M2M Innovation: Communication is the Easy Part
The lifespan of a M2M device can be short or infinite, but the need to capture, correlate, and deliver data to individual applications and users at the right time in the right form is the fundamental reason for deploying M2M. To make that experience automated and profitable requires a lot of work on the part of both provider and customer. M2M must fit snugly into the IT architecture that will host and maintain it for the long haul and that means seamless compatibility with both the network operator and the business.
Taking the Plunge
The thought of delivering M2M services to businesses and consumers worldwide makes service providers absolutely giddy with the revenue possibilities. But delivering M2M isn’t as easy as it looks. M2M offerings are industry- and business-specific, not scaled-down consumer offerings. There are a lot of ways this can go wrong and very few ways to get it right, but waiting isn’t an option. Perhaps some businesses can adopt a wait-and-see attitude to M2M, but many more are chomping at the bit for viable applications that improve productivity, generate revenue, and reduce costs. Coming up with those applications takes industry expertise and good listening skills, which is why many service providers are assembling consulting groups with subject matter experts gleaned from targeted industries.
Service providers that are getting serious about M2M are functionally separating the M2M business from the network and capacity business. Ecosystems are being built that include multiple partners and providers from component and device manufacturers to cloud applications and development environments. Service providers bring connectivity, hosting, storage, and--most important--management, support, and a guarantee of interoperability. Service providers recognize that they can’t do it all, and they don’t want to. What they want is to be the go-to source for M2M in whatever form it takes in any business vertical. That means that not only will they have to engage the ecosystem, they have to nurture each organism. Anything less than seamless, automated, multi-tenant solutions that ensure every transaction from every device is detected, delivered, and secure won’t cut it.
M2M is a precarious combination of fully automated off-the-shelf capabilities that ensure profitability and industry-specific applications that deliver unique functionality. M2M core technology needs to be consistent, common and easy to maintain and upgrade while M2M applications must be purpose-built to deliver differentiation to business users. Service providers spend a lot of time and money to support the volume of traffic, devices, users, and applications in today’s networks and the explosion in mobile data only hints at the challenges that will be magnified by M2M. Still, no business is better suited than a communications service provider to establish global alliances, deploy, activate, operate, manage, and bill for millions of connections worldwide and do it reliably for the next 20 years. So let’s get to it.
