IoT Is Complicated, But Building an IoT Practice Doesn’t Have to Be

The IoT market is expanding fast and is expected to grow to reach more than $1 trillion by next year. Along with this meteoric rise, there’s an increasing demand for IoT-related consulting and integration services. IDC expects expenditures for these services will total about $14.3 billion during the next three years.

Needless to say, this presents a huge opportunity for resellers, but also a host of challenges. The sheer depth and breadth of IoT, which touches all verticals and domains, can be daunting. And the current absence of IoT standards only adds to the confusion and uncertainty. Then, there are the added security risks. More than 80% of risk professionals worry that a data breach caused by an unsecured device is likely to occur in the next 24 months, and the results could be catastrophic for businesses.

Considering all the variables that need to be dealt with, if you’re looking to grow your IoT practice, consider partnering with Ingram Micro—whether you already have deep IoT experience and knowledge or are just starting out.

A Unique Approach to the IoT Market

Unlike distributors whose approach is to simply offer long line cards of sensors and components, Ingram Micro takes a holistic approach, focusing on solutions that address your customers’ specific business problems and leveraging all our core competencies—hardware fulfillment, mobility and cloud—to help you address them.

We not only offer IoT solutions, kits and components from a broad range of vendor partners, including new IoT companies, but also offer a host of sales enablement, deployment and training resources that can make a critical difference in helping you serve your customers.

A Vertical Focus

Our offerings are focused on solving business problems, so we aggregate our portfolio around various key verticals (agriculture, building, city, healthcare, logistics, manufacturing/industrial and retail) and on the IoT-related use cases that are specific to that industry.

In healthcare, for example, we have components and solutions that address device health monitoring, indoor asset tracking, pharmaceutical refrigeration monitoring and people counting and security.

Professional and Training Services

To help fill any gaps in your IoT offerings, Ingram Micro offers resources to facilitate assessment, design, deployment, management and disposal. And our training courses can help you gain the expertise you need to position yourself as an IoT expert.

Ingram Micro’s cybersecurity team offers a systematic approach to providing cybersecurity services and solutions throughout the entire sales cycle. This includes a cybersecurity practice-building plan, with associated trainings around compliance, business, operations and marketing—offering key insights and information that will help you advise customers with confidence.

Different Approaches, One Partner

Whether you choose to source components individually and separately from different vendors or prefer to go the end-to-end solution route—focusing on hardware, software and connectivity from one or two vendors—Ingram Micro can make the IoT sales, procurement and implementation process easier for you, with resources to help you every step of the way.

IoT is not a one-click-and-done sale. It takes planning, execution and ongoing management to maximize the value of IoT. That said, choosing the right go-to-market partner is critical to your success and the customer experience. At Ingram Micro, we offer channel partners the expertise, experience and technology packages needed to successfully market, sell and support IoT solutions.

However, you look at it, IoT is complicated. Let us help simplify things for you. For a handy resource to help you learn more about the IoT market—and how our offerings can help you address your customers’ business problem—check out our IoT Playbook.

Eric Hembree is Ingram Micro’s director of IoT for the U.S. 

This guest blog is part of a Channel Futures sponsorship.