Regardless of an enterprise’s vertical focus or size, an IoT strategy is becoming more and more the bedrock to any organization’s success. IoT comes into play when dealing with automation, security, even reducing operational costs. So when enterprises find the right partners, they can meet their priority business objectives with IoT.
Cisco Jasper partners with more than 50 service providers globally to deliver IoT services to more than 9,000 enterprises with the Control Center automated connectivity management platform. To date, those enterprises are managing more than 40 million IoT devices worldwide with Control Center. These relationships with our service providers are what help us tap into new industries, and scale services with existing customers.
One of Cisco Jasper’s largest growing markets is the connected car industry. Cisco Jasper Control Center helps enable auto manufacturers to easily launch, manage and monetize connected services through their connected cars.
In March, Cisco Jasper announced a new partnership with CK Hutchison-owned Three Group to help the mobile giant extend capabilities in the global IoT marketplace. As part of the new partnership, Three Group will utilize the Control Center platform for customers in all industries, but will have a strong focus in the connected car space in order to help enable automakers to deliver new types of services to drivers.
In February, Cisco Jasper announced that Honda had teamed up with telematics solutions provider Bright Box to deliver the MyHonda connected car platform. MyHonda, which is powered by Cisco Jasper, helps drivers benefit from an array of IoT-connected services including vehicle information and diagnostics, simple scheduling and maintenance, and GPS tracking for location-based services.
In addition to Honda, Cisco Jasper works with 50 of the world’s largest auto brands that have deployed Control Center for their connected car initiatives. But at the end of the day, the delivery of these new and innovative IoT services come from a collaborative approach among service providers, automakers, solution providers and Cisco Jasper to make these new technologies a reality in the connected car space.
And this partner-based approach to delivering IoT solutions and services extends to all industries. Another example of an industry that is showing significant growth in delivering IoT services is healthcare. In February, Cisco Jasper announced a new collaboration with Jupl, a healthcare software developer, to provide a wearable mobile Personal Emergency Response System (mPERS) that promotes safety and wellness, particularly for the elderly community.
Jupl’s software is being utilized inside Samsung Gear S3 smartwatches so the wearable can be both a watch and a digital lifeline in case of an emergency. Each of these wearable devices is managed on the Cisco Jasper Control Center platform to provide digital emergency response, biometric monitoring, and location tracking and assistance. Since certain individuals choose not to use or carry a smartphone, the health watch serves as a more practical alternative while still offering health safety features.
To take the delivery of the smartwatch to the next level, Jupl teamed up with the global healthcare giant Bupa to soft-launch the watch to some of its customers. Bupa, which has more than 32 million customers worldwide, is using a technology-focused lens to tackle modern day health challenges. And while Cisco, Jupl, Samsung and Bupa all bring something different to the table, the end solution, and the services provided with that solution, is the result of a collective effort among partners that will better benefit the end user.
So how does an enterprise get started on partnering with the right vendors to deploy the right IoT strategy for its business? First, it’s important for any enterprise to identify the business challenge it needs to solve with IoT. Whether it’s using IoT to improve the way vehicle services are delivered to drivers or using it as a means to improve safety for the elderly community, enterprises need to identify those key challenges first, then identify vendors that are already working to solve those challenges across industries.