Internet of Things Partner Opportunity Grows, So Get in ‘The Zone’
CHANNEL PARTNERS EVOLUTION — The Internet of Things (IoT) is everywhere, but never more so than at this week’s Channel Partners Evolution — especially in the newly debuted IoT Experience Zone, where Kore, Altaworx, Broadvoice, BroadSky Networks, EarthLink and NIWA brought IoT to life for partners.
IoT isn’t about hype. Real-world solutions, applications and opportunities exist for channel players in a market that’s expecting tens of billions of devices to be installed and billions of dollars spent on IoT services by 2020, according to Gartner.
Kore, a managed communications solutions provider specializing in IoT, offers global M2M and IoT connectivity solutions. The company, which was the main sponsor of the IoT Experience Zone, works with partners to deliver IoT/M2M solutions for connected devices and offers GSM, HSPA, CDMA EV-DO, LTE and satellite services for what it says is broad and reliable coverage.
A recent and exciting example of what the company is doing is a managed tablet play in association with Apple.{ad}
“We’re able to wholesale a connected-asset solution downstream through channel integrators so the integrators can add their special touch, whether that be applications or integration in ERP or CRM to create more of a managed-services approach, not just on the network, but on the hardware component as well,” said Matt Tyre, vice president of channel sales at Kore, speaking on stage in the IoT Experience Zone in the expo hall.
In July, Kore announced the iPad-based IoT solution that includes a single contract, device, platform and connection eliminating obstacles to iPad-based IoT innovation.
AltaWorx CEO Rickie Richey told us about an IoT customer solution that tracks kids getting on and off a school bus, and another customer application that tracks the health of horses using medical diagnostic technology.
AltaWorx offers the M2M/IoT Control Center Platform powered by AT&T and has been in the IoT space for about 18 months.
“The big difference between wireless and machine to machine is that we get to control where the data goes because we tell the carrier where we want it to go,” Richey explained, enabling AltaWorx to build solutions for customers that control where their data goes without having to worry about managing it.
Another IoT kiosk sponsor, Broad Sky Networks, a value-added wireless Internet integrator, brings IoT to life via its M2M/IoT solutions.
“One of the coolest things we’re working on right now is …
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… this concept of out of band management using a wireless device,” said Tom Benson, sales director at Broad Sky. Essentially this insures connectivity for IoT applications, he said.
If you don’t think there’s currently a market for IoT, think again. In a recent CompTIA report – “Internet of Things Insights and Opportunities” – 23 percent of channel firms reported having made money from IoT-related work, which is up from 8 percent just one year ago.
Still, a lot of partners don’t know how to make IoT fit into their businesses. Don’t sit on the sidelines. Tyre’s message to partners — wireless and wireless enterprise applications aren’t that scary.
“There are robust platforms out there for you to deploy solutions,” he said, adding that if partners team up with companies like Kore, the road is a lot less bumpy.
