From Telit: "The Internet of Things for Your Business in Days, Not Months? Yes, That's Possible"

The Internet of Things?

Yeah, there's a cloud service for that.

Acceleration and time-to-value are everything in business. The faster you can conceive and implement an IoT strategy for your business, the faster you'll derive value and ROI.

As with everything these days, Internet of Things platforms  are available that will allow you to connect machines and devices and begin collecting (and using) data in days instead of weeks or months.

As hardware and connectivity costs continue to drop, the uses of the data  that can be collected from the IoT is limited only by imagination – livestock tracking to prove local sourcing, humidity sensors to reduce water consumption in smart irrigation, collecting customer habits in retail stores, smart buildings, predictive equipment maintenance for manufacturing equipment or vehicles, and that's only a small sampling.

Many companies are stuck in the planning and implementation stage for IoT.

For instance, research from IDC finds that 66% of discrete manufacturers and 67% of process manufacturers are pursing IoT initiatives. However, only 40% of discrete manufacturers and 55% of process manufacturers have begun a pilot program.

An IoT platform removes the complexity so you can start connecting equipment and using the data in days.

If you're reading this, you've probably been tabbed to roll out the Internet of Things for your business – either by a CEO with shiny object syndrome or a senior executive who has real plans to analyze and use the data from an IoT implementation.

Either way, lucky you.

You could invest in the IT talent to build the connections you need from scratch – from an evolving array of devices to the right database (or databases) and analytics programs. That will take AT LEAST months. More likely it will take years and there's no guarantee you'll get it right (we've had engineers connect equipment in hours that a team of IT staff at a company couldn't get connected in months). By the time you could build, test, and implement from scratch; your business goals and needs will probably have changed as well.

Here's why using a pre-built, field proven, PaaS IoT platform from an experienced IoT solution provider could be the right choice for your company.

Why Use an IoT Platform

This one's simple – business agility/speed.

The reasons to use a PaaS based IoT platform as a service are the same as for any other outsourced service – quick roll-out, fast integration, take advantage of expertise you don't have, low cost of initial investment, and the ability to scale as needed (you pay for what you need).

An IoT platform allows you to tap into expertise you don't have yourself with technology already proven to work.

Depending on your business goals and model, you need to look at the pricing structure closely – over time outsourcing could be more expensive. However, there's no faster to way to get up and running quickly and with lower up-front costs (no CapEx).

Deployment In a Day

Why is deployment with an IoT platform fast?

You only have to worry about configuration, not integration. Connections and drivers are part of the service. Instead of attempting to tie everything together; point and click and you're on your way.

Think about it like putting together a bookcase from IKEA versus building one from scratch.

Assuming you can follow the IKEA hieroglyphic instructions, all you need is a supplied allen keyand a screwdriver – everything else is in the box. Lay out the sides, slot in the nuts, screws, and dowels, put everything in place and tighten it all up and you've got a nice bookcase in about an hour.

Compare to a bookcase from scratch. Decide on a design. Buy the wood, nails/screws, and stain. Do you have all the tools, or do you need to buy another router bit to give you that beveled edge you want? All this assumes you have the tools, space, and knowledge to build the bookcase.

An IoT platform works out of the box – here are two quick stories that illustrate it in action.

“Johnson & Johnson’s IT Lead, Welton Davis, was quite pleased with deviceWISE’s highly agnostic

hardware architecture that facilitates smooth communication between supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) and IT/MES systems, even when the number of devices is scaled up rapidly. Telit’s deviceWISE platform’s user-friendly interface, which requires no special training on the user’s part to operate, allowed Johnson & Johnson Vision Care to expedite the deployment cycle from weeks/months to only a few minutes, translating into a reduced ownership cost and significant optimization of time and resources.”

“Shorter installation times allow customers to enjoy the value of an IIoT-enabled manufacturing platform faster than is possible with competing solutions available in the market. For instance, a German OEM adopted Telit’s platform to connect its assembly line DC tools to the factory back office maintenance system to allow automatic scheduling of maintenance. Telit’s platform enabled smooth asset integration, making the manufacturing IIoT environment ready in only one day. Frost & Sullivan ongoing analysis confirms that such deployment agility is truly unmatched in the market, with other competing deployments taking a minimum of 3 months.”

Telit Can Help

As a company, Telit has been part of the Internet of Things BEFORE there was an IoT (it was M2M – machine-to-machine back in the day). If someone has wanted to connect equipment – legacy or current cutting edge – for data gathering, we've probably done it. All of that expertise goes into our IoT platform.

We allow you to connect hardware to software so that you can begin using the data to improve efficiency fast. We've seen companies attempt to manually create connections – unsuccessfully – for months that we were able to connect in hours.

Our expertise allows us to provide the Telit IoT Portal, a PaaS (a platform-as-a-service).

• Web-based interface
• Pay-as-you-grow
• Flexible data hosting and storage models
• Built-in help and developer resources

There's no reason for your business to be left out of the Internet of Things because you don't have the in-house resources to create and manage the connections.

Get started with a cloud-based IoT service and grow from there.