Editor’s Note: Welcome to our weekly Reality Check column where C-level executives and advisory firms from across the mobile industry share unique insights and experiences.
Successful monetization of the machine-to-machine market will take more than just connected devices working in harmony. It will require carriers to make a concerted effort to connect technologies, services and customer interactions to form a single solution that answers a wide range of specific needs.
This is exemplified by a recent conversation I had with a friend about, of all things, farming. Currently, there are no sophisticated ways to monitor the temperature changes inside shelters; farmers have to rely on alerts sent through pagers, or manually check the thermostats themselves.
Although this may seem like a left-field example, the truth is that there are large pockets of customers — like these farmers — who could benefit from a comprehensive M2M offering from a single provider. Not just tools like smart thermostats, but inventory management and reporting services, sales and billing tools and more.
So far, no one has created this complete solution set. In fact, the market itself continues to be very fragmented. There are technology providers like SAP, Numerex and others; Web, cloud and mobile providers, including Apple, Google and Samsung; and, of course, wireless carriers, who are intent on getting into the game but have so far mainly focused on providing network infrastructure.
Carriers that want to “own” the M2M space need to be doing more than just building the network and providing tools. Both of those are, of course, extremely important. But alone they do not account for the broader opportunity of providing a complete solution suite enhanced by value-added services.
The creation of this unified suite offers the keys to monetization and involves four key components:
Continuing to focus on network improvements. This is the starting point and it’s where carriers have already invested significant capital. By doing so, they’re laying the groundwork for M2M success.
In addition to building out LTE, voice over LTE, multiple-input/multiple-output and LTE-Advanced technologies, carriers will need to broaden their coverage to areas that have typically been challenging to accommodate. Access to new spectrum auctions (i.e., 600 MHz) and technologies will allow companies to be able to expand their footprint and network capacity to handle this expansion.
Forging strong partnerships with original equipment manufacturers. Technology is, of course, important to M2M efforts — but so is branding and the ability to customize solutions for carriers’ unique networks and customers. Therefore, carriers must forge strong partnerships with OEMs that can provide them with M2M technology solutions that are easily adaptable and deployable on their networks.
These solutions can then be branded under the carriers’ names, becoming key components of their M2M portfolios. To the customers, the M2M solutions will be exclusively identified with their chosen carrier, helping to facilitate customer loyalty.
Solving specific customer challenges with flexible solutions. So far, much of the discussion around M2M has been centered on big, sweeping (and somewhat vague) statements. There’s a lot of talk about how M2M can provide things like global connectivity, better monitoring services, enhanced process management and so forth.
There’s been little discussion about solving specific customer challenges — let alone finding ways to solve every challenge. But this needs to happen in order for M2M to become a viable revenue stream.
To make it happen, carriers must offer M2M solutions that are flexible enough to satisfy even the most miniscule of problems. It’s not just about servicing the trucking or healthcare industries (though they are important); it’s also about offering those farmers a simple, all-in-one service that helps them manage their shelters.
Automating and managing the entire sales process for customers. All businesses want to make money and become more efficient. M2M can help achieve these goals, but customers may not want to deal with the hassle and expense of sorting through the massive amount of data they might receive from all of those connected devices.
Carriers can help by taking that onus off the customer. They can integrate billing, analytics and reporting into their own M2M packages, relieving the customer of having to manage any of these processes.
Carriers can then use the information they glean from transactions to provide automatic, smart recommendations to their customers. For example, data can be used to gain deep insight into even the smallest transactions, allowing for sales processes to be modified based on purchasing patterns and interests, times of the year, geographies and demographics, and more.
Consider that the entire value proposition of M2M is to help automate and enhance processes. That’s what creating a single M2M solution does from start to finish. The need for this type of solution is here and growing every day. Now, it’s simply a matter of stepping up to make sure that need is met. Whoever does will unlock the door to M2M monetization.
Shervin Gerami is CEO of TeleWorld Solutions, a wireless solutions provider and M2M solutions provider. He is responsible for the company’s day-to-day operations and leads its product and service development strategy. He was previously with Nextel, Sprint and Clearwire.
Photo copyright: imager / 123RF Stock Photo
