The 7 Biggest Mistakes Manufacturers Make - IoT Software …€¦ · The 7 Biggest Mistakes...

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The 7 Biggest Mistakes Manufacturers Make When Launching IoT Products

Transcript of The 7 Biggest Mistakes Manufacturers Make - IoT Software …€¦ · The 7 Biggest Mistakes...

Page 1: The 7 Biggest Mistakes Manufacturers Make - IoT Software …€¦ · The 7 Biggest Mistakes Manufacturers Make When Launching IoT Products. Introduction The path to creating successful

The 7 Biggest MistakesManufacturers MakeWhen Launching IoT Products

Page 2: The 7 Biggest Mistakes Manufacturers Make - IoT Software …€¦ · The 7 Biggest Mistakes Manufacturers Make When Launching IoT Products. Introduction The path to creating successful

Introduction

The path to creating successful connected products is littered with road kill. Many industry leading manufacturers stumble getting their discrete products connected and and creating meaningful solutions. Without deep insight into all the potential pitfalls of launching connected products for the IoT, manufacturers are likely to make critical mistakes. Some of these mistakes can be extremely costly, in money, time, and frustration.

To help you take a smoother path to your connected products—and to prevent a “Fire, Aim, Ready” approach—here are the 7 biggest mistakes when launching into the IoT market, and how to avoid them.

© 2016 Ayla Networks Inc. www.aylanetworks.com

Page 3: The 7 Biggest Mistakes Manufacturers Make - IoT Software …€¦ · The 7 Biggest Mistakes Manufacturers Make When Launching IoT Products. Introduction The path to creating successful

Designing an IoT solution without

identifyinga specific use

case

Mistake #1

How is a customer going to use this particular connected product? What specific value will the new product provide? And what kinds of customers or users will appreciate this extra value enough to pay for it?

Example: a connected freezer. Most people wouldn’t see the point of a connected freezer. But hunters, fishermen, or owners of small restaurants or ice cream shops—people who have significant money invested in storing meat or frozen foods—might appreciate a freezer that called their smartphones if an open door or power failure threatened the integrity of the freezer.

© 2016 Ayla Networks Inc. www.aylanetworks.com

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Choosinghardware before

choosing your IoT cloud

Mistake #2

Choosing your hardware before choosing your IoT cloud is like buying building materials before understanding the building codes. In earthquake prone areas, some building materials (like bricks) are not allowed because of their tendencies to collapse during an earthquake. You risk starting over again; adding significant costs and delays to your project.

IoT hardware vendors, such as Wi-Fi module makers, can’t help you identify use cases for your connected solution or determine what else you’ll need besides their module. It’s very possible—in fact, it’s happened in the real world—that a manufacturer chooses a Wi-Fi module that not only isn’t supported by the IoT cloud they later want to use, but that doesn’t have enough memory to support any IoT cloud. Ouch.

© 2016 Ayla Networks Inc. www.aylanetworks.com

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Failing to budget enough

time for the project

Mistake #3

If you estimate a schedule based on your experience with traditional products, you’ll almost certainly underestimate the time needed to bring an IoT solution to market. Beyond things like firmware and wireless radios in the connected product itself, you also need to consider cloud operations, mobile or web application development, and end-to-end security and interoperability. A connected version of a product will require significantly more testing and refinement compared to the discrete version.

Using standard IoT technologies, a single-device IoT product might take 12 to 18 months to get to market, with gateway products requiring 18 months to 2.5 years. Choosing the Ayla IoT platform can cut those timelines to 9 to 12 months for single-device and 12 to 18 months for gateway projects, but even that’s longer than most manufacturers expect. Without proper planning, you risk of going over budget, or missing promised market windows, which can damages your competitiveness, reputation, and credibility.

© 2016 Ayla Networks Inc. www.aylanetworks.com

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Overengineering the first version

of your IoT product

Mistake #4

For your first effort, strive for MVP (minimum viable product). By focusing on the absolute Key features that drive customer value, the product has the greatest chance for market success. This means you must be resistant to scope creep. Given all the new vistas possible with the IoT, it’s easy to keep adding more and more features. But a primary value proposition of any connected product is simplicity, and too many features will make your product more complex and less intuitive for users.

Building on Mistake #3, remember that your connected product will take longer to build than you could possibly envision. Scope creep will kill you and make your timeline stretch years into the future, or to infinity. Simplify things for yourself as well as your customers by identifying a real use case and solving it with the MVP, aiming for ease of use. Get the MVP out into the market. Then, take advantage of the real-world usage data generated by your IoT product to learn and iterate. Save all those great ideas to incorporate into future iterations of the product.

© 2016 Ayla Networks Inc. www.aylanetworks.com

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Neglecting to make OTA

(over-the-air) communications

a priority

Mistake #5

One of the most powerful aspects of an IoT product is that you can continue to update, evolve, and improve the product long after it has been deployed. Over-the-air (OTA) communications lets you install firmware updates that add or change features, without sending a service technician to the customer site or forcing the customer to bring the product back for service.

OTA has certain basic requirements, such as needing sufficient memory for future updates. That means as a manufacturer you’ll have to overcome the deep-seated training and instincts of striving for the lowest possible costs and BOM. Instead, you’ll have to design in twice the memory initially required—to create space for leveraging OTA capabilities in the future.

© 2016 Ayla Networks Inc. www.aylanetworks.com

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Doing too little field

testing

Mistake #6

Would you build and sell a new car model without anyone test driving it? Of course not. Without testing the car, you wouldn’t know if it got 2 MPG, or if the engine ran hot, or if the brakes actually worked to stop the moving vehicle. Similarly, you shouldn’t think about launching an IoT product into the world without testing every aspect of its operations.

We recommend a minimum of three months of field testing, with four or more months for more complex IoT solutions. That way, you’ll have time not only to uncover bugs, security holes, or poor handoffs along the device-to-cloud-to-mobile-app spectrum—and it might take weeks to find them—but also to remove the problems before you launch the product. As a follow-up to Mistake #4: MVP doesn’t mean foisting buggy or poor-performing products onto customers. Achieving the “V” for “viable” requires lots and lots of field testing.

© 2016 Ayla Networks Inc. www.aylanetworks.com

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Approachingthe IoT like a new

feature rather than a whole new

category

Mistake #7

This mistake probably should be at the top of the list, because of the importance of this fundamental shift in perspective. It’s no exaggeration to say that going from a traditional product to a connected product for the IoT changes everything. For starters, you shouldn’t even think of your IoT offering as a product, but rather as a solution, or a service, or a system.

What kinds of things will you need to rethink? We’ve already covered some of the new issues to consider in the design and testing of an IoT solution, but what about distribution? Will you need new channels? How will you educate your dealers or sales teams? How will you incentivize them? How will you price the connected versions of your products? What kinds of sales and marketing materials will you need to create? What kinds of warranties will you offer? What service model will you use to replace the old model of dispatching service technicians in response to customer calls? How will your customer relationships need to change in this new IoT world?

© 2016 Ayla Networks Inc. www.aylanetworks.com

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The IoT is not business as usual. Being successful in the IoT entails leveraging your established strengths as a manufacturer, but approaching the process with fresh eyes.

Ayla Networks works with the top manufacturers in multiple market segments to help smooth the shift from traditional products to smart connected systems. The Ayla IoT platform simplifies the inherent complexity of the IoT, so you can focus on your what you do best and compete successfully in the game-changing world of connectivity.

To get more details on how you can avoid the top mistakes that manufacturers make when launching into the IoT market, or to learn more about the best practices we recommend for creating connected products.

© 2016 Ayla Networks Inc. www.aylanetworks.com

Putting it all together

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