Starting out with a new customer is a lot like any first date, the unknowns loom large, both the risks and the rewards and it’s full of hope and excitement. Assuming it’s not a blind date! In business, the unforgivable is walking into that first date, blind. It’s not hard to be prepared, too make yourself (your company) attractive, and most importantly, a suitable partner. Here’s a few thoughts, well three that serve me well, based on experience and results. Know what busines

From selling your customer a product, to supporting your customers business through providing value based solutions - the product to service migration. As a producer of things, a business makes its money in the making and selling of things - the Product! This is an event based relationship (notwithstanding an ongoing support relationship). Your customers relationship with this product is different, very different! A customer derives their value over time, not at the point of

We’ve all seen the headlines, no matter what industry we’re in there will have been an “Internet of Things for ……………” (fill in your industry/market/name). The noise level continues to rise unabated. If you attend conferences, receive presentations from Carriers, or Hardware/Software/Middleware providers, or IOT Platform providers (you gotta have a platform!), you’ve heard the message. The future of your business, no matter what it is, is in peril if you do not grasp the Inter

I was reviewing a research report from the 451 Global Digital Alliance that brought me back to the subject of how to manage security in the “IoT” world. Let me start at the end - Security, like most of the technical stack in IoT, is seen as a technical question rather than commercial, and that is where the problems begin. Proviso, I don’t want to comment on the Consumer products and services area as avoiding the Internet in IoT is near nigh impossible in these services. For b