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Track Overview
Developing, Justifying & Launching M2M Applications – A Multi-Industry Perspective
Track Leader: Glen Allmendinger
Thursday May-18-2006 |
| Many companies are unable to make big moves into new areas because they are too comfortable with what they currently know. M2M departs from the traditional manufacturer’s “comfort zone”—that is, it is not about features and functions per se, but rather it is about optimization of the customer’s processes and knowledge, otherwise known as services. This is a simple proposition, but not an easy one. The fact that information makes services move to the fore is not hard to grasp. But in practice, “services” represents a business paradigm so foreign to many manufacturers that they cannot understand, let alone implement, the changes necessary to make the shift successfully. |
Developing alliances for end-to-end solutions
11:00 - 12:30 |
| Creating “business webs” of partnerships and strategic alliances has always been a good idea. After the shift to openness and connected assets, such alliances become a matter of life and death. Leading suppliers are pursuing alliances that involve shared risk, shared incentive, and mutual benefit. And, as always, they seek protection from risk in careful contractual agreements. The tendency is towards dispersion and decentralization. Thus, we are seeing a flurry of cross-investment and cross-licensing agreements as companies begin to explore the new terrain. For those interested in more formal commitments, joint ventures are another obvious way to share risk while moving forward.. |
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Identifying and overcoming challenges to implementing M2M
14:30 - 16:00 |
| The key word is risk. The leadership in many manufacturing companies is not accustomed to the volatile, high-stakes world of business driven by networked devices, and it is this transition, not the technological shift, that many fail to make. Many changes in thinking need to take place for companies to succeed in networking their devices and updating their organizations for the next era of information technology. |
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Securing internal buy-in and external alliances to implement M2M solutions
17:00 - 18:30 |
| Not surprisingly, potential adopters concerns are more complex than simply technological worries. In the existing culture of most enterprises, competitive advantage is usually perceived—to one degree or another—to lie in ownership, secrecy, and sometimes adversarial relationships with suppliers. It goes without saying that such a culture does not blend well with the notion of “openness.” Some of the largest obstacles to implementing M2M solutions come from within. The business development function is key. Personnel will be specialized in finding and evaluating potential partners and cultivating them into actual ecosystem participants. |
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