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What happens when System Integrators and IoT Platforms Work Together

"System integrators are strategically positioned to understand the IoT market landscape within different verticals."

How System integrators and IoT providers can work together.

IoT’s growth over the last decade has been meteoric in scope and depth. We’ve seen both an expansion of use cases and new capabilities within the possibilities of IoT in sectors like consumer tech, manufacturing, supply chain, healthcare, agriculture, mobility, and government. Innovation cycles are getting shorter and faster; hardware is becoming better every day, and the market is highly competitive.

But IoT is also a space heavy on hype when ambitions don’t always translate to tangible benefits. For example, In 2011, industry analysts predicted an IoT market of a whopping 50 billion connected devices by 2020. Gartner more than halved by 2017 to 20 billion connected devices by 2020, and it’s unclear if we ”ll even achieve this goal in the years to come.

Cisco released research in 2017 that 76% of all IoT projects fail – most at the proof of concept stage. They attributed the failure to factors such as integration complexity, budget, security, and lack of expertise. The reality is the IoT is complex, and going from idea to proof of concept to successful deployment in your business is not always guaranteed. Fortunately, there are people to help – IoT system integrators.

System Integrators can ensure effective IoT implementation

An IoT system integrator is a company that assists in IoT deployment and management. Digital transformation is challenging, especially in established companies with years of history and accepted ways of business. Companies can deal with a mismatch of legacy (patched or otherwise) and newer technology and a mismatch of vendor services and protocols. They may be aware of what’s possible, especially with technologies like data analytics and machine learning but lack the knowledge needed for successful execution.

System integrators are strategically positioned to understand the IoT market landscape within different verticals. They possess a deep domain knowledge of the use cases, as well as the pain points and markers of success. They have strong relationships within industries with both enterprises and end-users.

They’re typically deployed in client-facing roles to facilitate the introduction of IoT in organizations burdened with legacy systems that are seeking an end-to-end solution. In other words, they get your technology in the hands of the user. This leaves you to focus on your service and product development. Examples of system integration companies include Deloitte, EY, Accenture, Dell EMC, and Cap Gemini.

High-level knowledge over technical IoT

To be clear, System integrators are more high-level than deeply technical. Therefore, they work in partnership with IoT providers to help them design and deploy their IoT solutions. A good system integrator is a project manager.

For example, a system integrator can enter a workplace and see how IoT can benefit different departments from warehouses to supply chain, transportation, and office management. System integration reduces the problem of departmental silos by bringing together IoT management to enable data-driven insights that will unlock maximum value for a company and its customers.

an example of a service they provide is IoT cloud brokerage with vendors like AWS, Microsoft Azure, GCP, and IBM. IoT system integrators can be especially helpful for companies using multiple cloud vendors and can offer advice on the optimal subscriptions and packages.

The value of a long game

System Integrators possess a long game. They can provide companies with someone who can manage the IoT of today and possess a finger on the pulse to predict the future possibilities as technology evolves. This is critical to companies seeking to accelerate IoT adoption and usage and futureproof their business against competitors.

They can help set goals and provide clear actions towards success.