Where can telcos add value for small or medium business customers beyond connectivity? Start with potential value in edge computing and internet of things. In many cases, value will start with ultra-low-latency application performance based on 5G radio links.
That only helps if the computing function also is capable of ultra-low latency, and that will mean edge computing. So add potential roles as suppliers of real estate: racks, security, power, cooling and cross connections, with the brand names supplying the actual computing function.
Nobody expects telcos to manufacture the actual sensors and supply sensor software. That will be done by the established device and software firms. But end users, software suppliers and device manufacturers will not want to be in the business of system integrating and supervising devices, related software and analytics processes.
As with much information technology support in the SMB space, third party system integrators will be called upon to manage the process of designing, installing, testing and maintaining whole systems (devices, software, analytics, hosting) required on the premises to create the digital output supplying business value.
Sure, telcos can supply all the transport, gateways and interfaces to the wide area network, and also the radio infrastructure and operations support for on-premises private networks. Beyond that, they will have to start acting as system integrators or premises IT specialists.
That never is easy, given the peculiarities of each industry vertical. But it is hard to see how connectivity providers are going to be in position to reap more of the financial reward from IoT capabilities unless they move beyond their core communications function.
Broadly speaking, many view IoT as the key to SMB digital transformation, in a practical sense.
This is the way Singtel segments its cloud computing offers for small and medium business customers. As you can see, Singtel sees IoT as the key to creating SMB value from digital transformation.
Singtel offers the brand names in computing as a service, rather than trying to recreate such capabilities on its own.
Singtel also adds a preconfigured solution for internet of things monitoring, the cloud gateway and bulk data transfer. But Singtel focuses on integrating and managing the on-premise devices and software used to collect data, not the actual edge computing function itself.
You might argue that the value of digital operations is based on three capabilities: intra-company and inter-company communications, enabling better information tracking and extending business reach. All three of those objectives are classic “communications” requirements.
The new value-add is support for the analytics function. While not supplying the analytical engines or the core processing to conduct analysis, telcos can package the “function” of sensor network management as a key added-value role. Neither computing as a service vendors nor analytics software firms want to manage the on-site networks of sensors.
Most smaller businesses might not want to have their limited information technology staff doing so, either. In essence, the telco IoT role becomes that of system integrator and operations manager for the IoT sensor network.
source: Delta Partners Group
No comments:
Post a Comment