Best Practices for Implementing Global IoT Initiatives Key Considerations for Launching a Connected Devices Service White Paper Jasper Technologies, Inc.
02 For more information about becoming a service business, read the white paper, Capitalizing on the Internet of Things. Executive Summary Vending machines connected to a network lower the cost of service and increase margins. Cars connected to a network allow for customized insurance plans based on driver behavior. Sensors in the home connected to a network enable remote management of heating, lighting, and security. Doing business today requires that you connect with your customers everywhere, on any device, and all the time. That s the promise of The Internet of Things (IoT) deployment. IoT doesn t change the business you re in, but it does change how you do business. It means evolving your business into a connected service business. Becoming a service business enables you to create and deliver a host of new experiences for your customers, automate previously manual processes, drastically reduce response times for critical operations, understand the state of your business in real-time, and make more accurate predictions about where it s going. An IoT business model typically has three, distinct continual facets: Launch, Manage, and Monetize. An IoT lifecycle is continuous, as you continue to launch new services, or launch additional devices, constantly mange connectivity and costs, and continue generating revenue. Key Business Processes in an IoT Lifecycle Launch Enable devices to connect to the wireless Internet. Integrate into mobile operator networks, anywhere and everywhere in the world. Set rate plans. Define use cases and map out business and operational requirements for every stage of your product lifecycle. Integrate your new Internet of Things business with your existing infrastructure. Configure application programming interfaces (APIs) to meet your unique business needs and the requirements of each and every mobile operator you work with. Test, stage, and implement. Manage Deliver the new applications and services to the market. Monitor your connected devices in real-time, tracking data usage, connectivity, etc. Run diagnostics to identify and troubleshoot issues on any device, anywhere, at any time. Monitor for exception activity and to trigger mitigation activity, if needed. Define and automate the events that trigger each device s activation and deactivation. Set up real-time controls that give you visibility into every deployed device and let you manage data usage. Address/Info White Paper Best Bold Practices Address Line/Info for Implementing Line, Helvetica Global Neue IoT LT Std, Initiatives 47 Light Condensed, PMS 299 C
03 Monetize Set rates for each type and level of service you offer and define how those plans will be managed over time (e.g. free trial periods, introductory discounts, subscriptions of different lengths, renewal plans, split billing, etc.). Handle billing, charges, and payments to and from customers, operators, OEMs, partners, and suppliers, etc. Establish data usage thresholds and cost controls. Gather intelligence from all the data you re now gathering and use it to create new revenue streams, optimize processes, build new products, and improve existing ones. Analyze and optimize your supplier costs in real-time. Automate every stage of the billing process. When thinking about implementing connected devices services, many senior managers almost exclusively focus on just the basics around launching their devices, including network coverage, SIM provisioning, rate plan management, usage reporting, and network connectivity costs. Of course, the elements of Launch are crucial for any successful IoT initiative. But building a successful IoT service one that truly accelerates and supports your business needs includes taking a more holistic approach and it also requires you to be strategic in planning for the Manage and Monetize phases of the lifecycle. Connected services businesses present different operational challenges. When offering a connected service, companies need to be prepared to address six crucial areas throughout the entire lifecycle of their IoT deployment: 1. Automating the day-to-day tasks of maintaining your devices and pulling relevant data to assess IoT service performance. 2. Efficiently and cost-effectively servicing connected products when they don t work in the field. 3. Moving beyond raw data collection to accurate, automated reporting of your IoT business performance. 4. Controlling costs and building predictability into expenditures and revenue. 5. Meeting the expectations of always-on, anywhere, every time service. 6. Scaling into global markets with standardized operations.
04 Managing IoT Complexity To get the most out of your IoT business, it s not simply about finding the right device, finding a rate plan, and turning on a modem. It s that and thousands of additional layers of complexity. Did you know that a typical connected devices business will 1 : Overlooking crucial areas in the Manage and Monetize phases of an IoT lifecycle may mean additional costs in managing your IoT business costs that can add up quickly. Internal resources have to be secured if you re manually changing policy on a per device-use basis. Internal resources have to be secured to identify, diagnose, and troubleshoot device connectivity issues. Who will provide frontline support for your customers if your devices fail in the field? Who will provide backend systems support? And depending on your business model, one operator rate plan for your devices probably won t scale. What will be the costs for your devices when they roam in international markets? Do you need the same rate plan when you re just in device testing mode? These considerations, and more, need to be thought through carefully and aligned around the following six best-practices areas. An average device may have up to 585 different ways it can be configured (SIM state, rate plan options, communication plan options, etc.). Without the ability to automate standard workflows around provisioning, testing, launching, bill management and performance monitoring for devices, you will not be able to scale your business quickly or increase operational margins. 1. Establish Automated Business Processes Ensure that you can automate the day-to-day tasks of maintaining your devices and pull relevant data to assess IoT service performance Managing the day-to-day tasks of 1,000 or 1,000,000 devices cannot scale if you re not able to automate much of the core, required operations around maintaining them effectively. You should consider the core business processes around maintaining your devices and ensure you can automate as many of them as possible. Automating standard business processes ensures that you will be able to maintain high-quality service delivery for your customers. It can also potentially increase the margins of running your IoT service by lowering support costs and preventing overage charges. 1 Based on March 2014 data analysis of Jasper Control Center, an IoT platform supporting more than 1,000 global enterprise deployments of connected devices services.
05 Here are some standard business operations that will be tedious to manage manually and that will recur regularly. Example standard processes: When a device exceeds monthly data usage, de-activate it. If a device loses its connection, notify a technician. If a device s prepaid plan is about to expire, notify the customer and offer a different plan. If a device makes too many connections within a 24-hour period, notify a technical service manager. If a device exceeds its roaming caps, change the rate plan to one better suited for roaming. 2. Provide Real-time Device Diagnostics and Support Ensure that you can efficiently and cost-effectively service connected products when they don t work in the field Getting your connected device deployed is only half the battle. How do you support devices once they are in the field? Do you bear the expense of sending out a service technician? Do you offer phone support? Are there local personnel with enough training to do remote troubleshooting? In the majority of cases, when your devices cannot connect to your mobile network, it s not a network issue. It could be a device malfunction, improperly provisioned SIM card, or an improperly set APN within the device. Network malfunctions are usually to blame because they are typically the area where customers have the least information. Ensure good reporting capability on network conditions, so you can quickly rule out issues and begin focusing on other root problems. Even if you build diagnostics scripts into your connected device, it doesn t mean your troubles are over. What happens if the device cannot connect to the network? That s one of the most common support issues, and it could be caused by a network connectivity problem, device software or server software problem, or a hardware malfunction. But without a connection, it is impossible to get the diagnostic data you need. Your team needs the ability to conduct network diagnostics that let you quickly determine whether network connectivity is in fact the problem. The ability to rule this factor in or out within a couple of minutes speeds problem resolution, significantly reducing your customer support costs. Real-time diagnostics and troubleshooting of devices ultimately ensures betteroptimized field service operations. This type of availability enables you to: Respond to the customers faster and decrease time-to-repair. Save on operational costs by knowing exactly what to fix and eliminating redundant service trips. Extend the useful life of equipment and increase average-time-betweenfailures by identifying and repairing small problems before they become big ones.
06 Most customers focus solely on generating reports around device application data. Is the firmware on the device up-to-date? What files were downloaded to a device and when? Which users have access and permissions to access application downloads? While of course, device application management is important, customers often overlook the need and importance for reports around network data. Ensure that you can generate reports that give you a 360 view of your network data as well. Network data provides you key indicators of performance such as device behavior is the device trying too many times to connect to the network? That could be an early indicator of an upcoming device malfunction. Are the devices in a specific geographic area using more data than expected? That can be an early indicator of fraud. 3. Focus on Accurate Reporting and Analytics Move beyond raw data collection to accurate, automated reporting of your IoT business performance Many IoT projects focus on raw data collection around your device activity. And while useful, raw data alone will not enable you to drive innovation. How can you develop analytics that mine knowledge from your IoT data and extracts high business value in real-time? Your focus should be on measuring how well you re meeting your IoT initiative s internal key performance indicators (KPIs) and service-level agreements (SLAs). Automated report generation and integration into existing business intelligence or other corporate reporting systems are key to making sure that your IoT initiative is a success. What are the categories, patterns, and rules around your device data that you need to know? Would it be useful to identify security panels from specific device manufacturers that have higher malfunction rates, correlate leaks from a water meter with its network malfunction, or predict potential risks for a patient in an outside care program? You need analytics related to your deployed devices, network usage, rate plans, and resulting costs. This would give your company detailed insight into how devices are using network resources and what it is costing you. Work with your operators to get real-time access to a granular breakdown of your invoices for connectivity services. Doing so means that you won t have to wait until the end of the billing cycle to understand what you will owe. 4. Control Costs and Optimize Revenue Manage costs and build predictability into expenditures and revenue You need analytics related to your deployed devices, network usage, rate plans, and resulting costs. This would give your company detailed insight into how devices are using network resources and what it is costing you. Work with your operators to get real-time access to a granular breakdown of your invoices for connectivity services. Doing so means that you won t have to wait until the end of the billing cycle to understand what you will owe. You need an easy way to easily analyze operator charges. You should look for ways to automate the management of your network rate plans and the analysis of devices against rate plans to determine the plans that are most cost-effective. It s not enough just to just have reports for cost management. You need to be able to make automated changes against rate plans as well. Make sure you can change a device s rate plan when a rule is triggered. For example, if a device uses more data than expected, ensure that you can automatically switch it from your standard rate plan to a premium rate plan. The premium plan may have a
07 Wireless spend optimization starts with an analysis of current operator contracts, plans, and usage to determine the baseline wireless spend. Look into pooled-usage options with your operator. Sometimes pooled-usage can offer savings over the unlimited offerings. higher subscription fee, but it could help eliminate even more costly overage charges than if the device were to remain on the standard plan. When thinking through reports, being able to have at-a-glance comprehension of subscription, overage, and roaming charges for all your devices is vital for cost management and prediction. But be sure you can have granular reporting capabilities as well on additional costs around activation, one-time charges, subscription commitments, and device usage commitments. There are typically a couple of different pool plans. In a Fixed Pool, the pool itself has a predefined, fixed usage allotment that can be shared among any number of devices in a rate plan. Fixed pool plans can be either prepaid or monthly. For monthly fixed pool plans, usage is defined per billing cycle, not per term. In a Flexible Pool, each device has a usage allotment that can be shared with other devices in the pool. The size of the pool depends on the number of devices contributing. Devices in a monthly flexible pool contribute their monthly included usage to the pool each month. Devices in a prepaid flexible pool contribute a prorated portion of their per term, included usage to the pool each month, based on the number of days the device was active. For example, if each device in the prepaid flexible pool had 12MB of included data for a term of twelve months, then each device could contribute at most 1MB of data to the pool per month and possibly less if the device was active for a portion of the month. An Add On rate plan is a prepaid plan that increases the data allotment for the devices in a shared pool (flexible or fixed) during the current billing cycle only. An add-on plan expires when the included usage is consumed or the current billing cycle ends, whichever comes first. 5. Optimize for the Customer Experience Meet the expectations of always-on, anywhere, every time service Customers value service that goes beyond the standard, and they remain loyal when businesses provide it. Spend time on ensuring that you can reach out to customers for predictive service maintenance before breakdowns panic customers. You must continually review, test, and fine-tune your devices in the field. Benchmark your IoT deployment elements against competitors, industry best practices, and industry trends. This type of information can usually be obtained from your IoT solution providers. Look for ways to offer customers premium service contracts with a predetermined, proactive response to conditions that indicate declines or failures in device performance. More service contracts lead to higher profits, so how can you easily add new services without requiring additional resources? What if you could offer premium service contracts that guarantee proactive equipment maintenance? If you can continuously monitor critical health indicators for all your devices, customers can rest assured their operations will stay up and running, and they ll be willing to pay a premium for that piece of mind.
08 If you are planning to deploy devices in multiple regions you may want to ask your mobile network operator if it is part of a broader partnership or global alliance that gives you access to local operators outside their market. Some type of operator global alliance participation gives you: Single Operator Management: You only have one vendor to manage your primary operator, even as your devices are using secondary operators in smaller markets. Streamlined Purchasing: Purchasing is much easier because all SIMs come from the same operator, no matter what their final destination is. Lower Roaming Costs: You can bypass the roaming rates associated with the primary operator and take advantage of the partner operators local service rates. You get a global market at local rates. 6. Prepare for Global Scale and Operations Scale management for multi-operator and multi-country use Enterprises with connected products often start with their products in one or more centralized locations and then deploy them all over the globe. This business model requires network services in multiple countries with multiple operators. To scale globally, enterprises should ensure that they can manage a single embedded SIM in each device that can be remotely provisioned and ensure that they can manage mobile operator profiles and policies for that SIM anywhere in the world. This meets the demand for more efficient and cost-effective global deployment models and enables rapid international distribution and device activation. Connected devices can be transferred seamlessly from one operator to another to take advantage of local operator support, comply with international roaming restrictions, and address cost constraints. If international reach is a key part of your IoT business, you need to be able to change SIM profiles on-demand or based on pre-defined rules and triggering events, with reporting and audit controls, automated assignment to proper policies, rate plans and service conditions, with fully managed billing and contractual term compliance. About the Jasper Control Center Platform Get everything you need to rapidly launch, manage, and monetize your connected device business with the only platform purpose-built for IoT. The cloud-based Jasper Control Center Platform is highly configurable to your unique processes, experiences, and business models. Control Center is designed to meet needs across industries and around the globe. About Jasper Becoming a connected business means becoming a service business. And that s where Jasper comes in. Jasper is the pioneer in cloud-based platforms for the Internet of Things (IoT) and the defining player in the Service IT category. The Jasper Platform empowers enterprises and mobile operators of all sizes to deploy successful IoT service businesses on a global scale. More than 1,000 companies, including many of the world s top brands, have chosen Jasper to fast-track their connected businesses. Mobile operator groups worldwide, representing over 100 network affiliates, partner with Jasper. Founded in 2004, Jasper is based in Mountain View, California. For more information, visit www.jasper.com or follow us on Twitter @Jasper IoT. Find out more Visit www.jasper.com to see the full breadth of how companies are really using IoT to advance their businesses.