Ecosystems is the new HOW in IoT

November 13, 2016

br-internet-of-things-ecosystemAll IoT solutions span at least three industries – collection of data (sensors, gateways, datacom, telecom, etc), managing data (cleaning, matching, analysing, combining, etc), distributing information (IoT value is created when a piece of wanted data is delivered to the right place at the right time, i.e. apps, signs, ERP systems, warning lamps, etc). In the early days of IoT clever people were able to put together all these things to solve a specific problem for a customer or even a number of customers in similar situation. The problem is that any single piece in an IoT solution is quite complicated, so in order to make a really good solution all bits and pieces need to be top-notch. If you need a CO2 sensor you will have to turn to someone who offers the right functionality, quality and price for you solution, at any given time. If you need to have the wanted information from your solution delivered in an app, you need to provide your customer with a top notch app with great UX at any given time. If not your entire solution will look bad in the eyes of the users, even if it’s actually the best one in the market.

The IoT market develops very fast and complete solutions from one vendor, often with a couple of years success behind, are now meeting stiff competition from solutions created by several companies in tight collaboration. These ecosystems are collaborating to provide the best possible solution to industries, applications and customer segments and like if it wasn’t bad enough for the “early stars”, these ecosystems are adapting much faster to customer needs, technical development, legal requirements, policies and trends due to their combined resource.
I don’t believe single companies, industry groups, alliances or standard bodies will determine how IoT will be deployed in different markets or applications. I believe successful ecosystems will. Ecosystems is simply the new how in IoT.

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Posted by magnusmelander

Shift of power in Industrial IoT and events

November 12, 2016

Just back to Sweden from IoT Solution World Congress in Barcelona where 15 of the 65 members of my alliance for Swedish IoT Startups, SMSE, participated in a joint stand, had two Meet Swedish IoT sessions at the fair, a great Meet Swedish IoT Roof Top Cava Reception and participated in an IoT For Real Breakfast event organised by Mobile Institute. The 25 or so persons in our “Swedish Army” at IOTSWC had hundreds of partner and customer discussions, went on many of the presentations, studied the ten test-beds and visited most of the 200 or so exhibitors. Based on all this input I have made a couple of observations:

– The Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC) arranged this event in partnership with Fira Barcelona for the first time a year ago, and already the second year it was more than twice the size with almost 10.000 visitors. All my 15 companies were very happy with the professional quality of the people they met at the show, the show was well organised, and the keynotes and presentations Iistened to were good. I believe IOTSWC already has taken the role of the most important show for industrial internet in Europe.
– Everybody talks eco-systems and giants like IBM, SAP, Accenture, Microsoft, Cisco, Dell, Telefonica, Vodafone, Deutsche Telekom and Intel are doing what they can to build and defend their eco-systems. Bold moves like the 3B$ Global IoT HQ that IBM is building in Munich together with presentations of impressive reference cases makes me believe that we are seeing a shift of power from telecom to IT and Services when it comes to building and orchestrating echo-systems serving industrial internet customers.
– Spain is becoming a power nation for European Tech business fairs. After Barcelona having taken over MWC from Cannes and now established IoT Solution World Congress as a leading European event in Industrial IoT it is likely Madrid will make Digital Enterprise Solutions (DES) a leading enterprise event. Sweden is country partner to DES 2017 and SMSE and THINGS are collaborating to make everyone visiting the Swedish Pavilion remember that Sweden is a great place to look for IoT experience and solutions.

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