experience. 

From products to services

IoT is on the tips of everyone’s tongues and they’re all dreaming of getting their business model changed from selling products to selling solutions/services. They want to differentiate their products, get closer to their end customers, better understand how/when/where/why their products are being used. There is a lot of focus on the technology side of IoT and a many of companies are lost when it comes to what type of sensory data to be collected and how this data will be converted into increased revenue & reduced costs.

Just to connect things will not be enough to differentiate yourself from your competition. IoT should always be tied into a commercial goal. What we see in “real life” is that most companies start with solving a simple problem, which is nice – as they start small, but missing the big picture of the potential savings/improvements that could be achieved with that specific IoT solution.

For this reason, let´s divide our seven real life lessons into two categories; technology insights and business insights.

IoT technology lessons

Lesson 1: Well-defined processes will save you time

Most IoT solutions are unique, in a way that companies put a HW/Sensor together with a SW/Platform and connect devices with an SIM card (hopefully). This is a complex ecosystem and needs proper processes to keep these parts work together. So, the very basics of an IoT solution is to make sure different components work together. That your suppliers understand each other and are ready to help you solve issues when you come across them. So finding the right partners and to have a well defined processes, are two important key to make an IoT project success.

Lesson 2: Engage all teams; sales, marketing, product, support etc when setting the technical requirements

Do your homework well before starting with the technique. The technical part of the IoT solution must be built based on stakeholder needs. So, talk to your sales team, product, support and marketing teams to scope the needs right from the beginning. We don’t mean start with the big vision, but at least have a clear understanding of what type of sensory data you need to collect in order to meet your business goals. Then find out which suppliers can deliver those components to meet your requirements.

Lesson 3: Involve more people to share knowledge faster

We also see that organizational competence development has not been performed well enough. This is a big mistake, involve people and let them play with the new solution. Don’t lock down IoT into a small project team. Work with suppliers who can bring you best practices and guidelines based on real life experience, not only power point presentations with big numbers.

Lesson 4: Complex technology requires skills

Technical malfunctions and limitations reduce IoT development speed. IoT solutions are relatively complex. Make sure you have skills internally or hire external skills to make sure your team can manage your IoT solutions. Equally important, your suppliers understand the bigger picture and can help you solve issues. In this respect, Tele2 IoT is very skilled when it comes to connectivity and related services, we help our customers optimize, improve and further develop their IoT solutions. Don’t work with suppliers who is not flexible and skilled enough to help you down the road.

Lesson 5: Align with over-all business strategy

Every big consulting & strategy house agree that the future of the business will be based on new offerings and improved internal processes based on connected devices. Most of the future looking companies know this and they start with trials and POCs. It is good that they start small to learn and crawl before they walk. However, most of these initiatives are technology focused and not really well combined with the commercials.

Lesson 6: Where is the money?

There are so many different components to a technical IoT solution and business challenges out there so companies can spend years of investigation to find the “best” technical way forward but how to make money is still a mystery. Most of our customers are quite lost in the commercial side and don’t really figure out a proper business model. At the end of the day, changing from product selling to solution selling is a big step forward and will take some brave/serious efforts from whole organization.

Lesson 7: What to do with the data?

The potential improvement of company offerings, based on sensory data, has not been explored. Companies continue doing business as usual and it is not easy to convert data into actual revenue yet.

Our advice

First of all, every IoT solution is unique in a way. By working with experienced people, you can learn from others’ mistakes to save years of trial & error and start making money faster out of your IoT initiatives. At Tele2 IoT we even have a professional services team to help you run complete business requirements. Maybe a chat with them is a good start?

How can a prospective IoT business differentiate the qualities of one Telecom operator’s connectivity offer from another? Which connectivity provider gives best all-round value when it comes to reliable machine to machine connectivity, IoT expert service, and pricing? Here are top 5 tips that we recommend you to take a look at in order to optimize your data consumption and find the best IoT connectivity partner. 

The communication between things provides significant value for most industries today, such as lowering service costs with remote access, efficient energy utilization through real-time monitoring and creating new revenue streams by selling differentiated services.

We use connected machines to perform variety of different tasks to achieve this business value. It can be using car sensors that enable pay-as-you-drive auto insurance. The ability to monitor equipment remotely or GPS tracking that monitors vehicles/containers location and activity. The use cases are endless.

As connectivity is a crucial part of all M2M/IoT solutions and one of the potential cost drivers, it is important to make sure you choose a Telecom operator that can help you optimize your data consumption. Below you find five tips on what to look for.

1. Understanding the units you’re using

Does the telecom operator understand diversity in M2M/IoT devices? Is the connectivity service provider experienced in dealing with HW units and how they are being used in field? In example, some tracking units uses Binary for data format that uses much less data than ASCII. If you have units that support both then make sure you set the unit to use binary as the data usage will be lower.

2. The configuration of your device

Depending on your needs, you should configure the best optimal setting on your device. Because actual configuration of your device will affect the amount of data being used. For example in GPS tracking devices, the way you want to have the tracking interval/polling and heartbeat are very important. If you want to set tracking time down to seconds, then the device will push a lot of data. Using heartbeat and/or sleep mode (if supported) would save cost.

3. Rounding effect (the handshake cost)

If you configure the device to be always ON (learn how long a data session can be with your telecom operator and CDR creation maximum timeout) instead of starting a data session, sending few bites and closing the session down, will save you up to 15% cost. This means you can lower your costs by aligning according to the rounding policy of your telecom operator for around 5-15% depending on how often you send data.

4. Reliability of the cellular connectivity

Static devices sending non-critical data may only require single network SIMs if the coverage in given location is good (do not forget that coverage also depends on the traffic at base station in a given time). But if the device is roaming/mobile, operates from areas with shaky signal coverage, or involved in sending business critical data, a single network SIM (or a SIM with roaming steering to the “cheapest” network partner) presents risks of connectivity failure. Multi-network SIMs go a long way in addressing this risk by automatically switching connection between networks to retain best signal connectivity. So, ask if you are getting full roaming without network steering and access to the best signal in a given location?

5. Automation to prevent overage charges

Most of the connectivity service providers also have some sort of SIM management platform. Check if your platform can be pro-active and take action if something un-expected happens. Inability to do anything beyond simple email alerts on potential issues is a possible extra cost and/or customer dissatisfaction for you. Real-time ability to de-activate rogue devices or push a notification into existing IT systems via APIs means devices with problems can be fixed before they become customer support calls to you.

All in all; you should look for the competence level of your telecom operator before signing an M2M/IoT deal with them. Most of the network and connectivity issues can often be resolved online or over the phone. But sometimes the M2M devices themselves malfunction or may experience network signaling issues. Check if your Telecom operator has testing skills that can work with you to physically examine the M2M device to ascertain the most likely cause of the problem? Will the service provider be able to help get you back up and running quickly if anything goes wrong?

At Tele2 IoT we have a long history in connectivity. We can help you to optimize your costs and go global. If you would like to learn more about how we can help enable your business, please get in touch.