Define the future of your business with expertise-driven IoT consulting

The Internet of Things is a relatively new technology, but it has proven to be a strong enabler of automation in numerous industries. Businesses across such domains as manufacturing, logistics and supply chain, automotive, and more have already benefited from IoT by cutting repetitive manual processes, optimizing labor, reducing the pressure on the employees, and saving costs. However, the Internet of Things is not a plug-and-go solution. The adoption of IoT requires much deliberation, thorough planning, and precision on your technology consulting partner’s side. 

IoT consulting plays an ever-increasing role in the adoption of connected devices which opens new opportunities for growth and development for businesses that have already adopted IoT. But what actually stands behind the IoT consulting service, do you really need it, and how does your business benefit from it in different scenarios? Let’s find out.

What is IoT consulting and how does it work?

According to the forecasts provided by Statista, the global economic value generated by the IoT market will grow from $251B in 2022 up to $621B in 2030. The number of global businesses using IoT grew from 13 percent in 2014 up to 25 percent in 2022, and that trend shows no signs of slowing down. As the number of connected devices grows and more businesses transition into using IoT in one way or another, the question of how to adopt this technology in the most efficient way becomes a pressing one.  

IoT devices perform a number of critical functions within a business and collect enormous amounts of data. But the devices themselves are not useful on their own — there has to be a system for them. You need to connect them in a specific way that addresses the peculiar needs of your business. And the data must be collected, processed, and stored properly to be of any use. That is why you cannot just bring a dozen of connected devices in, connect them, and call it a day. That is where IoT consulting companies come into the picture, bringing meaning and value to your connected infrastructure.

Custom IoT consulting works just like any other type of technology consulting – you partner up with a reliable custom software development company that has the expertise and hands-on experience in your industry and they find a way to solve your problems. 

The goals of technology and IoT consulting firms may differ from one project to the next, but the most common are:

• Enable business growth and agility through the adoption of new tech;
• Optimize the cost of technology and enterprise operations;
• Scale and upgrade the existing solutions to accommodate for company’s needs;
• Match your ideas for the new products with the right technology;
• Help businesses make informed decisions through Data Analytics.

All of these goals are perfectly applicable in the context of IoT consulting, and you will need a technology partner who has the right expertise to help you achieve those. However, the goals of IoT development consulting may extend much further involving the use of innovative technology, the development of a specific IoT adoption strategy, the prototyping of devices, and hardware and software development. Let’s get deeper into the importance of IoT consulting for businesses.

Read more: List of 15 IoT service providers to consider for your next project

Why are IoT consulting services important for my business?

Different businesses have different needs, but a timely adoption of IoT and its proper use can be essential for long-term success. As said, IoT is quite fresh and not everybody knows how to use this technology to achieve tangible results. That is why IoT consulting services play a vital role in the growth of modern businesses that rely on connected infrastructures. 

This is just one of the reasons why businesses around the world turn to IoT consulting firms for help, and your business might be facing a specific set of challenges that require the attention of the experts.

I want to adopt IoT and boost my business performance

As said, only a quarter of businesses worldwide have adopted IoT, which leaves many enterprises behind. If slipping from that competitive edge is not an option for you, partnering up with an IoT consulting company is a must. The adoption of IoT, however, is not that easily done and requires a very specific set of skills to accomplish in a meaningful way. Even relatively small connected systems like smart homes require thoughtful planning and tuning, so imagine what it might take to create an IoT infrastructure that spans across a factory or a warehouse. And on such a scale, a mistake may cost millions.

To avoid errors and ensure the smooth adoption of the connected systems, you can opt for custom IoT consulting. A reliable and experienced IoT consulting company will analyze the specifics of your organization and design the adoption strategy tailored to your needs. 

My goal is to migrate my IoT infrastructure to a different Сloud provider

Cloud adoption and Сloud migration play a critical role in the functioning of IoT infrastructures. As your enterprise expands, you add new devices, collect more data, and operate across increasingly complex environments. Consequently, your need for a robust Сloud infrastructure will grow as well. At this point, you may need the assistance of top IoT consulting firms to either adopt the cloud or migrate to a different cloud provider that can support your needs. An IoT consulting firm can help you:

• Design a high-load, scalable Сloud architecture;
• Implement DevOps best practices for automation of provisioning and deployment;
• Optimize the use of Cloud resources and save costs;
• Use Сloud-agnostic approach to prevent vendor lock-in;
• Apply DevSecOps approach to ensure Cloud security and establish threat intelligence practices.

It is also best to partner with IoT consulting companies that have experience working with different Сloud providers such as AWS, Google Cloud Platform, and Microsoft Azure. N-iX works with all of these providers and leverages such tools as AWS Secrets Manager, Google Cloud KMS, AWS KMS, Azure IAM, AWS IAM, GCP IAM, and more. You can migrate to the Сloud confidently and account for all the challenges along the way with an expert IoT consultant by your side.

Read more: IoT cloud: case studies and best practices 

It is time to move from wired to wireless connectivity

One of the main challenges in both IoT and embedded software development is picking the right connectivity protocols for the system. Though wired and wireless connectivity both have their merits and can be used successfully under the right circumstances, more and more businesses have transitioned to wireless connectivity in recent years. 

As always with industry-grade solutions, a move to wireless connectivity entails numerous challenges and potential risks. To avoid the disruption of the existing workflows and downtimes, that transition has to be carefully planned by the top IoT consulting firms. N-iX helps enterprises across industries to adopt wireless technologies and transition from wired connectivity. We help in improving the efficiency of outdated workflows and maintaining the ones that benefit your organization. 

I need to upgrade outdated hardware or software

Timely modernization and upgradation plays a vital role in the success of any business. And any type of hardware or software gets outdated over time. Even though IoT systems are relatively new and fresh, some of them exist unchanged for years and already require revamps and overhauls. Failure to adapt to the changing standards, growing market demand, and ever-fiercer competition might result in significant losses for the organization that relies on IoT infrastructure. That is where reliable IoT consulting companies can help you define the best route toward modernization. 

I have an idea for an entirely new IoT product

Developing a new product from scratch is a complex task that requires a strong innovational potential and technical prowess. Even if you want to develop something similar to the already existing product, it has to be different and better than whatever your competitors put up. IoT consulting partnership can help you come up with an idea for a new product or validate the ideas you already have. More so, custom IoT consulting experts at N-iX will match your ideas with the relevant technical capabilities and make them work with respect to your business objectives and budget.

How to ensure successful adoption with a reliable IoT consulting company

With the IoT’s growing role in the success of a modern business and the price of a mistake being too high, it is vital that you make all the right moves. Knowledge, skills, precise understanding of the industry’s standards and thorough planning are paramount when approaching such complex tasks. Custom IoT consulting is the key to addressing the needs of your organization, and this goal is best achieved through Product Discovery. 

Product Discovery is the key to effective IoT consulting services 

Product Discovery is the first and the most vital step in any custom software development project, and it is no different in IoT consulting. The main pains addressed by our Product Discovery are the following:

• Build an IoT product from scratch. IoT consulting companies like N-iX will help you gain insights into your future project, find its place in the market, and assess the possible risks. We can help you align your business expectations with the expectations of the users, and create an optimal roadmap to meet them.
• Extend the capabilities of the existing IoT product. We will explore the current state of your IoT product and/or infrastructure and find ways to improve and extend its capabilities. The goal of an IoT consultant here is to identify the strengths and weaknesses of your infrastructure and emphasize the prior while mitigating the latter. 
• Conduct tech assessment. To help you prepare for the major technological changes in your company, IoT consulting companies can conduct a technical debt assessment. N-iX experts can run an independent audit of the existing systems and help you prepare for the acquisition, merger, or a major technological shift within your organization.
• Assess the existing infrastructure. Custom IoT consulting at N-iX helps you understand all the aspects of your existing infrastructure. This process is vital for mapping out the further course of action to deliver tangible results that correspond to your business objectives.

N-iX experts conduct a structured Product Discovery to deliver IoT consulting services that account for all of your needs. The core idea of the Discovery Phase is to learn, learn as much as possible about your needs, requirements, technology landscape, the market you operate in, the competition you face, and the challenges you need to address. To make a long story short, the three main goals of the discovery are:

1. Business analysis. A reliable IoT consultant has to conduct a proper analysis of your business, which includes market research, definition of goals and priorities, collection of focus group feedback, and finalization of business requirements. All of those steps help IoT consulting companies to understand your business better and thus find ways to improve its functioning through the means of connected devices.
2. Solution architecture. First and foremost, the solution architecture comes from the business needs. After the business needs have been formulated, IoT consulting companies research your company’s technological landscape and define the list of constraints and concerns around it. Later, an IoT consulting firm like N-iX would analyze architecture-significant functional requirements, define quality attributes, prepare the initial architecture vision, and collect your feedback on it. The IoT consultant team will then define the required technology stack, prepare a work breakdown structure, estimate the required implementation efforts, and finalize the architecture documentation.
3. Solution design. The team providing IoT consulting services will examine the current user experience and gather user feedback, analyze the competitor products, define a user persona, create a user journey map, and visualize the product. The most important deliverable here is the Prototype or MVP that will help you finalize the vision for the solution and test it in the real work environment.

How an expert team handles IoT consulting

N-iX is a software development and IoT consulting company that’s been on the market for over 20 years. Our team offers a vast experience with connectivity technologies, profound industry expertise, and a talent pool of 2,000+ seasoned IT experts. Our solution group which consists of architects, business analysts, and technology experts will deliver IoT consulting service to address the exact needs of your business and help you make the right choices:

• Pick the right hardware. One of the most important aspects of consulting is to select the right hardware that matches the needs of your unique IoT infrastructure. It is not always about the flashiest or the most recent hardware on the market, it is more about hardware that suits your needs. The goal of an IoT consultant at N-iX is to analyze your unique business case and find a solution that suits it. We are a one-stop-shop offering not just custom IoT consulting, but also developing hardware and software that fits the unique needs of your organization.
• Use suitable communication protocols. Some organizations can benefit from wired connectivity while others need wireless solutions. We can help you choose the option that matches your business needs and budget. Our dedicated team of IoT consultants will check the covered distances, bandwidth, required connection speed, the number of connected devices, and evaluate all the relevant factors to recommend a connectivity protocol that matches your unique case. 
• Select the needed services. Apart from IoT consulting services, we help you with the provisioning, commissioning, and maintenance of your infrastructure. We will help you set your IoT infrastructure up to match the specifics of your environment. For instance, it is vital for industrial facilities to have a properly executed layout to make sure each piece of equipment is in the right place and complements the functioning of the entire facility. N-iX IoT consulting services can help you with that, and our experts will assist you in maintaining the proper functioning of your IoT infrastructure. 
• Choose a Cloud provider. We partner with different Cloud providers such as AWS, Google, and Microsoft, and can help you select the one that suits your needs in terms of price, quality, size, and tasks. Our partnership agreements with the world’s leading Cloud platforms also provide us with certain perks, such as special pricing models. This will help you to set up the Cloud layer faster while saving costs. As a part of our consulting, we will recommend the best options and help you select the one that corresponds to your goals and budget targets.
• Testing and manufacturing consulting. Apart from consulting you on how to approach the development of your IoT infrastructure, we can help with the development and testing of that infrastructure. Our experts can guide you through the software development and hardware manufacturing processes. They will also test all software and hardware and guarantee that they pass all the necessary certifications required by local and international standards.

Read more: 25 trusted Internet of Things development companies around the world

How partnering with N-iX for IoT consulting will take your business to the next level?

The adoption of new technology is always a challenge, but it does not have to be too much of a headache for you. A professional IoT consulting company can do the heavy lifting for you providing the necessary technical and industry expertise. N-iX offers IoT consulting services aided by a profound knowledge of both IoT and Embedded systems, expertise across multiple domains, a network of technology partnerships, and business analytics. 

IoT consulting at N-iX helps companies across such industries as manufacturing, logistics and supply chain, automotive, retail, agritech, energy and utilities, and more achieve greater productivity, reinvent their operations, and introduce new products to their audiences. Being a one-stop-shop for connectivity solutions, we offer more than just IoT advisory. Our team can take your project from the ideation stage up to product launch, provisioning, commissioning, and maintenance. The N-iX experts will also help certify your product and ensure its adherence to market standards.