Q: Please describe some of the overarching trends you are seeing in the IoT sector as it related to business automation, operations, and plans. Any specific use cases or industry specific examples are best, as it helps provide some context. A: We’re seeing growing demand from enterprises seeking to leverage IoT to increase operational efficiencies, reduce costs and make better data-informed decisions. McKinsey researchers predict IoT will have a potential economic impact of US $4-11 trillion by 2025, identifying manufacturing as the largest vertical (US $1.2-3.7 trillion). Despite the momentum IoT is gaining, the biggest hurdle for enterprises is navigating the inherently complex process of IoT implementation and deployment. We’ve worked with enterprises in the food services, life sciences and automotive industries last year and helped them achieve massive scale with their IoT implementation and deployment. From temperature monitoring to tracking of high-value assets and automated inventory management, enterprises are accelerating their digitization efforts. Q: In regards to your company/organization, what are some of the near term goals you and your team are focused on when it comes to BUSINESS (enterprise and government clients) solutions and product portfolio to better support scale and roll-out of connected/IoT solutions? A: Since our founding, MachineQ has developed global expertise in LoRaWAN® technologies and has played a key role in accelerating adoption in the associated LoRa® ecosystem. We have seen LoRaWAN move from one of many low-power, wide-area network (LPWAN) technology protocols, to the de facto global standard, and we see this adoption continuing to accelerate in the next 5 to10 years. In anticipation of this adoption and growth, we will continue to:
Q: In regards to your clients and prospects, please share some of the key use cases or core applications you are your clients are focused on to better understand what is driving current and upcoming adoption trends...provide examples of recent projects, how you are solving challenges or problems and providing business value. A: Protecting High-Value Assets with MachineQ for Enterprise Asset Management, a Highly Accurate and Cost Effective RTLS Solution. MachineQ for Enterprise Asset Management is an end-to-end solution that provides enterprises with a real-time view of high-value equipment, inventory, and movable assets. Leveraging MachineQ’s core IoT platform, this extremely high accuracy solution provides seamless deployments at massive scale using a unique combination of BLE and LoRaWAN technologies. As a result, the solution improves asset visibility, staff productivity, and equipment usage at a lower cost than RFID or manual processes. One of our flagship customers is a global pharmaceutical biotech company that wanted to track R&D and lab equipment. Neither their attempt to locate equipment with human labor nor deploy an RFID solution was sustainable, resulting in lost employee productivity and hefty replacement costs for misplaced assets. MachineQ offered the pharmaceutical biotech company a single point-of-contact with custom hardware for tracking, software for visualization/integration, and installation services. The solution also meets their essential requirements, including a dedicated, secure infrastructure for IoT innovation that is entirely independent of the corporate internet network, relieving any security concerns. The asset tags have extremely long battery life (10+ years), allowing the customer to have lower total cost of ownership (TCO). The engineering architecture supports the ability to track tens of thousands of assets per location and provides a sub-room level of accuracy, enabling equipment managers to locate equipment efficiently. And it includes a full suite of bi-directional APIs, allowing for easy and seamless integration with their existing ERP system. With the new IoT-enabled solution in place, the pharmaceutical biotech company reduced costs annually by avoiding unnecessary replacement of high-value assets and freed up lab managers’ time searching for equipment. To date, the customer has leveraged the MachineQ for Enterprise Asset Management solution to track 14,000 assets across 850,000 square feet in real-time. With a LoRaWAN network now in place, the company plans to increase their return on investment by adding on additional use cases related to facilities management. Optimizing Vehicle Location Processes and Reducing Operating Costs with an Outdoor Asset Tracking Solution Powered by MachineQ. Among its most significant and largest customer deployments, MachineQ partnered with a solution partner, CoreKinect, to develop an outdoor asset tracking solution to streamline inventory management, reduce operational costs, and improve customer experience. Leveraging a unique, battery-efficient technology, CoreKinect developed a low-power, long-range (LoRa®) geolocation device that transmits location data in near-real-time, while supporting up to seven years of continuous use on a single battery. MachineQ gateways and cloud-based network infrastructure provide the LoRaWAN connectivity that powers the solution. Customers can integrate the location data into their own business applications or leverage CoreKinect's purpose-built application for data visualization. In regards to your clients and prospects, please share some of the key use cases or core applications you are your clients are focused on to better understand what is driving current and upcoming adoption trends...provide examples of recent projects, how you are solving challenges or problems and providing business value. Together, the companies deployed more than 160 MachineQ Field16c outdoor gateways and 325,000 CoreKinect devices at more than 80 North American locations for their customer in the automotive industry. The LoRaWAN solution enabled the customer to increase operational efficiencies by streamlining vehicle identification, location, and retrieval operations. With the ability to move inventory in and out in near-real time, the customer accelerated sales and increased customer satisfaction. Q: Please describe some of the most exciting and innovative IoT products/services/solutions you are providing to your clients, and what is on the agenda to build out your portfolio in terms of new products, partnerships, alliances. A:
Q: Please share any recent news or articles that you believe would be relevant to share as examples of your work in the IoT sector. A:
Q: Please attach any use case, product brochure, or materials you would like to share regarding your IoT solutions and product portfolio. Q: Please provide the top 3 trends you are most excited about that will impact the business/enterprise market over the next 5 years. A:
For a list of additional resources:
Thinkers360 2022 Predictions are member-sourced from their opt-in B2B thought leader and influencer community with 100M+ followers on social media combined. The 2022 Predictions are part of a series to provide actionable insights for business and technology executives.
Thinkers360 asked a selection of their Thinkers360 global thought leaders and influencers about their predictions for the Future of Work in 2022. Here’s what they told us… READ MORE AT THINKERS360 Smart cities or intelligent cities are not only about technology improving city services, but they are about improving the community experience as you live, work, and play. Yes, much has changed over the past 18 months, but city projects are moving forward and with a boost of energy because of the pandemic and new funding sources. The industry as a whole is finding new project opportunities centered around automation, remote operations, contactless services, public health and safety, and new ways to deliver legacy services to avoid the face-to-face interaction for safety purposes. A few key technologies directly aiding in smart city initiatives include Internet of Things (sensors, connecting assets, tracking assets, real-time alerting or intelligence), mobile applications, augmented or virtual reality, artificial intelligence, and machine learning.
Historically, smart city projects have centered around traffic management, smart lighting, and city asset management, and while those areas are expected to continue to be areas of focus, new use cases are coming into the mix. Under the American Rescue Plan and Coronavirus Relief Fund (CARES ACT), cities and public schools are receiving emergency funding to support in projects related to safety, healthcare, and administering city services in new and safe ways. READ MORE AT EXECUTIVE VIEWPOINT All of us working in the tech industry, whether you are a consultant or a production employer producing the tech that consumers use, should stay on top of the "what's next" in the tech industry. As we evaluate key topics for 2022 and plan for our clients, we wanted to share a few topics that we believe are not only trending but are next-generation technologies and topics that will impact the tech industry, disrupt the way we do business, and provide new innovation for traditional ways of computing and producing. The short list we are sharing include the following:
The industry is currently all buzzing around the term NFTs or non-fungible tokens and more importantly, artists and creators are selling digital art, creations, graphics, videos, memorabilia, collectibles, and so much more. NFTs are basically a digital asset that uses blockchain technology to record the ownership of items. "When an NFT by Beeple that was stored on the Ethereum blockchain sold for $69m at Christie’s early in 2021, the wider world took notice." The Verge does a great job at explaining the basics, you can read more here. Cobots (Collaborative Robots) work alongside humans or industrial or manufacturing workers and are essentially a robot that performs the most mundane physical tasks in an assembly line, in production, in moving or delivering an asset or other industrial tasks. Here are a few real live companies using Cobots today: Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is another topic expected to grow as corporate America seeks to decarbonize operations and production, which is a heightened trend companies have been pushing as part of their sustainability and greener corporate strategies. Carbon capture is the process of capturing carbon dioxide before it enters the atmosphere and storing it. Carbon storage includes moving the liquid carbon to locations deep under the earth's surface. Ericsson's Åsa Tamsons wrote a blog this week sharing details around how industries can utilize 5G and other technologies to support zer emissions goals, titled "How smarter industries can help decarbonize our planet."
🎯 EXCITING NEWS!
Together with neXt Curve, Mind Commerce, and Compass Intelligence, we launch -THE 2021 MULTI-CLIENT BUSINESS EDGE SURVEY- Now is your chance to grab this opportunity (SPONSOR the research) to probe the market, augment your upcoming plans and strategy for Q4 2021 and 2022. Edge computing, edge analytics, and business data intelligence is the future of software, as a Service, automation, and business acceleration and more importantly, the continued road to business and digital transformation. (survey of both end-users and business decision-makers) What is a MULTI-CLIENT survey? - Vendor Sponsors (more than one) will grab the opportunity to provide questions and input to the upcoming survey, get full reports, executive level presentation of results, beautiful and engaging charting and results, and collaborate with the brightest consultants to take these insights and put them into action for your marketing, sales, product development, channel, and portfolio plans. See results by industry, by size of business, by title, and other criteria. A chance to invest at a smaller scale but reap the benefits of a wealth of market intelligence to move your business towards REAL financial rewards. To learn more about sponsor packages, contact one of us directly Leonard Lee, Gerry Christensen, and Stephanie Atkinson. *Special pricing to include startups to global companies. You may also email me directly at [email protected] www.next-curve.com www.compassintel.com www.mindcommerce.com . #edgecomputing #edgecloud #edgecompute #edgenetworking #edgeanalytics #edgetocloud #edgeai #edgeIoT #edgeofnetwork #edgeintelligence #iot #iiot #industrial #business #enterprise #digitaltransformation #businesstransformation #multiclient #survey SEE MORE ON LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/stephanieatkinson_edgecomputing-edgecloud-edgecompute-activity-6810578393080360960-OhIn As we gear up to update our Q1 numbers for B2B Wireless subscriber data (business wireless), we will share some insights on how the top three carriers ended their year in 2020. For this, we focus on just the business market including corporate liable (company gets and pays the bill) and business individually liable (employee gets partially or fully reimbursed, use of phone 50% or more of the time for business purposes) subscribers. But before we do that, let's take a look at the postpaid subscriber dip (shown above) the market experienced in 2020, driven by a complete halt on IT and tech spending due to the pandemic and COVID-19 impact. Postpaid subscribers for the top 3 reached roughly 275 million by the end of 2020. At the same time, in Q1 of 2020, the T-Mobile/Sprint merger was also finalized and Q2 began the recording of the NEW company with consolidated subscriber numbers. Each carrier has its strength in the business sector, and the fight is on in 2021 as T-Mobile takes direct charge at being the "underdog" and is expected to push the "un-carrier" move in the B2B sector. Verizon has dominated enterprise and government subscribers for decades, but experienced a very rough 1st half of 2020 and in fact ended the year with only a 43.2% share of all business subscribers, yet still very respectable. AT&T has found strength in its FirstNet client base and has garnered power in the federal sector, where Verizon traditionally dominated. AT&T experienced more of a roller-coaster of up and downs on their quarterly business wireless subscriber numbers, and ended the year with about 53K business subscribers (corporate liable and business individually liable). T-Mobile continues to push through and push up market (mid-sized and enterprise sized companies), where it traditionally found its base in the very small business and SOHO sector of the U.S. business market. At the end of 2020, T-Mobile (after the merger with Sprint) reached a 13.4% market share in just the Corporate Liable market alone. Corporate Liable is where you get to the nitty gritty, as this is where loyalty, discounting, customer experience, and business relationships lie (including recurring revenue). As the mobility and work-from-home characteristics of customers witnessed in 2020 and into 2021, businesses will need to rethink their CL policies, preferred brands and carriers, and reimbursement structures as many employees are using personal devices for work purposes. As with corporate liable accounts, your company or organization pays for your bill and they may even provide you with a discount or partially reimburse you for the device itself. Compass Intelligence expects the rest of 2021 to see continued competition in the CL space, as T-Mobile pushes the "un-carrier" business narrative even further into larger corporate accounts and will seek to steal Small Business share away from the other two. In addition, Compass Intelligence will continue to watch the market closely as changes in budget, priorities, and reimbursement for employee technology is impacted in 2021. At the end of 2020, corporate liable subscribers reached 54 million, while total business subscribers reached roughly 144 million in the U.S. Compass Intelligence has a complete BUSINESS WIRELESS tracker that our clients access and we break apart or segment the data by a number of ways for our carrier and OEM/handset clients:
Please check out Stephanie Atkinson's latest commentary, highlights, and personal remarks regarding the 2021 Consumer Electronics Show (#CES2021) held virtually.
Hello 2021, BYE BYE 2020!
About a year ago I shared my predictions around 2020, but never even imagined what we would be going through in terms of disruption, covid-19 impact, and just a whirlwind of uncertainties across business of all sizes felt in 2020. I did mention last year that we would see 2020 as the year of '5G and The Edge' and that definitely was the case as we saw IoT solutions rely on edge computing to further real-time data intelligence and analytics needed for critical business applications and real-time intelligence for business operations. As we push into 2021, below are a list of my top 5 predictions:
Just as in 2020, we will continue to see the realization of 5G use cases in the support of greenfield projects and in areas where hard-wired infrastructure is either time-consuming or cost prohibitive. 5G use cases become real as we see live deployments in and around IoT deployment and in the support of remote operations i.e. oilfield, hazmat, rural, industrial. Lastly, this year will see technologies and solutions coming together...think IoT, AI, machine learning, edge computing. As partnerships were a strong force in 2020, these partnerships will continue to work together to roll-out more comprehensive solutions that resonate with businesses. Check out our recent IoT Coffee Talk below, where the IoT Coffee Talk team reflect on 2020 and discuss/share what's to come in 2021. Thanks Leonard Lee for holding us down and Rob Tiffany for having perfect attendance :) Thanks to Marc for bringing the brain and international flare. Thanks to David for keeping it real and sharing the industrial perspective. Thanks to Rick for speaking truth even when it hurts! A week ago, I sat down virtually with Brandon Branham, Chief Technology Officer and Assistant City Manager of Peachtree Corners (PTC, one of the first cities in the United States powered by real-world smart city infrastructure, which also features ‘Curiosity Lab at Peachtree Corners’) to get an update on all of the progress being made in making the city smarter, more interactive, and inviting to technology innovators around the globe. Peachtree Corners launched an innovative living smart city lab about 1 year back that leverages autonomous technology, IoT, AI, machine learning, edge computing, virtual reality, and other advanced technologies to advance city operations, mobility, and introduce economic development. Some of the more interesting key facts about PTC include the following:
The innovation being embraced at PTC comes with the value it is placing in partnerships, leading technology company initiatives, and the live testing environment it provides to tech companies, OEMs, and startups around the globe. They currently have roughly 10 vendors with 15 different device types generating data across their network across around 15 or so different software systems. On the embracing of global companies, it is also working with a Tel Aviv company called IPgallery, that brings together city insights and intelligence using a real-time AI data platform that provides visualization (visual map) across PTC to monitor, analyze and secure all IoT devices across the ecosystem, buses, cameras, applications, etc. In addition, traffic flow and pattern data are being collected to adjust and make real-time rerouting decisions to improve public transportation.
PTC recently announced a partnership with Bosch, where they are implementing a sensor connected intersection and intelligent traffic management system to capture video including vehicle identification, vehicle recognition of objects (car, bus, scooters with drivers or without, pedestrians, etc. using machine vision). This partnership will allow real-time adjustments to traffic signaling, share the flow of traffic activity, and identify the type of vehicle in that flow for improved traffic management. PTC's Curiosity Lab will allow for a living city environment for Bosch to leverage its leading edge solution within a live, real municipality. A few other projects on the horizon include the following:
All of these activities would not be anywhere without the public-private partnerships (3Ps) in place. PTC has a process to test in their live environment, receive funding from 3rd parties or commercial entities (for some projects), decide on whether the project is scalable, and then the city decides and will invest as needed. This is a prime example of how business and government can and should work together to advance the smart city vision. On a final note, below is a list of key differentiators that enable PTC be the groundbreaking innovator in smart city solutions:
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Some of you are trickling back into work, venturing out into the city or to restaurants, and rethinking ways you go about interfacing, touching, and interacting. As such, Compass Intelligence has been thinking about technology and some of the existing solutions that are already available today to help mitigate risk, reduce virus exposure, limit touching, and improving clean and virus-free air. As we seek out touchless and safe solutions, below is a short list of technologies to help support in removing risk and helping us with safe alternatives:
Last week Stephanie had a briefing with Ken Herron, the CMO at UIB. We discussed many of these solutions above and how UIB is combining the use of WhatsApp (WhatsApp Business Account, WAPA), their own Unified AI® platform, and Chatbots or other technology to support in removing risk and supporting touchless and contactless operations. Ken shares, "UIB created the world's first and leading conversational AI platform with cognitive IoT capabilities — UnificationEngine®. It facilitates frictionless onboarding and seamless communications between humans, IT systems, and machines, such as connected appliances (smart homes), smart cities and smart factories (Industry 4.0)." We discussed the world we live in today where COVID-19 has spurred the number of use cases to embrace touchless and contactless solutions. The power of IoT, AI, and robotics come together to enable many industries to provide safer services to customers from home or even in-person experiences. Below is a video Ken shared, that walks you through the use of conversational AI and other use cases. One of which is how UIB combined conversational AI, picture sharing, and simple text communications for setting up post-sale warranties for Samsung products.
Another area for mitigating risk is in air quality or creating safe environments for offices, buildings, and facilities. Last month, I spoke with Anthony Veri of Integrated Network Concepts and we discussed the trend of UVC Lighting along with the impact to cities (more specifically city owned buildings and offices). My own father is in the commercial HVAC industry, so this was a topic of interest. As some businesses open up, they will seek out daily cleaning and sanitizing of work surfaces, but what about the use of the HVAC system to sanitize using germacidal UV light or ultraviolet lights. UVC Lighting is known to kill the coronavirus by up to 99% (this has not been validated by Compass Intelligence), but is not safe for humans or animals while working (according to studies). Companies who offer this recommend safety protocols and administering the cleaning when no one is in the office (middle of the night) but companies have to validate no one is in the office (and there are tech solutions for that). Four interesting companies working in this space that Anthony shared and Compass Intelligence identified include:
Before you move forward, always do your homework, as there is more to learn about this virus and the solutions available all come with positives and negatives. Contact Compass Intelligence today to explore other technology topics or to explore our research.
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