How the internet of things can encourage business collaboration

The Internet of Things (IoT) holds great promise for effortlessly enabling complex enterprise scenarios. For the uninitiated, the IoT is the idea that inexpensive sensors and ubiquitous internet connectivity will allow the products and appliances we interact with on a daily basis to become smart. The number of possible scenarios in enterprise to which this can be advantageous is huge.

There’s only one catch. In order for this to work there needs to be seamless integration between many distinct and separate systems; hardware, software, and middleware. Enterprise solutions will need to evolve to a level of unprecedented partnerships to survive. Those that do will be central in the evolution of execution in enterprise, while those that continue to operate in a bubble will falter.

Escaping a world of point solutions

The enterprise has long laboured under the regime of point solutions. These point solutions solve a very specific task or need. Enterprises purchased software or hardware that addressed a single or limited issue. These solutions often have an isolated database that isn’t integrated with other systems. These point solutions consisted of desktop apps, slowly migrated to web interfaces, and most recently to mobile. However, their common shortcoming is that they exist as a silo.

In the past if you had an accounting problem, you purchased an accounting package. If you had mobile device security issue, you purchased a mobile device management solution. Integration, where possible, was difficult and expensive. But real-world use cases aren’t packaged in neat boxes. They overlap, they sit between multiple processes, and they can benefit greatly from cross-vendor cooperation.

Partnerships enable possibilities

Solutions in the age of IoT, the ones that will really create change and drive new levels of possibility and productivity for the enterprise, will necessarily cross the bounds between different solutions and hardware devices. Gone are the days of isolated point solutions that leave companies in a lurch trying to figure out how to get the last mile of their needs met.

I had the chance to sit down with Bum-coo Cho, senior vice-president of Samsung’s Global B2B Center, and Dirk Boessmann, senior vice-president of mobile development at SAP, last month at SAP’s Tech Ed in Berlin. We discussed the IoT partnership announcement between Samsung and SAP and just what it means to partner in the IoT age.

There are some quick easy wins, but also lots of ongoing possibilities. As Mr Cho pointed out: “We will start with mobile and wearable devices, but we have a bigger vision for connected devices; to allow for different form factors and different features such as Air Gestures and S Pen, and multi-window.” Industries where protective gloves must be worn could benefit greatly from a feature like Air Gestures while accessing back-end information stored on SAP’s in-memory database, Hana.

Though the deal will initially focus on wearables, both Mr Cho and Mr Boessmann were quick to point out that there are many industries and use-cases that will benefit from the combined features and functionality of Samsung and Sap. Tight partnerships and integration allow for solutions that can offer greater specificity in meeting the end-users needs. “We will continue to have industry centric solutions, but we’ll closely integrate the data and devices to bring new possibilities into reality. We [Samsung and SAP] are joining efforts to complete use cases,” said Mr Boessmann.

A growing trend

The Samsung and SAP partnership is just one example of a very visible partnership trend between previously unlikely bed-fellows. Apple and IBM recently announced a similar partnership aimed at bringing together products and services that meet user needs. Partnerships announced by the likes of General Electric, Cisco, and others brings the respective companies a breadth to their platforms that they could never offer their customer base on their own.

This trend is more than just integration of products and services, it is also customer-centric design and innovation. Joint innovation is another aspect of these partnerships. Apple and IBM look likely to release their first set of jointly designed products this month.

Samsung and SAP are creating a Joint Innovation Centre where they will bring together some of their top minds to solve industry specific problems. Product and services will be created together rather than as separate entities.

In the age of IoT, it will no longer suffice to just offer a great product or service. Top organisations will offer complete scenarios that consider the end-to-end needs of actual users. Partnerships deals will continue to flourish where vendors identify their short comings. Cheap, ubiquitous connectivity in the IoT age will not only bring the world together; it will connect many diverse organisations too.

Benjamin Robbins is co-founder at Palador. You can find him on Twitter @PaladorBenjamin

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