"We support Customers avoiding risks when improving" |
Real life Internet of Things quotes:
“We have now connected many hundreds of Customers and now what?”
“Services have invested in the solution and we want to have some return”
“It is difficult to find the best owner for IoT”
“We have built all the technology ourselves”
“Our first solution was over-specified and did never fly”
“Our sales force is not comfortable to argue for Customers sharing data”
“What kind of organisational and competence changes should we plan for?”
Other focused areas?
Other messages:
From product to solution provider
Proactive service delivery / Operational excellence 2.0 (a 15 page paper)
The Top 10 Remote Services challenges
Everybody is investing in Internet of Things but very few are earning money
A few years ago it was very much about technology – today it’s more about data, when developing IoT but the business focus is still lacking.
Companies focus very much on how to collect and analyse data, how to access equipment remotely and improve maintenance but very little about “where is the money” and how to get there. Our definition of an IoT solution contains more than just technology. In order to be successful you have to design offerings to convince Customers to connect, information and remote services for different internal and external stakeholders, new offerings … You have to define data requirements and how they relate to business. You have to establish new organisations and drive “new way of working” changes in the equipment and service sales force and much more …all of which we call the “IoT Solution”.
You will only do this change in your company one time. Once you have achieved it, the experience is basically useless as you never will do it again. This applies to all companies and as it happens so seldom, very little in-house experience exists. Without experience you have to invent the solution, try it small scale, improve it and try it again in larger scale etc. This “trial and error” takes a lot of time and can be very risky.
Balder Consulting are experts in development of IoT. Our experience:
- We have developed, managed and continuously improved IoT solutions in Telecom, IT, security and building technology industries in our line careers
- We have assisted Customers to design, develop, implement and manage their IoT solution for improved business
- We have interacted with a large number of manufacturing companies, in our knowledge sharing workshops. They are struggling with this opportunity and we gained a lot of experience in lots of mistakes to avoid.
… and we have consolidated our experience into world class models, key success factors and best approach methodologies benefitting our Customers.
1+1=3. If we marry your expertise of your company and your Customers with our experience, we can ensure an optimal IoT development for faster business impact.
Contact me to further discuss your opportunity.
Lennart Neujd, CEO Balder Consulting
Email: lennart.neujd@balderconsulting.com
Mobile: +46-707 894 887
Many companies spend most of their money and time on the technical solution without analysing how to make money from it and after a few years they realize that IoT is just a brake even area. We have supported many companies to improve that and captured the Top 10 reasons for failure.
Top 10 Internet of Things challenges
Why do many companies fail? Why are so few companies earning substantial money in the IoT area? We have ourselves been working with Internet of Things (or similar remote service and centralized data concepts) the last 20-30 years and since Balder Consulting started 2008 we have performed assignments and knowledge sharing seminars in the area, where we have been supporting our Customer IoT initiatives to make them successful. Here is our consolidated top 10 list why companies are failing to earn money on their IoT investments:
The technical part of the IoT solutions is not based on stakeholder needs- The potential improvement of company offerings, based on IoT data, has not been explored
- No remote service centres, to support Customers and internal organisations, has been setup
- Very few people in the own organisation are supported by the IoT solution
- Customer see no value in connecting their equipment
- No organisation and competence development has been performed
- No refinement of captured data to create more stakeholder value
- Technical malfunctions and limitations reduce IoT development speed
- Wrong make / buy strategy delays the IoT development several years
- No long term plan (road map) on how all stakeholders shall be supported
Two market reactions
Large strategy houses claim that substantial parts of the world economy will relate to remote connection of people, products, installations, vehicles …. A substantial part of the world economy, in 10 years from now, will be related to new offerings and improved internal processes because of Internet of Things. But you have heard all that already. There are two main reactions on the market:
The first reaction is that no-one wants to be left behind and company management decides to start up an investment in the area. An Internet of Things initiative is created and by now it has been ongoing for years. The problem is that there is very little guidance in the area and the initiatives typically take a rather technology oriented approach. The commercial focus gets left behind.
The second reaction on the market is that more and more companies are providing different components to the technical IoT solution. They offer generic gateways, data communication, data collection and storage, data integration, cloud solutions … and of course they are out on the market promoting their products. This contributes further to the technology focused approach leaving even less focus on the commercial side of it.
The lost big picture
There are so many technology options and challenges out there so you can spend years of investigation to find your technical way forward but how to make money on it is still a mystery. Very few Internet of Things project managers can explain where this will take them. How they, down the line, will get good return on investments.
Every IoT solution is unique
The market and Customer situation is different for every company investing in IoT. This require that a tailored solution needs to be developed to explore your specific opportunities. However, this is a “once in a life time” development for your company so learn from others’ mistakes to save years of trial & error and start earning faster.
Our advice
Let us investigate your Internet of Things approach and advice how to speed up your way to the money. We can investigate your fulfilment of Customer, Partner and internal needs, your sales force capabilities to sell IoT services, your offerings, the architecture of your technical solution, your stakeholder analysis, your IoT strategies and then we will provide our recommendations in how to rapidly begin to earning money.
Testimonial
Our last IoT assignment was assisting a world leader having the most famous brand in their industry. They hired us to start earning money after +10 years of ongoing development. We interview end Customers and Partners and designed the IoT services that will make the customers connect. We also proposed the pricing and the launch plan. The sponsor feedback was “When you came in suddenly there was hell of a speed in the project”. They are now implementing all our recommendations.