What are the 7 critical costs of IoT projects

IoT is a massive yet ever-growing business, and there are vendors in practically every large city in the world. The plethora of options for a suitable partner can be overwhelming, so what should be the essential requirements for finding the correct solution for your current need? What are the costs of IoT? What if the solution doesn’t lower your operational costs but increases them?

Do you know what are the costs of IoT projects?

By downloading this white paper you will learn about:

• The requirements of a cost-efficient solution,
• How impactful industry evolution is on IoT project needs,
• The impact of human interaction on the costs of IoT
• 7 different costs of IoT projects, and
• How to address IoT projects and their costs
• Examples from leading companies on how they addressed and solved their IoT projects

IoT projects rarely scale from scratch, reach out through the whole organization and generate business value. IoT has become an integral part of our everyday lives – at work and in our homes, but it has not happened overnight. Many global organizations took their first steps in IoT a decade ago and later on brought in other solutions and integrated them with the existing devices. As technology keeps evolving, the need for integrations between multiple systems grows exponentially – as does the likelihood of issues between several systems and, therefore, hidden costs related to them.

Our world is data-driven, with many devices consuming data 24/7, from smart locking mechanisms to location mapping devices – not to mention the mobile devices in our pockets. Data consumption also means power consumption. Power consumption means the device must have a reliable source of energy. The chain, or more precisely, the network of factors, is so extensive that even a small change towards efficiency can significantly impact the total running costs of your IoT infrastructure.

At Haltian, we have several use cases of streamlining the IoT solutions with and for our clients. Connectivity, reliability, and energy efficiency are some of the goals our clients wanted to reach with our help, but they all serve the same purpose; cutting down the hidden costs. This guide will help you detect the hidden costs of IoT with insights from a few of our clients. Find below extracts from the white paper.

Business value at the core of IoT projects

It is strongly advised to have a “business first” mindset instead of a “technology first” approach. An off-the-shelf solution might suit your business to some extent, but it can never reach its full potential without tailoring it to your needs. Another reason for developing a tailored solution is, once again, avoiding hidden costs; an off-the-shelf product will probably have non-essential features that form extra costs while lacking other features that would benefit you a lot more. That is why mapping out your actual needs is the first step in any IoT project. “Every tech project has a goal, tech development should not be done for the sake of tech development. Research is, of course, a different thing, but the operation must either be lucrative or improve customer experience or cost-efficiency,” says Jari Paasikivi, Head of Process Technology at Posti.

Arguably, the most important part of your business is your customers. So by taking the “business first” mindset further to the “customer first” way of thinking, you are already on the right path. Usually, this means hybrid solutions between multiple vendors, but involving your (or your customer’s) IT in the early phases of the IoT project will help with the integration.

Simply put, you should start off by doing your homework; take time to clarify what you want the solution to achieve, rather than how. You have to be able to specify the circumstances, integrations, and usability, just to name a few. Doing some research on the most suitable vendors by use cases and product demos can help you better understand the differences between solutions, but also better understand what could be the best solution to the problem at hand. If there isn’t an off-the-shelf solution that meets your criteria, a good vendor can ask you the right questions to find the correct way to cater to your needs. If you feel out of your comfort zone when doing all that research, consider hiring a consultant to dig out the pain points of your current model, what needs to be solved first, and which vendor could best suit your needs.

Even though the IoT ecosystem and all its costs, commonly known as the total cost of ownership, even the hidden ones, can be categorized and chopped into small individual segments, Mike Hargreaves of Spica Technologies recommends a more holistic approach. “Everything should go with ease”, he summarizes: “Easy-to-use platforms, ease of installation, simple scalability, and so on.” If the solution is designed with a customer-first mindset, all the rough edges have been polished and the ecosystem operates smoothly. Usually, this means hybrid solutions between multiple vendors, but involving your (or your customer’s) IT in the early phases of the IoT project will help with the integration. When integrations, maintenance, and reconfiguration are easy to implement, the calculation of IoT costs becomes easier as well.

Human interaction can be expensive

With IoT, the costs are often scattered all over the network and besides data and energy costs, even the most minor human interactions might cause high costs in the long run. If your device is wireless, battery life, ease of battery change, and the cost of batteries in use are all important factors that should be taken into account when initiating discussions with possible vendors.

Another way of eliminating costs is eliminating manual tasks as much as possible. Updates and reconfigurations can be done remotely to a certain extent but cannot always be avoided. When you have sought out a vendor whose solution requires the least amount of manual tasks and human interaction, the follow-up question should be, “how easily can the necessary manual task be done?” IoT devices need to be installed, battery-powered hardware still needs to be recharged, or the batteries need to be changed, but if the procedure seems time-consuming or needs an expert, you may again face sudden costs once the battery life comes to an end.

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How can I understand the costs of IoT when the environment is constantly evolving? Innovations and solutions emerge all the time, so it might be difficult to distinguish the necessary ones from the nice-to-have solutions. IoT is a massive yet ever-growing business, and there are vendors in practically every large city in the world. At some point, you might wake up to the reality that you have a plethora of different solutions that each solve a problem, maybe two, increase efficiency here and reduce costs there. Still, the overall price tag seems relatively high. This is a common problem and a perfect example of hidden fees – accumulated services and solutions. So what should be the essential requirements for finding the correct solution for your current need? What if the solution doesn’t lower your operational costs but increases them?

This guide should help you recognize some of the most common and critical costs from an IoT solution and technology provider. These should assist you to compare different IoT solutions and evaluate the best for your needs. Hopefully with a “business first” mindset instead of a “technology first” approach.

Download to have full access to the white paper and learn more about:

• How impactful industry evolution is on IoT project needs,
• The requirements of a cost-efficient solution,
• The impact of human interaction on the costs of IoT
• 7 different costs of IoT projects, and
• How to address IoT projects and their costs
• Examples from leading companies on how they addressed and solved their IoT projects