It’s well known that the addition of new IoT capabilities to industrial equipment and devices creates new opportunities for capturing data and enabling remote management. As such, many companies are integrating mobile connectivity with their solutions. Many businesses expect that investments in IoT solutions will, not only enhance the services they offer, but also deliver productivity gains and operational cost savings.
But, as IoT deployments gather pace, businesses need to think how to manage the growing scale of their device fleet in order to secure these benefits. This is important, because delivering small numbers of IoT-enabled devices is a relatively easy process.
Problems arise when this turns into many thousands of such devices. These may be deployed for asset tracking, or have other mobility requirements, or they may be distributed across many locations. So, we have several problems to consider:
- Managing a growing fleet of devices
- Reducing the costs of adding new devices
- Simplifying the addition of new devices
- Reducing the risk of failure as the fleet grows
Failure to pay attention to these issues could dramatically increase operational costs and negatively impact IoT-enablement plans, eliminating many of the benefits businesses expect to obtain from their IoT investments.
IoT devices typically depend on SIMs to communicate with operational processes. This means that the ke
It’s well known that the addition of new IoT capabilities to industrial equipment and devices creates new opportunities for capturing data and enabling remote management. As such, many companies are integrating mobile connectivity with their solutions. Many businesses expect that investments in IoT solutions will, not only enhance the services they offer, but also deliver productivity gains and operational cost savings.
But, as IoT deployments gather pace, businesses need to think how to manage the growing scale of their device fleet in order to secure these benefits. This is important, because delivering small numbers of IoT-enabled devices is a relatively easy process.
Problems arise when this turns into many thousands of such devices. These may be deployed for asset tracking, or have other mobility requirements, or they may be distributed across many locations. So, we have several problems to consider:
- Managing a growing fleet of devices
- Reducing the costs of adding new devices
- Simplifying the addition of new devices
- Reducing the risk of failure as the fleet grows
Failure to pay attention to these issues could dramatically increase operational costs and negatively impact IoT-enablement plans, eliminating many of the benefits businesses expect to obtain from their IoT investments.
IoT devices typically depend on SIMs to communicate with operational processes. This means that the key link in the value chain is the communications path. It provides the pulse by which organisations can determine the operational status of devices, as well as to collect and receive essential data and commands. When new devices are added to the fleet, they must also establish communications with the control centre.
All of this requires management. To maintain connectivity, to facilitate the addition of new devices, to monitor status, and to ensure the smooth transmission of essential field and operational data. Businesses need to be sure that they can take care of the end-to-end communications lifecycle.
So, what’s to be done? It’s not enough just to obtain connectivity, businesses need the right partner for delivering IoT connectivity. IoT investments are for the long-term. Businesses need to know that they can take the first steps along the road to IoT enablement, but also with the confidence to scale as their business grows and as more and more devices are deployed.
Businesses need to understand the issues they may face, so that they can choose the right partner to help them grow as they implement IoT plans and as they expand their device fleet. Managing thousands and thousands of devices is not a trivial undertaking, so it’s important to get this right from the outset.
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The author of this blog is Paul Bullock, Head of IoT and Strategy, JT
Paul lives in Jersey, has a BA from the University of Toronto and has pursued graduate studies at Henley Management College (MBA program) and Ryerson University (MsC Technology). In 2013 Paul joined JT and set-up JT’s IoT business. Prior to this Paul worked in several business development and product roles, including two start-ups in Jersey, Bermuda and Canada.
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