Steve Brumer recently joined Leonard Lee of neXt Curve to discuss the disruption that COVID-19 has caused with IoT technologies. Leonard and Steve discuss a variety of topics including the shift in market IoT strategies, IoT solutions amid the pandemic, and the pivot we have seen in IoT solutions providers to survive and thrive in our new marketplace. Below is a summary of their conversation.
What IoT Solutions Providers Are Thinking
“There’s never been a better time than now to be in the IoT space.” – Steve Brumer
We already have all the technology we need, so now we have to focus on how to make money. Whether you’re a channel partner or an IoT vendor, systems integrator, or agent/dealer/retailer, you’re trying to figure out the consumer side versus enterprise side and asking:
· What am I going to sell?
· Who is going to buy it?
· How are they going to buy it?
· Where are they going to buy it?
· What problems are they going to solve?
The State of IoT Technologies During COVID-19
The amount of modules and chips that are being put into the market today is very high. That might be because there are a lot of projects that are still being deployed. Whether you’re in the industrial, utilities, transportation, or supply chain industry, today couldn’t be a better time to join the IoT strategies industry because of the amount of opportunities there are to increase productivity and efficiency.
A Shift in Priorities and Opportunities
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, companies are seriously drilling down to:
· Set proper expectations
· Understand what the returns on investment are
· Understand what the results of deploying IoT will do for them
· Understand specific problems that are going to get solved by deploying IoT
Once they have these details figured out, they are able to defend deploying IoT and spending the capital on it.
New IoT Solutions for SMBs
The SMB market is the largest growth opportunity we have for IoT technologies.
For example, restaurants in cities that are limiting occupancy and requiring masks to be worn, can deploy a PPE mask detection camera system and run occupancy and temperature sensors. This helps them know whether they are filling up that 50% of their occupancy since every percentage point filled increases their profit.
However, this isn’t going to be serviced by the systems integrator. Instead, it should be serviced by the local smaller IT VAR that has the technical capability and understands cloud-based solutions, that is looking for a canned, pre-packaged application that they can quickly and easily deploy with multi-tenancy capabilities.
IoT Technologies and Consulting for a Pandemic World
To learn what Steve’s recommendations are for good pandemic pivot strategies, please watch the full video, above. If you’d like to hear more about what BH IoT Group can do to help you bring these IoT solutions to your business, please contact us today.