four tips for setting up successful M2M projects #OBL13

The connected cow to reduce calf mortality rates.  The connected car to avoid traffic jams.  The connected kidney to manage disease treatment.  We will not be able to avoid the eWorld, the fusion of Web and traditional business models.  The Internet of Things, which I prefer to call M2M, promises to explode the world of big data into galaxies of data.  Yet what’s the point unless you’re actually going to make decisions and take action on this information?  

The right M2M projects, such as that driven by Nespresso will be engineered for business success.  At Orange Business Live (#OBL13) one of our M2M customers (a medical technology solutions provider) shared just how complex these projects can be, and tips to making them work.  

tip #1:  start with a pilot project

This is how our medical solutions customer began.  When M2M projects are designed to scale globally, it’s best to get the system working right with a subset of machines verses hundreds or thousands of them.  

tip #2:  ensure your project meets local regulatory requirements

For example in the medical solutions company case, their pilot project was set up in France.  To adhere to French regulatory policy our they had to assure the following specifications:

• daily data transmission; in the discussed example, the project is linked to French Social Security patient reimbursements, and the government’s stance is that if patients are not using the device as communicated, they will stop funding
• transmission only if therapy device is off
• ASVP certificate hosting
• system must work without patient interaction
• billing system must comply to complex government-driven reimbursement rules

Once your project design meets local regulations, you can get started.  

tip #3:  keep it simple

For the medical solutions provider example, their first take required working with over 7 different partners to build and run the full project.  In addition to this being complex to manage and expensive in money and resources, vendors didn’t take responsibility when issues arose.  It was easy to say, “oh that’s not my responsibility, see with the SIM resellers,” etc.

When the company realized that they could have one contact, from one vendor that could design, build and administer the end-to-end project, he switched to Orange Business and now proudly says his project is “powered by Orange.”  The customer added, “We got a solution that works with the pilot phase in 5 months!”  This is verses the 5 months they spent working through the first multi-vendor attempt.  

tip #4: manage your connected machines from one dashboard

This applies for single and multi-country projects.  Once you’ve rolled out your project you’re going to have in some cases hundreds of thousands of communicating machines to manage.  This can be quite complex!  For example as in the customer case, this could mean M2Ms deployed in 56 countries.  One management dashboard that allows you to catch and correct issues will make administering your fleet of machines a doable task.  

go further

To learn more about successful M2M projects please flip through the breakout session below. 

So are you ready to build your own M2M project like Nespresso and our #OBL13 customer?  Get ready for an uber-connected future! 

Digitally yours,

Kate

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