IoT Editor's Day Silicon Valley: Top Tips for Enterprise Connectivity

The need for connectivity for achieving operational efficiencies is (hopefully) becoming a fait accompli in the industrial and corporate worlds. But how to get started? It can seem daunting to look at the perceived challenges in deploying a new enterprise-wide connectivity platform, especially if you’re looking at a fully-customized solution. Time can extend into months or a year, and costs can get out of control very quickly.

Well, not really.

There’s a real trend in the IoT industry for more plug-and-play, fast to deploy solutions that compress timescales and development costs while offering tested, reliable connectivity from the edge to the heart of the IoT. Sounds great, right?

At our Editor’s Day in Silicon Valley, we spoke to Kurt Kelley, VP, Strategic Partnerships, Stream Technologies, and he gave us the low down on how enterprises can get connected and start earning those cost-saving efficiencies as soon as possible.

1)Don’t put it on IT. This is not to say they can’t do it, and do it well, but your IT department has enough to do, and that doesn’t need to include IoT deployment and management. The folks who run your day-to-day operations will benefit the most, and use your solutions the most, will be most motivated and excited about it, so make them key players in the process. “Look for the ops people who need more efficiency to better do their jobs, and let them have it,” said Kelley.

2)Think small to win big. The goal of a good enterprise IoT platform solution should be taking all the big data, sensor data and analytics and get them into one pipe so your decision makers, managers and executives can make better, more strategic decisions. For instance, a simple execution for inventory control can monitor levels and place orders when needed, taking a person out of that loop. That way, the employee’s valuable time can be spent in evaluating trends and looking for better executions. Those decisions lead to better reports and less unnecessary expenditure, so the enterprise can benefit from the efficiencies of scale. Small changes lead to big improvements.

3)Leave the trees to the machines. That way, you can focus on the forest. IoT systems, as run by well-executed platforms, are very good at handling the little details; better than people are, in many cases. Your enterprise would benefit from taking those details away from people and putting those people who know your systems best on the task of making your business run better. To do this, they will use the patterns and trends identified in the data. “We’re about simplifying the complex at Stream,” Kelley said. “Whatever the connectivity type, let’s go with the simplest way to do the connections. We can’t afford to put a device in the field that isn’t working.”