The Internet of Things (IoT) is transformative and disruptive but the landscape of providers offering solutions to companies seeking to transform themselves with IoT technologies can be bewildering. They find themselves confronted by an incredibly complex and diverse supplier market from which to build IoT solutions.
To address this challenge, suppliers are leveraging ecosystem partnerships to provide end-users with a one-stop-shop portfolio of hardware, software, and services. These emerging IoT Marketplaces not only simplify solution creation and adoption, but they also facilitate supplier and buyer interactions ultimately creating open networks that encourage innovation.
“The supplier landscape is scattered right now with a diverse array of companies offering a myriad of complex components and solutions,” says Ryan Harbison, Research Analyst at ABI Research. “IoT Marketplaces, are a response to this complexity designed to reduce the friction buyers face when adopting and implementing solutions.”
ABI Research finds that to reduce the friction that enterprise developers encounter when developing IoT solutions, IoT Marketplaces need to effectively address all components of the value chain. While some IoT Marketplaces currently offer all solution components, many do not have comprehensive offerings. Suppliers are currently working to formalize and expand marketplace offerings and in some cases, integrate them with resources and programs already in place to fully leverage existing relationships.
“IoT Marketplaces allow suppliers to build an offering centered around their core offerings,” continues Harbison. “These marketplaces are particularly effective when they are built around a single connection point, such as a platform or gateway, because that simplifies the work enterprise developers need to do on both the front and back end.”
ThingWorx successfully leveraged its platform alongside its partners’ expertise to offer a comprehensive supplier exchange. Aeris’ Neo Marketplace provides enterprises not only end-to-end solutions, but also access to support services, APIs, and network services tools. Dell, likewise, worked with its partner program to center its end-to-end marketplace offerings on its IoT edge gateways. Companies like Libelium, Sierra Wireless, and Telus offer solutions in the form of vertical-specific application development and solution kits aimed at enterprise developers. Other companies like Amazon Web Services and Microsoft currently limit their offerings to software solutions, but both are looking to integrate their existing program into a cohesive end-to-end offering.
“Today’s supplier base is vast, and finding a singular entity to navigate the technology and supplier choices is a challenge for both enterprises and end-users,” concludes Dan Shey, Vice President and Managing Director at ABI Research. “These marketplaces are relatively new, with only a select few offering a full set of products and services to build fully integrated, end-to-end solutions. But this channel will only continue to grow as suppliers seek to ‘take the complexity out of the possible.'”
These findings are from ABI Research’s IoT Marketplaces: An Analysis of IoT Supplier Exchanges report.
