Why IoT is not a solo sport

Let’s be honest: Any successful Internet of Things project is a team effort.

You need both your OT and IT talent to reach your IoT project goals. But did you know that even internal teamwork isn’t enough?

Beecham Research, in “Why IoT Projects Fail,” found that 57% of companies who relied solely on in-house resources for their projects fell short of expectations. The ones who “won” at IoT (among the 25,000 IoT adopters surveyed) worked with external vendors. In other words, they didn’t try to win the game on their own. They got outside coaching from someone who really knew the IoT game.

There are many companies out there positioning themselves as IoT experts. How do you know who is the right “coach” for your project?

My suggestion is to look for an IoT partner who can:

• Bring IoT experience in your industry, and solution accelerators based on industry best practices to accelerate your project
• Assist in building your business case and advise on just about every aspect of your project, from scoping, architecting and testing to scaling your solution and measuring outcomes
• Offer an ecosystem of partners to assist you in meeting the goals of your specific IoT use case

If you’re going to use an IoT platform, don’t over-complicate IoT. Look for one that makes IoT simple.

Your time is well spent researching:

• Whether key components, like device connectivity and enterprise integration, come pre-integrated
• If the platform locks you into a specific cloud infrastructure, deployment options, proprietary standards or hardware
• If a lot of custom coding is needed to connect your “things” and your enterprise systems
• If you can deploy the platform in the cloud, on-premises, and/or at the edge close to devices
• How easy it is to do IoT analytics, i.e. will you always need a data scientist to help?

You, as your team’s star player, can champion what your company dreams of achieving with the IoT. And together with the right IoT partner and internal stakeholders you can do amazing things on the Internet of Things, whether that’s reducing plant downtime, operating real-time stores or launching new digital business models.

So don’t go IoT alone. Put together the right team and score big.

Now … onto victory! Achieve your goals faster with help from the consultant-led Cumulocity IoT QuickStart program.

See why companies struggle with IoT—and how you can overcome those challenges—by clicking below to see the complimentary report from Beecham Research.