Winning customers in a highly competitive IoT environment

Changes are inevitable. They are part of life, both personally and professionally. If we focus on IoT, it is a constantly evolving ecosystem, with paradigm shifts practically every year that force us to sit down and rethink our strategies to ensure we're providing our customers with best in next gen IoT solutions. Ironically, we could say that change is a constant in this industry.

After many years driving the growth of this industry under the umbrella of other brands, I came to Wireless Logic attracted by this scent of change; a change that has led the IoT universe to grow to nearly 20 billion connected devices by 2025 and paint a competitive landscape that is a far cry from the one we could see just five years ago. For several years now, we've been seeing virtual operators specialising in IoT gaining ground in a battlefield traditionally dominated by mobile network operators; and Wireless Logic stands out in this segment, already established as a Leader in the latest Gartner Magic Quadrant for Managed IoT Connectivity Services, Worldwide.

A competitive environment that drives to go beyond connectivity

What is really challenging in this sector is that the challenge is not to get there, but to stay there, in an industry in which more and more players are appearing and it is more complex to find differentiating factors for customers. Whilst there are those who opt for a price war that may call into question the long-term sustainability of the market, the most successful suppliers, such as Wireless Logic, are inclined to build an extensive and innovative portfolio of solutions, where the focus is on added value and the key questions do not start with how much but why or how.

IoT is experiencing an exciting time globally, although the growth we can expect in the coming years is asymmetric both globally and in terms of applications and use cases. In Western Europe we have reached a saturation point, with overall single-digit growth, although there are areas where we can expect further progress over the next decade, such as eHealth or charging infrastructure for electric vehicles. We can expect a growing market in other regions such as Latin America or APAC, but if we want to remain an attractive option for European customers, we must put the focus on value-added solutions, on what we do that others don't, or don't do as well as we do.

In that context, I am very pleased to join a group that has been making a clear commitment for several years to strengthen its presence along the IoT value chain with the ultimate goal of offering its customers complete, specialised and fully managed solutions. My view has always been that IoT is less about the industries we work with and more about the challenges customers face, which tend to repeat themselves across the different industries we connect: optimising the cost structure, protecting the attack surface and ensuring the viability of IoT deployments over time.

At Wireless Logic, we are proud to go beyond connectivity and present an extensive portfolio that allows us to address these challenges with solvency through cutting-edge tools and solutions.

• With Kheiron Studio, we help more and more customers to organise their data on a platform that integrates thousands of different devices, and create digital twins of their IoT deployments.
• With Anomaly & Threat Detection we offer a key solution to protect attack surfaces of any dimension, with an AI-based tool to detect anomalous behavior on devices and networks and neutralise cyber threats.
• In addition, our connected and pre-configured router solutions allow us to incorporate into our solutions a hardware layer that is demanded by projects of a very diverse nature, from deployments in agricultural land to remote management of public lighting.
• Of course, I could not fail to mention our LEO satellite connectivity product, in which we not only offer connection to the Starlink constellation but also provide full installation assistance and 24/7 support services.

These are just a few examples that illustrate the group's vocation to grow and adapt to the needs of a market that is changing and challenging in equal parts.

Every change, a new opportunity

In such a volatile ecosystem, challenges keep arising, which in turn become opportunities that only those with the necessary resources, track record and expertise can seize. We are in a fantastic position to continue to contribute to the growth of mass market low bandwith with our LPWAN solutions, in use cases as varied as fleet and asset monitoring, electric metering or waste management.

With the sunsetting of 2G and 3G networks, which is already occurring globally, we are fully immersed in a migration process that affects millions of devices globally. Wireless Logic is helping many companies to make this transition painlessly, taking advantage of our extensive network of IoT experts to advise them on the choice of communication module and access technology. In this regard, we cannot ignore the role that CAT-1 Bis can and should play in this migration, thanks to its overall versatility versus other alternatives such as NB-IoT or LTE-M.

And of course, eUICC (or eSIM, to use a term better known to the general public). We are probably talking about the biggest turning point in the short but exciting history of IoT; the great milestone of this technology is to give customers the power of decision and leave behind the times of lock-in and the linkage to a single operator throughout the deployment lifecycle. This situation puts connectivity providers in a situation where we must make more effort, have more exploratively conversations with customers to understand their challenges and requirements, and work to always provide the best possible service.

With all these ingredients on the table, it is impossible not to feel excited about what's ahead and the opportunity we have to continue leading an industry that is shaping the future and accelerating positive change across the globe.