Technology has the capability to transform lives. Over the past few years, companies, cities and countries have moved to digitise all that they do, driving positive results in numerous ways. Yet across the world, many people still face a number of difficulties from climate change and endemic poverty, to health and nutritional care. While these big issues might seem insurmountable, technology can play a critical role in addressing many of these challenges, while creating a host of opportunities.
Figure 1: IoT revenue share (monetisation) model
One important catalyst for change is IoT which, although in its early stages of adoption, is already having a huge impact on people around the world. Network deployment, power requirements, reliability and durability are base level infrastructure requirements that can change lives and it is here that three companies, located across continents have teamed up to solve a simple but essential problem.
Sunshine for change
Globally there are more than one billion people without access to electricity, over two billion without access to formal banking and in excess of three billion without access to the internet. Veriown Global is a start-up business with the mission of creating innovative and disruptive solutions that have a life-changing impact to those across the globe with limited or no access to electricity, connectivity, quality healthcare or education. Using the innovation of IoT, Chicagobased Veriown has partnered with one of the UK’s largest mobile providers and UK-based BSS-as-aService provider MDS Global. By combining solar power with internet connectivity, Veriown is able to deliver services that provide a monumental impact to the quality of life experienced by lastmile rural consumers.
By creating alliances with companies that lead in their respective fields, including the multinational tier one mobile operator for internet access, Veriown will operate a revenue sharing model with deployment partners and local content partners. The MDS Global IoTMonetised solution will be utilised to calculate the revenue share to each partner, which will incorporate the reconciliation of data from the suppliers. Veriown will also utilise IoTMonetised to view a customer’s transactions, managing the customer’s balance, propositions and payments, enabling greater business visibility and offering the ability to tailor packages to suit customer demand.
David Shoup, the chief technology officer of Veriown, said: “Collaborating with network infrastructure operators and best of breed software providers enables us to provide life-changing solutions to communities that are sustainable for our business. We can now connect off-grid rural consumers anywhere in the world using locally-relevant tariffs and distribution partners, whilst accurately calculating important revenue share.”
Veriown provides a single device known as the CONNECT that acts as a clean energy, internet, media, education and commerce hub. There is an integrated SIM and touch screen within the CONNECT device that provides access to online education, entertainment and commerce to Veriown customers in remote end-user locations.
Using this infrastructure, Veriown is launching a number of free and add-on services that will provide consumers with:
• Solar energy for charging and lighting capabilities
• Access to news, weather and educational content
• Access to an online catalogue of streaming radio and video content
Customers will be able to purchase these additional service propositions as a one-off or, if they have sufficient balance, they can have the proposition automatically renew at the end of each period – for example every seven or 30 days. This will be determined by the customer’s proposition type.
Gary Bunney, the chief executive of MDS Global, added: “For an IoT model to be both feasible and sustainable, IoT businesses are demanding new approaches to monetisation. The project with Veriown demonstrates the major benefit of enabling a wide ecosystem of services enablers, component manufacturers, system integrators and operational partners to come together and share value from a wide range of business models that tap into the worldwide phenomena that is IoT.”
“It is with great pleasure that we are not only facilitating multi-company IoT collaborations, but are also contributing to a project that has major benefits for the underprivileged in our worldwide society,” he added. “I hope it will be the start of many projects which empower people around the globe.”
Why do we need IoT monetisation?
Consumers and businesses from across all sectors and industries are choosing to pay for IoT applications based on the value they deliver. This value is measured via defined outcomes, usage and/or subscriptions. Examples include pay-permile insurance, pay-per-event healthcare and in this case, pay-per-week smart-lighting or streaming content.
Commercial influences such as usage terms, commitment contracts and bundles for discounting drive further sophistication in these business models.
In addition, many IoT applications are delivered using an ecosystem of partner applications, services, devices and connectivity, which require partner management and settlement – continuous money in, continuous settlement out.
To ensure operations are accurate and profitable, IoT businesses need a solid IoT monetisation practice and an agile platform.
