Readers of RCR Wireless News who have been in IoT for at least five years will surely have experienced what I like to call “the shift.” This happens about every three years, when IoT vendors decide to either:
- Verticalize their offerings and serve specific industries or use cases, or
- Double down on building the best, most robust horizontal offering that serves many industries and use cases.
I’ve lived “the shift” at least six times in my career. Instead of repeating the cycle, I’d like to propose an alternative approach to address the market based on what I’ve learned along the way.
IoT: a maturing market
Enterprise adopters of IoT technologies are no longer new to the game. They have deployed and managed IoT solutions for their business and learned a lot – most importantly, what works and what does not.
With the rapid adoption of Agentic AI, the pace of change is accelerating beyond anything business has seen before.
Adopters need service providers that understand their unique industry challenges, for sure. But they also need a robust, global, reliable solution to address the elements of their applications that are outside their own industry expertise.
Connectivity is a ubiquitous element of IoT solutions across vertical industries. Still, businesses that rely on a network to support operational needs should not be required to become experts on infrastructure.
Moreover, as our shared consumer experience of connectivity expands, buyers are right to want connectivity that just works. It doesn’t matter if it’s Wi-Fi, Cellular, Satellite, LoRaWAN, or other protocols. They don’t care how it connects, only that it does—every time. Certainly, all of us carry these expectations with us to work. Why shouldn’t an IoT device connect as easily as a cell phone?
Partner enablement to bridge the gap
Managing expectations and delivering value in this environment begs the question: Who is best positioned to help customers navigate a seemingly endless array of network capabilities and vertical market applications?
Fortunately, there is a better solution for agile businesses to overcome the tension between vertical characteristics and advanced connectivity, an opportunity based in partnership.
Calming chaos and complexity
Vendors looking to sell modern network solutions into specific markets must be mindful of requisite needs that must be satisfied. Healthcare, financial services, defense, transportation, and energy each have their own unique critical requirements to address. From a networking perspective, these might include data security, regulatory compliance, integration with industry-specific applications and systems, and the use of latency-sensitive automated processes. These needs depend on resilient mobile network coverage. But, depending on the market, the priority of these demands may vary.
Selling into these spaces requires a depth of expertise and nuance that evades the capacity of most network technology creators. An innate understanding of each specific industry is mandatory, including grasping how the business needs to run, the regulations it must satisfy, its use of data and AI-driven services, and the potential risk of cyberattacks in order to demonstrate trust and relevance with these customers. Each market has its own language, appetite for risk, and definition of what success looks like.
Partnering with the experts
Rather than go it alone to satisfy these complex needs, astute vendors can choose partners that demonstrate an understanding and have proven success serving specific verticals.
These partners may be MVNOs, Service Providers, integrators, or consultants. They have deep knowledge of the operational challenges within each vertical, and can recommend ideal solutions tailored to those specific needs.
For example, a partner well-versed in logistics will understand needs around asset tracking, data sovereignty, and uninterrupted coverage between networks and across geographies. Their connectivity partner may specialize in network performance characteristics like bandwidth utilization to support data-hungry AI applications, or security to ensure that sensitive data is properly protected. Together, they can deliver exactly what the customer needs to manage their supply chain.
In addition, vertical market experts are comfortable integrating the infrastructure with various enterprise systems and processes, as well as satisfying the regulatory environment affecting the industry. Whether these are PCI, HIPAA, GDPR, or other mandates, they are absolute.
No doubt, the network is vital to the performance of the business, but it is one part of a complex and always evolving ecosystem. A vertical market expert takes a holistic view of the customer, and has the experience and broad knowledge to build an entire solution that will continue to satisfy business needs.
Conclusion
As technology becomes more complex, customers must understand how their investments translate into positive and repeatable outcomes. They want specifics, use cases, and quantifiable data that will allow them to justify their spend. MVNOs, integrators, and other providers that specialize in serving vertical markets are best equipped to apply modern wireless technology to their ecosystem. There is no room for guess work. Vertically oriented solutions providers that partner with the right horizontal network experts are in the best position to deliver the results customers expect.
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