IoT consulting is a growing trend in the world of business development. Why? Because many enterprises are looking to optimize their production, save costs, and integrate a new IoT product into their business. From automated fare payment systems and automated weight monitoring systems for farm cattle to ultrasonic sensors for rolling bearing condition analysis — IoT is everywhere and it's never going away. In fact, even though IoT consulting is still in its early stages, it’s predicted to be one of the biggest business development industries of the future. So what do you need to know about IoT consulting to keep up with the trends, and how do you know if it is time for you to schedule a call with IoT consultants? This article will answer all of these questions.
What is IoT consulting?
IoT consulting is what helps companies kick their project doubts to the curb and work out an actionable plan to set their business idea in motion. In other words, this type of consulting means to help you understand your IoT technology needs, ways to use technology to upgrade your existing products and services, optimize certain processes, and even find ways to reduce your project costs. In some cases, an IoT vendor can not only offer you IoT consulting services but even take on the whole project and help you build your product from the ground up.
How is IoT consulting different from web development consulting?
You need website development consulting before building an online platform or a website, while IoT consulting goes much further than that and is more complex in general. Here’s another fact: for web consulting you need an expert in the field, a good laptop, and a steady connection to the Internet. But it is not as easy as that with IoT consulting. Here, it’s not just software you might need to develop, it’s also hardware, which means there will be many real-world factors complicating the process. For one thing, when building a piece of hardware that is an actual product prototype, you need to account for the components you will be using and the environmental factors like temperature that might challenge its performance. A company giving you IoT consulting has to consider all possible complicators, invite relevant experts in such fields as physics or electrical engineering, and check how feasible the project is.
Here are some classic situations where your business could greatly benefit from IoT consulting.
Case #1: Product upgrade and automation
Suppose your business is experiencing exponential growth and you realize that it is time to climb a new peak, upgrade your product or services and automate certain processes. This is where IoT consulting can be particularly timely. You reach out to a team of experts for them to analyze your current state of affairs and see if certain processes can be optimized for the product to reach a new level of quality. During IoT consulting, the team you hire comes up with creative solutions and efficient ways to meet the needs of your business.
Here is how our Lemberg team helped Barkom, a Ukrainian agricultural company that specializes in growing pigs and cattle, to upscale their business using IoT. The goal here was to protect farm animals from getting infected with African swine fever or any other infection by closely monitoring hygiene routines in farm staff. Our IoT team analyzed the project and built product prototypes, beacons and smartwatches, to track movements and shower routines of Barkom’s staff. To make sure that the prototypes would perform the way they were theorised to perform in real life, it was crucial to re-create the environment they would be exposed to on the farm. With that in mind, our team built a system demo right at Lemberg’s office.
The value of IoT consulting in this case?
It helps you understand if the hardware you design will actually do the job. You can also discover potential project threats and risks without losing your budget.
Case #2: Innovation for long-standing businesses
Your company has been leading the market for quite a long time, but as new and innovative competitors enter the arena, your business starts experiencing a downward trend. The truth is, what people are most drawn to these days is cutting-edge technology, so turning to digitalization, getting new quality certifications, and investing in IoT are a great solution if you want to get that competitive edge back. In a case like this one, IoT consultants can look at your business and give an unbiased opinion on what it is the company is missing in terms of the latest technology. After all, for the business not to crawl at a snail’s pace, you need to shake it up once in a while and set a new trajectory to follow.
One of Lemberg’s recent clients, a large corporation creating smart home products and systems, decided to give a new life to their existing thermostat by replacing some of its parts with newer electrical components. The company also needed to upgrade the thermostat’s legacy embedded software for it to sync with the new components. Where does IoT consulting fit into the picture? Our team was able to give the client well-rounded feedback focusing both on software and hardware needs from the very beginning of our cooperation. Before launching the project, the business owner had a grasp of all the deliverables and potential threats that were lying ahead.
The value of IoT consulting in this case?
You get an unbiased expert opinion on how to shake up your business and employ the latest technology to gain an advantage over your competitors.
Case #3: Business digitalization
When digitizing their business and creating new smart solutions, companies often need to run a code audit. This audit cannot be conducted by an internal team because being objective and unbiased is paramount for the audit to be reliable. The best way to go about such a situation is to hire a team of external experts who can take care of the old code and give an IoT consultation on what parts of the code need an upgrade and what parts can be left untouched. Furthermore, if your company is running on legacy code, which is something in-house engineers are usually reluctant to work with, you will need to do a code audit sooner or later. A team of IoT experts can help you understand if it makes sense for you to rewrite the code or simply have your team maintain the existing systems.
Another important thing to remember is that digital transformation of your business can take different shapes and sizes because digitization as such covers a broad range of change. However, if there is one thing that is clear, it’s this: digitizing your enterprise can bring about a number of other benefits like reduction of production waste, decrease in labor-intensive manual tasks for you employees, downtime elimination, and longer equipment lifespan, to name a few.
The value of IoT consulting in this case?
You can learn about the ways to digitize your business and see if you need to get some parts of the already running code rewritten.
Case #4: Temporary project solutions
The more your business grows, the bigger the variety of your projects will be. Some of them will be permanent, while others will be temporary. Now, there is an evident solution for the permanent projects: you get your in-house team to work on them. But what about temporary projects, the ones where you will need a niche expert to work with the company for a certain number of hours? Recruiting tech experts has been a pain point for many companies for a good decade now. Add to that how costly and time-consuming the process can be and the prospect of spending three months to find a relevant expert, then having them work on a project for a month and letting them go sounds illogical. This is why teaming up with an IoT consulting company is a smart way out. Do you need to get a proof of concept or idea validation? Communicate your project needs to your favored IT vendor and they will give you access to a pool of experts who have relevant experience to make your business idea flow.
The value of IoT consulting in this case?
You get a code audit from an independent team which can, later on, take over your legacy code maintenance or rewrite it, if need be.
Case #5: Cost-saving option for new businesses
Last but not least goes the ambitious start-up case. Let’s say you have just launched a company, worked out a business idea that promises to disrupt the market, and need to get the ball rolling with minimum investments. Recruiting an in-house tech team and getting them to develop both software and hardware is a scenario most startups cannot afford at the beginning of their journey, more so if their business idea needs some tweaking before entering the market. This is why hiring a temporary IoT team to provide tech advisory, do project estimation, and engage in rapid prototyping is a sure way to get where you want with relatively low investments. Getting expert IoT consulting and being able to prove that your project is indeed feasible will also make it easier for you to make an attractive business case for potential investors.
The value of IoT consulting in this case?
You can start building your product with relatively low investments, no matter how ambitious the business idea is.
According to Statista, by 2025, there will be 30.9 billion IoT device connections worldwide. Turning to smart solutions and advanced technologies will soon be a prerequisite for business ideas to succeed. This is why it is vital to plan ahead and hire a highly qualified team of IoT consulting professionals who can guide you through the entire process. All in all, having an independent second opinion from qualified IoT professionals is a blessing in disguise: this type of IoT consulting can help you come up with ideas you could have missed when working internally only. To get in touch with the Lemberg Solutions team and have our IoT experts show you how to upscale your business with the help of IoT development services and other tech innovations, feel free to reach out to us via our contact page.
