What is Machine-to-Machine (M2M) exactly? According to James Brehm, senior strategist & consultant, Compass Intelligence, it’s not a market; it’s a “market of markets.”
M2M is all about what the customer needs to accomplish in order to be connected. It is also about synthesizing the right ecosystem of partners in order to conceptualize new solutions. Today, the M2M space is big, but tomorrow, Brehm predicts it’ll be huge because the value of the network is growing and becoming more powerful.
M2M is only going to be valuable to the customer is new services are available to layer on top of it. The progress of the M2M space fluctuates over time, but will continue to grow as the service layers grow.
“Enterprises need to take a look at a lot of different areas in order to address and launch an M2M service. The bottom line is good connectivity is not going to fix a bad process, so you may have to change your process,” explained Brehm in an M2M Evolution Conference and Expo Session this morning.
Currently, we are beginning to see three different types of applications including after-market applications, regulatory applications and OEM-based applications.
“We are seeing expectations of network-enabled products growing, so it is becoming standard to embed connectivity in product design,” said Robin Duke-Woolley, founder and CEO, Beecham Research.
According to a survey about the number of countries worldwide where products are required to be connected, the peak in 2010 was 2-5 countries, the peak in 2012 was 6-20 countries and by 2014 more than 21 countries are expected to build M2M into their operations.
Key motivators behind M2M solution provider projects include creating operational efficiency and enabling new service opportunities. Ultimately, more and more businesses are looking to the future rather than focusing on cost savings like they did in the past.
“M2M solutions are becoming much more critical to enterprise activities,” said Duke-Woolley. “We see the current M2M as a precursor of future M2M, which will be more IT integration-oriented, providing an opportunity for new business models.”
In addition, the immature yet innovative market of Wearable Technology has hit the headlines recently. The panelists predict that Wearable Tech will spread quickly in a large number of areas in the next few years.
“The technology is developing very quickly which will enable new products and services to be developed,” explained Duke-Woolley.
Overall, M2M is spreading across many verticals and segments of the enterprise, according to Mike Sapien, principal analyst, Enterprise Practice, Ovum.
Said Sapien, “We are seeing more and more alliances and partnerships because the bottom line is that enterprise customers are looking for global coverage – to create a global footprint.”
Edited by
Braden Becker
