Achieving Synergy of IoT Tools: The Benefits of an Effective, Single-vendor Internet of Things Ecosystem

Disparate by nature, the Internet of Things (IoT) has built its’ own ecosystem; it is in our homes, on our streets, in our cars, hospitals and workplaces… clearly, there is a need for automation, flexibility, adaptation to meet the demands of vertical specifics and integration if full synergy and its benefits are to be realized.

An effective, single-vendor Internet of Things ecosystem should address this need for integration, while also delivering on comprehensive automation and flexibility.

It is true that many organizations have innovated to meet the demands of the IoT, and there is a great deal of specialized knowledge for sale in this respect. Unfortunately, it is precisely this specialization that is part of the problem: vendors may know a particular vertical (or an aspect thereof) inside out, but don’t have the broad (yet equally deep) expertise required to sell fully convergent IoT services in that sector. For example, it makes far more sense for a telco to have a single vendor who can deliver SLA management on SIM and device level, than to use a different provider for each.

The speed at which information is exchanged in the Internet of Things ecosystem, and the sheer volume of data involved, makes automation essential

This should be built into any IoT system and capable of handling every process from end to end. For telcos, this might mean zero-touch customer onboarding, offer preparation, device and SIM management and activation and billing. Don’t make the mistake of assuming that automation is per se a solution; it has to be effective – meaning that it should simplify and speed up processes holistically, for the operator and their customers, at resource-facing and client-facing levels.

As a rapidly-developing sector, the IoT presents further challenges in terms of flexibility. What’s innovative today may well be commonplace by the end of the year, if not sooner. Furthermore, the IoT encourages innovation in and of itself, meaning that an idea can become a standard very quickly. So the ideal IoT ecosystem will be both future-proof and flexible enough to be tailored for each individual client within and between verticals. While one set of monitoring, management and lifecycle rules might apply generally to a single “group” of devices, each individual device within such a group (and each client with whom a given device is associated) must exist in the IoT ecosystem as an individual and unique entity in the specifics.

An effective Internet of Things ecosystem

For instance, the Comarch IoT Ecosystem (download the full brochure here) was designed with integration, automation and flexibility in mind. Clients can benefit from the company’s experience across many verticals, including healthcare, smart technology (parking, lighting, cities, etc.), manufacturing, telecoms and more, as well as in connecting the individual elements of processes within each of these sectors. Every element of the Comarch IoT Ecosystem can be personalized to ensure clients realize their business goals and deliver their services on the level expected by their customers. Furthermore, the Comarch IoT Ecosystem facilitates integrated automation of precisely defined processes including (but by no means limited to) bulk service management, multi-level operations and multi-party cooperation – with ongoing investment in research and development only serving to expand the scope and depth of such synergy in automation.

Encompassing Comarch IoT Connect, Comarch IoT Enablement Platform, Comarch IoT Services and Comarch IoT Business Cases, this ecosystem is a powerful tool that can help organizations in any vertical manage and deliver integrated, automated and flexible services to their customers in strict accordance with operational standards and business goals – however unique or innovative these may be.