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Meanwhile, I spoke at the IoT Workshop of the Precision Metalforming Association and MetalForming magazine virtual IoT Experience with some ideas about IoT projects why and how.
Following is news from my IoT and Networking folder that has been accumulating since late summer.
Communication Service Providers share of enterprise 5G deals down
This news is a bit old, but shows an interesting point about 5G growth. Beyond by BearingPoint, in collaboration with Omdia, released its annual enterprise 5G report revealing that the share of enterprise 5G deals led by Communications Service Providers (CSPs) has fallen from 21% in 2020 to 16% today. While the number of enterprise 5G projects doubled over the course of the year, and despite telcos recognizing the need for a multi-technology, omni-partner, solution-oriented approach for enterprise 5G, competition from alternative service providers has significantly impacted CSPs share of the market. The study found that CSPs are starting to realize the importance of the enterprise 5G market but must fully commit and put the dedicated resources in place faster if they are to capture the opportunities as they emerge.
In 2020, the first report Industries and Enterprises are ready to reap the benefits of 5G found that 72.3% of CSPs already believed that most 5G revenues would be derived from B2B, B2B2C, or government/smart city opportunities. But it also found that CSPs were being cut out of the enterprises 5G engagement and the solution building by enterprises and other players in the market. Only 21% of enterprise 5G deals were led by CSPs and in 40% of the deals CSPs were the secondary supplier. 32% were led by enterprises and 7% by alternative service providers.
One year on, CSP thinking has evolved. The study reveals that CSPs now realize that solution-oriented production models also require mastering multiple technologies (such as cloud, edge, AI, Wi-Fi 6 etc) and partnership options to complement 5G networks. According to this year’s report, more CSPs understood the opportunity and started to provide private networks and 5G solutions to the enterprise. However, they are still too slow to react to enterprise demands. In fact, the research shows that in the past 12 months, the number of Enterprise 5G projects doubled while the share of CSPs deals dropped to 16%. On the contrary, alternative service providers such as private networks specialists, ramped up their efforts and operations and outpaced CSPs. Indeed, alternative service providers increased their share of enterprise 5G deals from 7% last year to 27% this year.
The report also looks at the role of CSPs in the ecosystem through the eyes of potential partners such as systems integrators, global vendors and vendor specialists. Surprisingly, all ecosystem players expect CSPs to take the lead on orchestrating different services, technologies, and capabilities and believe there is more to be done by CSPs to capture this role.
The report emphasizes the need for CSPs to assimilate lessons such as agility, speed and focus from alternative service providers; they must accelerate into the enterprise market and not wait for network slicing, complete 5G coverage, or other 5G capabilities. It also highlights that 5G network design is only one component of enterprise digitalization and that CSPs need to offer additional value to become preferred partners. They must demonstrate more flexibility within their commercial and business models.
EMnify Brings No-Code Automation to Cellular IoT Management
Also news from last summer. EMnify, the leading cloud communication platform provider for IoT, has launched its new integration with workflow automation tool Zapier, making it the first IoT CPaaS provider to offer customers no-code automation for cellular IoT management.
For IoT solution providers operating connected products globally, efficient internal processes for device deployment, troubleshooting, and support are critical. EMnify’s integration with Zapier allows businesses to build trigger-based operational workflows –quickly and intuitively– using the tools that work best for them. EMnify customers can now automate IoT device and connectivity management at scale with a few simple clicks.
PiCo, an Australian smart-retail solution provider, is among the first users of EMnify’s Zapier integration. Andrew Lowe, managing partner at PiCo, commented: “Zapier has been a great help to us in managing projects globally across disparate platforms, and we have about 15 Zaps already in use. With this integration, we were able to rapidly integrate EMnify into our project management tool that manages workflows across three continents in under five minutes.”
By integrating with Zapier, a leading brand in the rapidly growing no-code economy, EMnify can now connect with 3000+ systems worldwide, including top CRM, ERP, and project management platforms—without the need for specialist developers.
Using Zapier, IoT operations and support teams can select pre-defined EMnify triggers or actions and quickly combine them with their internal tools to create automated workflows, called Zaps. The combination of cellular IoT and no-code automation increases control and visibility for IoT businesses as they scale to deploy and operate thousands of devices globally. EMnify’s customers can efficiently manage and stay on top of their device connectivity using the tools they already rely on—without having to switch between applications.
Knud Kegel, VP of product at EMnify commented: “No-code is to source code what cloud was to on-premises servers. No-code tools enable a higher degree of autonomy for non-technical teams, enabling business teams to participate by automating workflows, building operational dashboards, and more, so that development teams can focus on more strategic engineering tasks. EMnify’s goal is to enable everyone to contribute to the connected world, and no-code is critical to making that happen.”
To empower customers with more tailored workflows that streamline IoT operations on a global scale, EMnify is working to expand its set of actionable cellular IoT triggers and actions on Zapier. In the future, the company plans to integrate with an even wider range of no-code tools to bring greater automation possibilities to IoT businesses.
