How businesses can create value through IoT

The importance of technology to businesses today is inescapable. The way that businesses, buy, sell, and market themselves has been turned on its head. Yet talk to many in the business world and the last thing they want to talk about is ‘digital transformation’. The term has for many become a byword for technology deployments that underdeliver.

 

For those in the business of selling technology, the implication of this is that they have to stop selling technology. Businesses do not want to buy the latest technological miracle. Instead, they want to buy compliance, or efficiency, or a new growth opportunity.

 

The channel has to recognise that they need to sell business value in order to discover new opportunities. But for these partners to utilise these new opportunities to the fullest extent, they will need to learn how to adopt and develop the new business models.

 

The Internet of Things is an example of how we need to shift from technology to business value. This shift has been driven by those in IoT working to understand where customers believe the true value of IoT projects is created.

 

For manufacturers, understanding how their service is being used is of prime importance, especially when it comes to increasing the value for both your business and for the customer. However, such a task means gathering data, which means that IoT is needed for a majority of cases. The reality is that the value is not in the device itself, but in the data and the decisions that can be made by using it.

 

Businesses will have to aggregate, unlock and organise their data so that it can maintained by those who have access, whilst making sure they are being ethical and secure. Analytics can then be utilised to understand the insights, which then lead to an increase in value from artificial intelligence and machine learning.

 

The channel can start to undertake a number of actions once the data from IoT has been analysed. Data can provide system integrators and resellers with information on the problems that their customers are facing, as well as the services they need to overcome them. Improvements of the solution, along with added value for the end customer can be created from the consistent flow of information and continuous dialogue. Meeting a customer’s real word business objectives can also help to strengthen lasting relationships.

 

Although it is not easy for businesses to align IT with their business objectives, success can come about if it’s done well. To mirror the ongoing relationship that businesses have with their clients, they will have to start by changing how they charge their clients for their services. Systems will then have to be acquired to not only manage these ongoing relationships, but manage the groups of people who have been trained to aid customers on a regular basis. 

 

A further challenge is finding the personnel who can bridge the worlds of technology and highly skilled vertical expertise.  To achieve success in specialised markets like oil and gas or manufacturing, you’ll need to gain contacts and deep market expertise that not many in the IT space own.

 

Distributors can play a critical role in connecting those in the channel with those in industry in order to build new solutions that achieve business outcomes and create new opportunities. From aggregating solutions to coupling market specialists with solution partners, distributors can help businesses in the IT space to gain entrance into new markets and provide new offerings that resolve business issues. In addition to this, distributors can assist market specialists with technical support and training they need when it comes to automating their offerings and coming up with different IoT solutions, which helps businesses achieve their objectives and sell business value.