The big news before Mobile World Congress was the announcement of Cisco’s agreed offer of US$1.4 billion to purchase, Jasper, the California-based IoT services platform provider.
To find out more, IoT Now’s Jeremy Cowan met Jasper executives at MWC16 in Barcelona. As reported here on February 4, (see: Cisco’s US$1.4bn acquisition of Jasper shows determination to gain a stronghold in IoT) Jasper is to become the Internet of Things (IoT) software business unit of Cisco, retaining its branding in the same way as WebEx, said a spokesman. WebEx is an online conference company integrated as a Cisco BU.
The acquisition was announced two weeks before news broke of another major acquisition in this space, that of M2M managed services provider Wyless by KORE. Consequently, it was a topic of conversation for many in the IoT sphere in Barcelona.
The Jasper sale is scheduled to close at the end of this month. Under its terms Jasper’s CEO and founder, Jahangir Mohammed will become general manager, reporting to Cisco’s SVP of Internet of Things. The worldwide team of 425 people will join Cisco, with approximately 50% of them based still in Santa Clara, California.
Robb Henshaw, Jasper’s senior director of Corporate Communications, told IoT Now that Jasper is now in 3,500 enterprises globally. “It took 10 years to achieve the first 1,900 enterprise customers. Growth has been so fast that we managed the next 1,600 in 2015 alone. We serve more than 20 industries, at 27 operator groups in over 100 countries.”
With that kind of growth rate and market penetration, it’s not hard to see what attracted Cisco. So, what are the challenges ahead?
Sanjay Khatri, director of Product Marketing replied first with one word: “Scaling. We launched six operators (on the Jasper platform) in 2015, we are also helping operators build a Centre of Excellence in training and demand generation – we’re building tools for them. China Unicom alone has 31 different provincial operating companies, yet that integration was quick. Typically, it takes a quarter to a year; it’s down to the operator providing resources on their end, including network and IT integration.”
“Which are the most active industries at the moment?” IoT Now asked.
“Automotive is big worldwide, not only in North America and Europe but also in China, as are fleet management and telematics, transport and logistics, as well as workforce management.,” said Khatri. “In Africa and Latin America retail and payment solutions are growing in unwired areas where mobile plays a big role. Security and home automation are growing in North America and Europe but not in Asia.”
“Why the big difference in Asia?” said Henshaw. “There is a big investment in the home in the US, and Europe, we haven’t seen the same invested in the home in Asia. In China, personal health, security and wellness are taking off first, especially for checking on young children and the elderly.”
“There’s been a lot of discussion around smart cities during the last year,” said IoT Now, “are you seeing growth here too?”
“Smart cities is such an ambiguous term,” Henshaw replied. “We’ve found in Singapore, for example, that (operators) focus on one area like parking, environmental monitoring, traffic or water wastage – in some countries wastage can be as high as 40% of all pumped water.”
Jasper and Telular expand IoT solutions for commercial telematics and security
It was also announced at Mobile World Congress that Telular Corporation, a global provider of IoT solutions for commercial telematics and security, is partnering with Jasper to deliver IoT services to the commercial telematics and security markets. The partnership will integrate the Jasper Control Center IoT service platform with Telular’s SkyBitz and Telguard products to enable telematics providers and security dealers to increase productivity, reduce cost and deliver new revenue-generating services to their customers worldwide.
“Telular shares our vision of providing the best IoT services to markets that depend on real-time, mission-critical data that delivers clear RoI,” said Macario Namie, VP of Strategy at Jasper. “Telular’s support for branded and third-party solutions for telematics and security, along with Jasper’s global IoT expertise, will enable greater scalability and value for our customers in these industries.”
Telular, a portfolio company of Avista Capital Partners, has over 30 years of experience in the wireless IoT industry. Its SkyBitz division is a leader in commercial telematics with businesses focused on providing rapidly deployable solutions for enterprise fleets, local fleets, tank monitoring and petroleum logistics.
For the security industry, Telular’s Telguard division provides a portfolio of communication solutions, as well as white labelled and channel support, to select partners. Current Telguard partners include Videofied for their video verification solution and Elk, DSC and 2GIG for cellular communicators and interactive services.
As Shawn Welsh, SVP, Product Line Management and Marketing, Telular Corporation told IoT Now. “Our partners have come to expect measurable cost savings from Telular’s solutions. As IoT innovation has advanced, enterprises now expect it to have a demonstrable RoI. Both Telular and Jasper’s solutions deliver that today.”
Control Center, the Jasper IoT service platform, is an industry-leading cloud-based IoT platform that enables companies of all sizes to rapidly and cost-effectively launch, manage and monetise IoT services for any connected device. The platform, which is configurable to meet the unique requirements of businesses across any industry, aims to give companies the automation, intelligence and global scale they need to deliver IoT services worldwide.
POST Luxembourg migrates 1.1m connected vehicles onto Jasper’s IoT Control Center platform
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sper and POST Luxembourg, Luxembourg’s national telecom services operator, are combining their network and IoT platform, to enable enterprises to launch, manage and monetise IoT service businesses. Enterprises looking to deliver IoT/M2M services outside Luxembourg will be able to take advantage of Jasper Control Center through TERALINK Solutions, the innovative international business unit of POST, which launched last year.
One of the first enterprises to utilise POST IoT Control Center powered by Jasper on POST’s network was one of Europe’s largest auto manufacturers. The unnamed car maker was quick to recognise that moving its connected cars onto the platform would give them greater visibility and control over their IoT services. The platform also enables them to scale the services delivered to those vehicles to meet growing demand. Jasper and POST were quick to implement the vision of this first-mover, and their close collaboration made it possible to migrate 1.1 million vehicles to the IoT Control Center platform.
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