The IoT market is evolving and maturing. Suppliers are facing new challenges in reaching the next wave of enterprise IoT adopters with compelling propositions and uptake rationale. The keys to success lie in understanding what enterprises are looking for, and how to provide it.
Enterprise IoT has seen a very impressive rate of development over the past decade, but market dynamics are changing. As we move towards a maturing market, suppliers are starting to uncover new use cases to attract the next wave of enterprise IoT adopters. Growing business with these newer, and arguably less sophisticated customers, means that suppliers should approach them with compelling value propositions and provide them with a solid set of reasons to adopt this transformative technology.
Success depends upon a thorough understanding of enterprise needs and meeting these needs with effective solutions. Suppliers should leverage tailored marketing and sales strategies founded in a deep understanding of customer needs that align with enterprise objectives.
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Yesterday: Sit Back
Early IoT adopters and advocates actively sought out suppliers to meet their needs, and suppliers could adopt a ‘sit back’  approach to IoT, leading with technology capabilities. This was a well understood marketing approach by the IoT supply-side ecosystem.
Suppliers could easily work with highly capable enterprise IT and digital transformation teams who understood technology risks and were well versed in risk management. Early adopters were willing to manage that risk in return for a wide range of ‘first mover’ advantages including better competitive positioning and customer experience and use case ROI.
But IoT is following a well trodden market development path for technology adoption. As IoT moves into more mainstream markets, applications become more ubiquitous, the next wave of enterprise IoT adopters need a different approach from suppliers.
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The Future: Lean Forward
This next wave of adopters is less concerned about technology but more about the business advantages that IoT creates. The supply-side ecosystem cannot afford to sit back and expect that customers in vertical markets will come to them proactively. They need to work on creating and servicing future demand.
This forces suppliers to ‘lean forward’  to address enterprise customer needs. It’s no longer any use talking about the technology itself. Suppliers need to switch the dialogue to how IoT creates a compelling business case and positioning a solution in this way is an entirely different proposition to selling on a yardstick of technological features.
At the same time, new technologies are entering into the affray and confusing the pictures with these potential new adopters having to think about the adjacent technologies such as edge processing, cloud and digital twins.
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Six Questions Facing the IoT Supply Side Ecosystem
Suppliers need to have a fundamental rethink of their development, marketing and business development and be able to answer a few key questions including:
1.      How do we handle the consolidation of solutions?
With the market maturing, enterprises are looking for comprehensive IoT solutions that can address multiple use cases and integrate seamlessly with their legacy systems. The impact on the supply side is often consolidation in the market, with larger suppliers acquiring smaller players to offer end-to-end IoT solutions.
2.      Do we have sufficient focus on industry-specific solutions?
As enterprises gain more experience with IoT, they become increasingly aware of their industry-specific needs and requirements. Suppliers need to tailor their offerings to specific verticals, providing industry-specific solutions that address the unique challenges and opportunities within each sector.
3.      Are our solutions sufficiently secure and compliant?
IoT deployments have become more widespread, concerns around security and data privacy are now increasingly significant. Suppliers must prioritize robust security features and ensure compliance with relevant regulations to win the trust of enterprise customers.
4.      Are our solutions able to provide scalability and interoperability?
Enterprises expect IoT solutions to scale seamlessly to accommodate growing deployments and interoperability with other systems and devices. Suppliers need to provide flexible and interoperable solutions that can integrate with diverse ecosystems without causing disruption.
5.      Have we focused sufficiently on ROI and business value for the enterprise?
In a maturing market, enterprises are increasingly focused on the return on investment (ROI) and tangible business value that IoT solutions can deliver. Suppliers must demonstrate clear use cases and provide evidence of the economic benefits of their solutions to justify enterprise investment.
6.      Can we pivot our offer towards managed services and new commercial models?
As IoT deployments become more complex, enterprises are looking for suppliers that can offer managed services to handle the end-to-end lifecycle of IoT projects, including installation, maintenance, and support. Additionally, subscription-based pricing models are gaining popularity, allowing enterprises to pay for IoT services on a recurring basis rather than making large upfront investments.
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Five key actions
To successfully ‘lean forward’ into the market to address these new potential IoT users, there are five key actions that the supply side ecosystem need to implement:
1.      Understand the adoption drivers in your target verticals.
2.      Create case studies that demonstrate how you deliver business advantage
3.      Highlight ‘lighthouse projects’
4.      Align sales collateral with the necessary sales messages
5.      Be the single point of contact that an enterprise needs – be able to bring other ecosystem players into the mix.
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How TecFutures helps our clients
At TecFutures, we're committed to helping our clients in developing their marketing strategies and tactics for the next wave of IoT adoption. Contact Rysio Pakula at rysio@tecfutures.com to learn more about how we can support your journey towards ongoing success.
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