When we talk with device or hardware manufacturers, the majority of them can state the number of sensors, gateways or meters they’ve sold over the past few years. However, they don’t know the exact location of those devices, or if the devices are under control and have up-to-date software.
According to a study by Gartner, there will be more than 20 billion connected devices by 2020. How will software manufacturers be able to manage such a high volume of devices? How will their clients manage their new set up?
Most manufacturers mainly worry about the quality of their devices and the quantity they sell (after all, increased sales means more revenue). However, they’re generally unaware that their clients could gain valuable feedback from those devices to reduce their costs. They also generally haven’t considered how to offer added value beyond the device itself, whether by offering services or enhancing device capabilities.
Device Management Solutions could prove helpful in many ways. For one, they offer clients the ability to reduce costs by providing better information about the behaviour of their devices in the field, making any errors easy to detect, and allowing for remote servicing. They also facilitate automatic updating of equipment in the field. For example, each device can be equipped with the same firmware that would be updated automatically with the desired software. Another possibility is to offer a management service along with the devices, freeing the customer from this responsibility in exchange for a steady, centralized source of income.
What functionality does a device management solution offer?
● It allows companies to obtain information about inventory deployed in the field, such as the types of devices, the SIM cards each are using, and which operator is managing the communications.
● These solutions also provide information about errors and incidents, which can be taken care of quickly thanks to automatic alarms.
● Managing devices remotely makes it possible to restart the devices, as well update or change configuration parameters of the software they contain, all without having to send employees to the field.
What benefits are there for the manufacturer?
● A device management solution offers a reduction in travel costs by allowing manufacturers to service devices without deploying employees to a device’s location. In most cases, these devices are located in another region or continent, so remote management reduces both economic costs and the time required to obtain information or detect errors in a device.
● Manufacturers can analyze information sent from devices about their behaviour and performance, optimizing resources and extending the operating lifetime of the devices.
● They can also use this information to anticipate errors and offer suggestions to customers about how to improve their use.
Why would a manufacturer want to offer its clients an IoT device management platform? What advantages does this IoT solution provide to clients?
With an IoT device management solution, a manufacturer stands out from its competitors and provides added value to its products, offering clients tools and services geared toward facilitating and improving their businesses processes. Management systems provide numerous tools, including:
● Remote device management. Perform a complete and automatic inventory of devices deployed in the field. Know which devices are active and which aspects of each device can be managed and configured in terms of data and functionality.
● Remote performance of operations on devices, including standard operations such as rebooting, or customer-specific operations such as generating a load curve from a meter, requesting business data, etc.
● Access to business information. Access data such as the temperature and humidity of a crop, pinpoint the location of mobile devices, etc.
● Automatically generate reports on business data or device management.
● Analysis of that business information. When a client uses a large number of devices, the volume of data associated with those devices is also very large. OpenGate comes with an analysis solution that serves up relevant and condensed information so the user can easily see the device status, revealing potential problems and facilitating simpler decision making.
● Secure communication. Our platform has the built in capability for secure communication between the platform and devices, as well as secure user access to the platform. Security management and certificate renewal can also be carried out through the platform.
There is finally widespread awareness of the risks of a flawed security policy for IoT devices
In the last few months, we’ve seen hacked automatic cars, teddy bears sending inappropriate messages to children, and critical devices being compromised resulting in threats to national security. Such events have made us more aware of the need to ensure, prevent and reduce vulnerabilities in IoT devices. Investing in security for these devices is less an option than a necessity for manufacturers.
Our IoT platform OpenGate offers various features and tools for security mechanisms within any device management solution. By adopting our platform, a device manufacturer can guarantee its customers a secure solution that will allow them to:
● Trust the content of the transmitted data, ensure its reliability and its correspondence to a particular device.
● Ensure the confidentiality of the information sent. The data is encrypted so it can only be read using client applications.
● Transmit data privately. Provide a private channel, guaranteeing that information is transmitted via a secure and encrypted communication network.
● Receive control messages and verify those communications. Only identified and certified people can receive the information.
● Prevent unauthorized people from accessing the device by checking the identity of users who attempt to access it. Confirm via digital certificates that a user has permission to access the device.
Manufacturers: stand out from the competition with the OpenGate device management solution for IoT devices
In this highly competitive market, it’s important to provide added value in your product portfolio. Stand out from the pack with the OpenGate device management solution, an IoT platform that allows you to remotely manage your devices quickly, easily and securely, as well as monitor their life cycles, with a single tool.
With OpenGate, your product portfolio will:
● Use a single, unique platform to perform automated inventories of your customer’s devices and the data it extracts for decision-making.
● Improve employee productivity by revealing anomalies, device status and location, etc., reducing operation and device maintenance costs.
● Personalize solutions for any business model, with an easy-to-use interface and a design that’s customizable for the needs of any company.
