Saturday, April 28, 2018

IoT-Enabled Asset Tracking Is Driving Business Innovation

Knowing the location and monitoring the health of your most valuable assets is critical to business operations. Thanks to Internet of Things (IoT) technology, remote tracking of everything from heavy equipment to fleets to luggage, patients, pets and kids can reduce risk, minimize inventory, save money and create new revenue streams for businesses, in addition to making life easier for consumers.

IoT-enabled asset tracking is playing a greater role in the modern economy than ever before. A recent study found that an estimated $1.9 trillion of economic value could be created by the use of IoT devices and asset tracking solutions in the global supply chain and logistics sector. But in order to compete for a piece of this emerging, profitable market, you’ll need to know which IoT technology will benefit your asset tracking application and how to build a system that works seamlessly within your existing business model. By building a flexible, customized tracking system, you can reap the benefits of asset tracking without having to make significant changes to your business, saving you both time and money. A number of industries have adopted IoT-enabled asset tracking already, paving the way for the creation of new business opportunities and more efficient operations. 

Industries That Rely on IoT-enabled Asset Tracking
IoT-enabled asset tracking can benefit more than just fleet managers or tracking-focused products. The following industries have had immense success and are continually innovating and adding new applications: 


Each of these industries uses tracking solutions differently, but they all have something in common: they use wireless technology to get reliable data that they can use to provide valuable services related to the asset’s supply, or asset’s usage. By customizing their tracking solutions to meet the unique needs of their customers and their industries, these businesses can leverage more competitive advantages because they have all the data that they need to make intelligent—and fast—decisions. IoT-enabled asset tracking can be used broadly to engage new customers and improve business operations. 

Creating New Business Opportunities 
Today’s customers expect reliable, efficient tracking features for nearly all their connected devices, even those that serve another purpose. For instance, a child’s walkie-talkie will be more appealing to parents if the device includes an embedded GNSS tracker that tells parents where their children are located. Likewise for a dog collar that can perform heath checks and pin-point a beloved pet’s location if he goes missing. 

Using the latest cellular modules and Smart SIM cards, it’s easy to include worldwide connectivity as an add-on to an existing device, enabling new business models based on usage and not anymore based on ownership. A rail wagon equipped with a tracker can be sold as a service (lease on distance and time basis). Standard Low Power Wide Area (LPWA) technologies make cellular connectivity ideal for these types of solutions because they can deliver the key 3C’s  (low Cost, broad Coverage and low power Consumption). Even if your business isn’t centered around tracking technology, you can still use it to improve your product. A bicycle manufacturer might embed a small tracking module into the frame of the bike that customers can use to locate it if it’s stolen. By offering these tracking options to your customers, your product stands out against the competition.

Improving Business Operations
Beyond attracting more customers, IoT-enabled asset tracking can also improve the way your business works on a daily basis. Here are just a few benefits to IoT tracking that could save you time and allow your business to operate more smoothly: 

Cost Reduction: You can embed trackers into your products or shipping containers to avoid losing shipments, minimize inventory and invoice accurately for Demurrage & Detention. If an item is lost or stolen, you can immediately see where it’s located, allowing you to recover it. This saves replacement costs and time spent tracking the items down by phone or in-person. 

Faster Response Times: 
You can set up notifications for major events and respond to them quickly. For instance, a tracking device would notify you that one of the vehicles in your fleet hasn’t reached its destination on time, allowing you to immediately contact the driver and the intended recipient to work out a solution. You can even monitor whether your assets are used properly and take appropriate action if needed. 

Streamlined Operations: IoT-enabled asset tracking allows you to manage thousands of assets around the world from just one location. You can also reroute vehicle fleets, recall defective products or replenish new supplies to customers on the fly. And last but not least, you can plan maintenance when needed: no need to plan maintenance on a wagon, if you are aware that the wagon has not been used over a long distance.

More Detailed Data:
 How often do your customers use a certain feature on your device? Is the solar panel on your outdoor light working properly? How much time did it take to get your product to your distributor? Normally, these statistics would be difficult to track, but when you use IoT-enabled asset tracking, you can do so automatically. Insight into data like this could help you find areas where you can cut costs or improve your product. 

Building Your Tracking System 
IoT-enabled tracking will have a positive impact on your business operations, but designing an effective solution doesn’t have to be a challenge. 

Your solution can be customized to your needs. A local farmer might need reliable connectivity in rural areas for his livestock’s tracking collars, whereas a luggage tracking company needs global connectivity to track their devices anywhere in the world. That’s why it’s important to have the power to pick and choose the right technology that you need for your tracking system and use products that are purpose-built for the IoT. The components of your solution should include: 

Embedded Wireless Modules with integrated GNSS: Connect an existing device by adding a wireless module or gateway. 

Smart SIMs
: Embed a SIM card into the tracking device to ensure you have resilient global connectivity and superior data service quality everywhere your tracking device goes. 

AirVantage® Platform
: Build and deploy complete IoT tracking solutions. Connect all your devices to the cloud to keep your service running, manage your data and track locations, delivering an amazing, always-on user experience to your customers.

Hopefully You Attended the Expert Panel Webinar, "How IoT Enables the Tracking of Assets" on October 5th, 2017 to learn more.


To learn more about how IoT-enabled asset tracking from Sierra Wireless will benefit your business....and what the best solutions are for your industry to integrate tracking technology seamlessly into your existing business model. ....simply ask us at the following link.  It's as easy as 1, 2, 3.



by Benoit Tournier, Director of Marketing, Transportation, Sierra Wireless

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Wednesday, April 25, 2018

Your IoT Applications Need The Right Managed Connectivity Solution

When companies partner with Sierra Wireless, they’re able to move past the confusion and complexity of deploying IoT applications and effectively tap into new revenue streams, new services and new business models, enabling more choices for customers and additional value for businesses.




Bring your innovations to market faster and at a lower cost. Sierra Wireless provides a fully integrated solution comprised of embedded solutions, gateway solutions and cloud and connectivity services that empowers organizations.




SIERRA WIRELESS MANAGED CONNECTIVITY SOLUTIONS

Sierra Wireless offers the broadest array of services to connect to the mobile network, manage devices and power IoT services. Their AirVantage® IoT platform combined with their unique ability to provide an end-to-end IoT platform that integrates with our eUICC-based Smart SIM and connectivity service provide all of the IoT infrastructure to create, deploy and manage IoT solutions. 

Their eUICC solution is one of the first to market that conforms to the latest GSMA specification, ensuring global interoperability across hardware vendors, SIM vendors and operators. eUICC is a game-changer for cellular IoT connectivity, because it allows customers to select and change service provider profiles over the air based on the criteria or business rules of their choosing—without physically accessing the SIM card.

Your connectivity deserves:

  • The most ubiquitous wireless coverage throughout North America
  • Managed connectivity for mission critical applications on a temporary, permanent or backup basis
  • High speed connectivity for locations beyond the reach of cable, DSL and other wires
Solutions To Accelerate, Streamline, And Manage Your IoT Services



                    AirVantage IoT Platform

AirVantage is a cloud-based IoT platform that uniquely provides all of the services you need to create, deploy and manage wireless IoT solutions. It provides all of the building blocks including wireless connectivity management, wireless device management and application enablement services for you to connect your machines to the mobile network, and to build innovative solutions.

Smart SIMs And Connectivity

IoT deployments are fundamentally different than roaming smartphones, so why continue to use SIMs and connectivity services that leave your service disconnected with expensive resolution costs?

Learn how the multi-operator Sierra Wireless Smart SIM and Connectivity Service can deliver a superior connectivity service for your IoT application.

Managed Connectivity Solutions

Enterprises requiring mission critical connectivity choose our fully managed connectivity solution to keep their businesses connected and IoT devices online 24/7.

Our managed connectivity solution bundles the best hardware, multi-operator connectivity and a 99.9% uptime and performance SLA guarantee into a single monthly service. Standardized deployments, continuous monitoring, and 24/7 live support enable distributed enterprises to focus on their customer experience not their IoT infrastructure.

SECURITY

AirVantage protects your data from the connected devices to the cloud. 

 Secure device-to-cloud communication

AirVantage is the first commercial IoT platform to have implemented the Lightweight M2M (LWM2M) protocol. This standard protocol offers a secure solution by allowing the encryption of data end-to-end between the device in the field and and the application hosted in the network. 
The IoT platform also secures data in transit with additional measures including mutual authentication, secure download and device-initiated communication to prevent unauthorized control or access from an external source. For applications with sensitive data, users can add an optional VPN tunnel to extend their private operator network security to AirVantage.
 Security in the Cloud
To protect data at rest, Sierra Wireless has assigned a dedicated team to continuously monitor our data storage operation. Our storage infrastructure is highly available in each region, and is constantly upgraded to guarantee optimum security. 

 Secure cloud-to-enterprise communication


To protect data in transit on the server side, AirVantage applies HTTPS secure browser access only. All software attempting to access data in AirVantage will have to be authenticated using the secure OAuth 2.0 authentication protocol, using one of the 3 authentication flows proposed. Account administrator can review and revoke the API clients any time on the AirVantage operations console, and keep the account access control up-to-date.
To tighten the user access control, account administrators can enable the security options any time including the 2-factor authentication with a one-time SMS password and IP address filtering.

To learn more about all the options available to you for managing your IoT deployment, applications, and network from Sierra Wireless...simply ask us at the following link.  It's as easy as 1, 2, 3.













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