Interested in connecting with Warren? Reach out to him on Linkedin!

About Ericsson: Ericsson is one of the leading providers of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to service providers. We enable the full value of connectivity by creating game-changing technology and services that are easy to use, adopt, and scale, making our customers successful in a fully connected world.

Key Questions and Topics from this Episode:

(00:55) Intro to Warren Chaisatien

(02:48) Intro to Ericsson

(05:56) What IoT Applications is Ericsson involved in?

(08:29) Connected Enterprises Report – What is it?

(10:47) What are the 6 Golden Rules of Digital Transformation Success?

(16:39) What are the biggest challenges companies face when undergoing digital transformation?

(19:33) What Applications are cellular IoT making possible?

(26:22) Why is the connectivity decision so important to the long-term success of a deployment?

(37:09) How can digital transformation strive to be human-centric? What does that mean?

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Transcript:

– [Announcer] You are listening to, the IoT For All Media Network.

– [Ryan] Hello everyone and welcome, to another episode of the IoT For All Podcast, on the IoT For All Media Network. I’m your host, Ryan Chacon, one of the co-creators of IoT For All. Now, before we jump into this episode, please don’t forget to subscribe, on your favorite podcast platform, or join our newsletter at iotforall.com/newsletter, to catch all the newest episodes, as soon as they come out. Before we get started, if any of you out there are looking to enter, the fast growing and profitable IoT market, but don’t know where to start, check out our sponsor, Leverege’s IoT solutions development platform, which provides everything you need, to create turnkey IoT products that you can white label, and resell under your own brand. To learn more, go to iotchangeseverything.com, that’s iotchangeseverything.com. So without further ado, please enjoy this episode of the IoT For All podcast. Welcome Warren to the IoT For All Show. Thanks for being here today.

– [Warren] Thank you very much, Ryan. Thanks for having me.

– [Ryan] Yeah, it’s great to have you. I’ve been looking forward to this conversation for awhile. It’s been scheduled for a couple of weeks now, so this is exciting to have you. I’d love to start out by having you give, a quick introduction about yourself. Talk about your role, kind of your experience, background, anything you think is relevant for our audience, to just get a better sense of who they are listening to.

– [Warren] Absolutely hello everyone, Warren Chaisatien here. I am a senior director of global IoT marketing with Ericsson. In my role, I work with our telecom operator, and ecosystem partners globally on joint strategies, and go to market activities, as they serve enterprise clients with our IoT offerings. And it has been an exciting time, Ryan, you know the IoT market has been growing very rapidly, in recent years, as you know.

– [Ryan] How’d you, so how’d you end up at Ericsson, like what’s the background experience that led you there?

– [Warren] I was an industry analyst myself, for roughly a decade, and that gave me a very good background in strategy, and vendor positioning and telecom operator, and enterprise requirements. And then about 10 years ago, I joined Ericsson in Australia, as head of marketing for this part of the world. And then about five years ago I move up to Stockholm to take up Ericsson’s very first global role, in IoT marketing. And again, it was a very exciting time. And since then I have remained with Ericsson Headquarters, even though physically I am now back in Australia.

– [Ryan] Well, that’s fantastic. Congrats on that. That sounds like an awesome career, and exciting time to be able to move around, and explore a lot of different areas of the company. And then, you know, be in this senior director of global marketing role for IoT. That’s fantastic.

– [Warren] Thank you.

– [Ryan] So let’s go ahead and a little bit about Ericsson. I’m sure most people listening are familiar with, the company itself, obviously the Ericsson’s a big name, but as it relates to IoT, I’d love, if you could just quickly expand on the overall approach, and role that Ericsson has in the space. And just talk a little bit more about that.

– [Warren] Absolutely, Ericsson’s role in IoT is far and wide. First and foremost, we provide connectivity for IoT devices, by building cellular IoT networks around the world. Ryan, these networks are offered by, our telecom operator partners, and they are known as a narrowband IoT, Cat-M1 networks, or even 4G LT and now 5G networks, which you know, our audience would be familiar with, right. We have built more than, half of the world’s commercial cellular IoT networks, that are commercially available today. So that’s our first and foremost contribution. Now the second part is that, we also provide global connectivity management, for IoT devices using our IoT platform, which is called the Ericsson IoT accelerator. This platform again, offered through our telecom operator partners, allows enterprises, especially those operating globally, to connect anything anywhere with ease. Last year in 2020, our platform business outgrew the market by three times, it is now serving over 6,500 enterprises, and manages over 70 million IoT devices through, a global network of 35 plus telecom operator partners, that we have around the world.

– [Ryan] That’s awesome. That’s great. And as you all focus in different areas, in different industries, verticals and so forth, is there a a particular focus as it comes to Applications, or industries or, you know, it sounds, like you’re obviously very far and broad reaching, you know, kind of across the board, but is there any kind of specialty, or area that you all focus more on than others, or is that not really? Or is it more of a broader approach?

– [Warren] Yes, we do. Even though, you know, when it comes to IOT, in our IoT business, is pretty horizontal menial platform, and our IoT networks can connect any connected devices, really, right, but from a Applications and industry perspective, as a company we are very strong in the automotive industry, and also very strong in industrial manufacturing, and in energy and utilities. And now with the rise of private networks, we are also focusing heavily on ports, meaning sea ports, airports, oil and gas, mining, and also public safety. And as I said before, IoT is pretty horizontal, right? So our platform, the IoT accelerator, currently also manages a large number of consumer devices, like wearables, tablets for senior citizens, even laptop computers and security alarm systems.

– [Ryan] Great, great. Now, is there any, let’s say any exciting, or new Applications that have recently been developed, with Ericsson involved that you could share, kind of just briefly?

– [Warren] Absolutely, absolutely. So over the years we have connected, you know, multiple kinds of multiple types of industrial equipment. And I can briefly talk about quite a few Applications. For example, we have been working with a tracker, which is global logistics company, and they manage a fleet of sea liners, around the world, right? So, so, and, and they use our IoT technology to, in their food, transportation business. And that is very interesting, because in the process, they are able to reduce global food wastage, from farm to fork, now. And with control, and visibility of the foods and containers that they track, mow they can reduce food wastage by up to 30%. And then that’s fantastic for me, from an environmental perspective, right? Or an example that I can give you, is a company called Grundfos. They are the world’s largest pump manufacturer, water pump. And they use IoT to optimize energy consumption, and importantly they are now able to change, their business model from selling pumps as hardware, to start selling pump maintenance as a service, with an eventual goal of offering a business based, business outcome based for example, in the future it would be, you know, water as a service, you don’t even have to worry about pumps, or pump service or pump capacity, because, you know, pump users, what they want at the end of the day is water. And so moving in that direction, these are some examples, some examples that’s really exciting, and then how our technology is really transforming, those business models and enhancing customer experiences.

– [Ryan] Yeah, I totally agree. I appreciate you kind of sharing those Applications. It’s always good for our audience to just have kind of that, that connection between what you all do and then, you know, the real life kind of deployments that are out there. So I appreciate that those insights there. I want to transition here for a second, into kind of the new hot topic that is, you know, connected to Ericsson as of the listening of this episode, which is the connected enterprise report that you all, that you all did. I think it’s, you know, it’s an absolutely fantastic report for anybody out there, who has not had a chance to view it yet. Could you talk a little bit about just overall the, kind of the purpose of the report, you know, the goal, how it was conducted, just, you know, the general high level understanding, about kind of what this report is about?

– [Warren] Yeah. So Ryan, to keep this with the IoT market, we started a Talking IoT with Ericsson podcast series, on our website almost two years ago now. And in that series, we have interviewed the movers and shakers of this industry. And so far we have produced 20 episodes, and our guests have included the CTO, chief technology officers, and chief digital officers. For example, these are some of the, you know, job titles, that we have interviewed, right? So leaders from businesses from various sectors, and of course the senior executives, of our own telecom operator partners. So the report that we are talking about, the connected enterprises report, it is really an outcome of those interviews. It features real and practically insights, from those business leaders who have applied technology, to do digital transformation their business. So, so in short, it’s really a compilation of words of wisdom, from those leaders that have done it. And we put together this report with this goal to, share those learnings with our partners, and customers, right. And you know, we mentioned some of the Applications previously, and in that report there’s a much more, and, you know, our listeners, and our partners and customers can learn, you know, how IoT is being used, and especially the insights from those leaders. So we need to add to, as the learnings are so good, we couldn’t, we couldn’t keep them to ourselves.

– [Ryan] Absolutely. Now one of the main topics of the report is, what you all call the six golden rules around, or, you know, for digital transformation success. And I wondered if you could just kind of quickly, run through those at a high level. There’s a ton of questions I have about this report, that are, you know, I want our audience to hear, but if we could just start out with that, I think it would set a good tone, for the rest of the conversation.

– [Warren] Absolutely, so from those learnings, we have got to classify them into six golden rules, as you mentioned. So let me walk you through these golden rules, one by one. The first rule is we have to put the customer first right? The end user must always be the focus, not the technology. Now, you know, as companies, as organizations, we really first have to understand the challenges, that our customers are trying to solve. Only then can we determine, how we can use technology to support it? Rule number two, capture the data opportunity. And as we know, every day, more and more connected, more and more devices are connected, creating an ocean of data, right? But the real question is what can we do with it? Now, a lot of companies are struggling with this. Let me give you a very meaningful quote, from one of our interviewees from those, from the interviews, right? Victoria Van Camp, who is the CTO of Skf, which is the world’s largest bearing manufacturing company, in the interview, she said, “It’s not data that’s the new gold. “It’s the insights.” Right? That’s the new gold. And I think that that’s really meaningful, because there’s a lot of data and it’s a lot of noise, a lot of confusion out there, but you really need to know what specific problems, you are trying to solve for your customers and users. And then we can, you know squeeze out the the insights, or the intelligence out of that ocean of data. Now, golden rule, number three, we can all start small and then scale. And, you know, the successful organizations that we have spoken to, they all started small, with a pilot program or proof of concept. Don’t be afraid to try it out, you know, run tests and experiment, make sure that your intended outcomes are being met, before you scale. And in the early stages of IoT projects, even large enterprises can take inspiration, from small startups. And that is to act early, to fail fast, to test often. And to start again, right? Don’t be afraid to do that. Number four, embrace new ways of working. And, and this is quite interesting, because change is happening so quickly now, with technology and general ways of doing things. So digital transformation leaders must understand, that new ways of doing things will be the only way forward. There’s no two ways about it, right? And, that being static means being left behind. And, and so, you know, organizations we have to morph and change, and become nimble to be successful with technology. Number five, don’t do it alone. Again, this is a real key learning that we have. I kept hearing all the time to successfully innovate, organizations need to spend time, building a strong network of partners, and alliances and become part of a digital ecosystem. This is really a team sport, because there’s no single company, you know, vendor like sales or our telecom service provider partners, or eventually our enterprise end users, no one can do it alone, right? Gerhard Loots of Telstra, Australia’s largest telecom operator. He goes even further than that, he believes in, he also believes that the ecosystem that we talk about, needs to be open, right? So that new partners can join. And he said, his company Telstra is really open with standards. And Telstra is really encouraging competition, because it’s good for the business, good for the industry. And it serves the customer’s need, the best that way. Last but not least, golden rule number six, don’t compromise on security. And again, security has been a hot topic. Or you can say, a concern for enterprises deploying IoT for years now, and it’s not going away, right? So security, IoT security cannot be an afterthought. It has to be built in not bolt on. And if security knowledge is not your core strength, no problem. That’s totally okay. You know, use trusted security providers. There are providers out there who can help you. Don’t try to reinvent the wheel, or become an expert yourself, focus on your business, focus on your customer. And there are other people who can help you. Safeguarding data is really important, and must be put in place even when you are doing trials, not just commercial launches. So Ryan, those are the six golden rules that we have learned, from our leaders.

– [Ryan] Fantastic and you know, when you’ve talked to these leaders, I’m sure you’ve had a good conversation, around the challenges that companies, that companies that they’ve worked with face, you know, in their digital transformation journey, their IoT journey, as they look to transform their business. What were some of those challenges that were kind of, you know could they kind of rose to the top, in those conversations, and what advice was there to kind of, how to overcome them?

– [Warren] Absolutely, and I think the change is always a challenge for everyone. And I think the biggest change is that, organizations are traveling into the unknown, as they embark on digital transformation. The six golden rules that we have to discuss, can help them navigate through that journey. But, but in addition to that, we know that businesses embark on digital transformation, for a few key reasons, right? Either they want to optimize operations, that is to realize cost efficiencies, and operational efficiencies, or at the end of the day, to grow revenue. For example by serving customers better, or by selling new things, new products, and services, or break into a new market, right? To help enterprises with that from our part, we need to ensure that Ericsson’s products, and services can deliver, clear business values to them very quickly. And to that end, we have developed business calculators to help them, quantify the benefits of using our technology, so that they can embrace change with confidence. And we have done quite a lot of studies, to help them with that. For, for example, in manufacturing, which we touched on briefly before, we can clearly demonstrate that using augmented reality, the payback period is less than three years. And again, that’s fantastic return, or in mining using drones to inspect areas, that are deemed too unsafe for human workers, can reduce downtime costs by 50%. Again, these are really solid quantifiable benefits, to help enterprises overcome, some of these challenges, some of the major challenges that they have.

– [Ryan] Yeah, that’s great. I appreciate you kind of sharing those insights. It’s always an interesting question to just kind of, get thoughts on what companies across different industries, you know, play different roles in the industry, are seeing with organizations, as they kind of embark on this journey. So to see that there are some common trends, and some obviously your proven ways, to get through them is very encouraging for organizations, out there listening who are kind of deciding, on how to get started, on their digital transformation journey. So, so that’s very helpful. I do want to kind of shift a little bit, and talk a little bit more about, the connectivity side of things, which is, you know, obviously a very big element of this report. And there is a quote in the, in the report. I’m not, I don’t want to read it necessarily, because I want people who are listening, to go read the report, because it’s a really good quote, but it talks about how IoT, and cellular connectivity are making things possible, that were not possible in the past. And I don’t think a lot of people out there, really understand kind of just how, what IoT and cellular connectivity, not only individually, but combined are enabling. And I’d love it if you could shed a little bit of light, on kind of what that quote, and comment kind of alludes to, from your understanding or your experience in the space, as well as your conversations with these movers, and shakers that you, you talk to for the report.

– [Warren] Yeah, that’s right. So Ryan, we have talked about, safe work environment in mines for instance, right? Now, in order to elaborate on this, I think the best way is to, to give you examples, or give our audience examples of how IoT, and cellular technology, are creating new customer experiences, and driving your revenue. One interesting commercial deployment, that we are starting is connected coffee machines. These are commercial coffee machines, that you can find in office buildings, conference centers, and gas stations with a large screen, that allows us to choose our own beverages, right? So managed by our IoT accelerator platform, these machines enabled coffee machine operators, or venue owners to adjust prices, according to demand, and time of day. Ryan, this is like happy hours in the pub, right? And hence maximizing revenue for either the operator, or the venue owners. And so that’s one good example of how, how it is helping with new business models, and revenue generation in a very simple way. But if, yeah go ahead.

– [Ryan] No go, go ahead and finish that thought.

– [Warren] Yeah, so I, and, in this study right, we look at how seeing these coffee machines are connected. We now understand consumer drinking, coffee drinking behavior. So the operators, or the venue owners can also dynamically test new products. For example, when there’s a new coffee flavors coming out, you can do a consumer kind of a reception test, whether or not it would fly, right? And the large screen itself, that we see can also be turned into an ad display, which means, again, a new revenue stream, for either the coffee machine operator or the venue owner, and imagine yourself in a gas station, right? Filling in your tank, going to get a coffee. And then you see an up sale, a promotion, for example specials on hot dogs or snacks. And we are tempted, we end up buying a combo, coffee and a hot dog. Clearly an up-sale win for the gas station in this case. We are in this particular Applications, we also explored the benefit of consumers, being able to order drinks using their mobile phones, hence improving customer experience, and a very welcome feature in light of COVID, right? So you know that, so that, you know, you can see that by connecting a coffee machine, you can now explore multiple angles, either delighting your customers, or delivering new revenue streams through advertising, upselling and basically generating more, more income for the operator.

– [Ryan] I love it if you could, if you could expand a little bit, just on that piece, cause you mentioned now, like two to three times in the last couple of seconds, about the business models and the revenue streams, that cellular connectivity and IoT are kind of enabling. If you could just like maybe broaden that a bit, and just talk a bit about what you’ve seen, and what you’ve kind of learned, through obviously doing this report, and just your general experience in the industry, about how cellular connectivity and IoT, are enabling new business models and revenue streams, not just for consumer kind of oriented businesses, like a, you know gas station and with coffee, and hot dog kind of upsells, and those kinds of things, but like across the spectrum is there any kind of trends, you’ve seen as far as the enabling of these new businesses? Because, or business models and revenue streams, because of IoT and connected, and the cellular connectivity piece.

– [Warren] Yeah, absolutely. We are seeing a broad trend, and this is applicable to all industries, right? So the overall trend is this that is that businesses moving, or shifting their business models from selling stuff, selling hardware or as I mentioned before, selling water pumps, right? So they are moving from selling things, to selling services or outcome-based, revenue business models. And previously I mentioned Grundfos, who has been selling pumps, and they’ve been doing that for over a hundred years, right? So their traditional business is selling pumps as hardware, to businesses and venue owners, and now with their pumps being connected. They know the performance of their pumps. And now they can sell pump minutes as a service, as a revenue on top, right? And then going forward, they will start selling pump capacity. So as, as users, we don’t really care, in fact, no one wants to own and operate pumps. They just want what the pump can do for them, right? So Grundfos is moving to a selling pump capacity, as a service and eventually, as I mentioned before selling water as a service, and Ryan coming back to our consumer market. I think these trends of, outcome-based revenue generation of business model, has been around for quite some years, now. If you look at, you know, the shared economy, or sharing economy, this is the concept is the same, right? We, you know, on our smartphone, we call an Uber or Lyft because we don’t want to own cars. We just want to get from A to B that’s a basic concept, but that concept now is becoming more pervasive, in the industrial or the business environment, because of IoT and connected products, and global connectivity that we have been talking about.

– [Ryan] Gotcha. That makes a lot of sense. Now, I wanted to stay on the topic of the kind of IoT, and connectivity. Mainly, kind of focus on the connectivity piece, and talk about, and the reason I bring this up is, because we get a lot of questions, and a lot of good engagement, when we have, when that connectivity conversation comes up. And I think a lot of that is, because connectivity piece is often a piece, of con or a piece of the, the, the solution that is often confusing for a lot of people, because there are so many different types of connectivity. Now I wanted to have you just elaborate on, kind of why the choice of connectivity is so important, for long-term success in an IoT solution. And I know that the report talks about three key, kind of fundamentals about this decision-making process. And I’d love it to be kind of explain those a little bit, and maybe just kind of talk in your own words about, you know, why that’s so important and how to approach it.

– [Warren] Yeah connectivity is, it’s really the foundation of digital transformation. And I guess you’re right. There’s a lot of options out there. And one key thing that we have learned is that, when it comes to digital transformation, enterprises often think about connectivity last, but we really encouraged them to think about, connectivity first because it’s really the foundation. And because without connectivity, nothing would happen, right? We spoke to companies in various industries, whose products are manufactured in one place, but end up being used in another place. You look at, you know, car companies, and even consumer devices that we’ve been talking about. And I mentioned a little tracker before, logistics companies, right? Businesses can really tracking things on the move. And so when it comes to the choice of connectivity, businesses must ensure that they have, a connectivity technology that works seamlessly everywhere, Be it indoor, outdoor, across town, across the continent, or even around the globe in, in many cases, because it would defeat the purpose, of having your assets connected if they cannot send, and receive data due to a lack of connectivity, or due to unreliable connectivity. And besides that, companies need to consider a connectivity technology, that is inherently secure, right? We talk about the importance of security. They need a technology that can really scale, as their IoT business grows. And you look at all of these considerations, cellular technology really tick all these boxes, to have end to end visibility anywhere, right? So you don’t have to worry about, you know, indoor and outdoor coverage. You don’t have to worry about fiddling with, you know, multiple passwords or multiple networks. It will just not work that way. And you mentioned three key fundamentals in the report. Yes, we have outlined those, and these three key fundamentals, go beyond the choice of technology, and the choice of technology of connectivity. So, so we talk about, you know, three fundamentals in a sense of. Number one, IoT is about business and success flows, top-down from the top, meaning that companies will need management, that is willing to commit to, digital transformation to IoT projects. And maybe willing to take some risks, try out new business models and even challenge, or throw out legacy ways of doing things. And number two, let values guide your vision, because digital, most of the digital experts, that we spoke to not only focus on business values, of course the business values are really important, and that’s what they want to achieve in the first place. But most of them had a clear organizational purpose, that motivated them to make a positive change on society. You know, I talk about food wastage, for example, is a good example, or we talk about employee safety, right? By sending in drones and robots. These are, you can say perhaps soft benefits, but they are super important, from a societal and environmental perspective. Fundamental three that we talk about is, that we ought to begin with realistic thinking, right? And to end in mind, businesses can set up, digital transmission for long-term success. And they had to think about, all aspects operations, implementations, skillsets. And for example, if you are in asset heavy business, ripping and replacing isn’t necessary. that isn’t necessary at all. It’s that thing of the things that you can do now, you can upgrade and enhance over time.

– [Ryan] Right, yeah. I think it’s interesting to kind of think about, an activity not as much of a, as a challenge, as it is a kind of benefit, with the number of connectivity options, that are out there to find the perfect one, that fits a particular Applications. Cause as you mentioned, if your assets are in one location, they travel to another location, and you need data to be collected, throughout the entire process. You have to have a connectivity that works indoor, that worked outdoors, that works in potentially rural areas, and, you know, highly populated areas. And, you know, maybe working while it’s on the water, you know, it just needs to be able to, you need to have kind of solid connectivity in those cases, but there are some that are, you know, Applications in IoT that are very, just kind of specific to a certain area, and they just need to be able to track, let’s say assets within a hospital or, you know, cars on a, on an auto lot for instance. And just the fact, that there are so many different connectivity choices, it leaves the potential for IoT success to just, just generally increase across the board, because that component can be so specifically matched, to the Applications to not just fit the Applications, but also fit, you know, the, the ROI on the, on the cost and revenue side as well. So I think it’s something important, to kind of change the narrative a little bit, and of it more of as a good thing, then that’s something that needs to, unnecessarily scares people, who are kind of embarking down this journey, when they start thinking about, all the different connectivity options out there.

– [Warren] Yep, absolutely. And, and you you’re right. You know, some assets may not traveling the globe, but all enterprises will look for reliability, would look for built in security, right. And then again, and if you look at these traits, or characteristics against seller is doing so well, on those aspects. Another key thing that service technology can offer is, power consumption, minimization or optimization, meaning, you know, if you have a device out there, and as you mentioned meters, for example, right? Meters are static devices. They are not traveling anywhere. And yet once you deploy them, they stay out there for 10 and 12 and 15 years. So what kind of technology, or connectivity technology can support, such a long life cycle, right? And so it fits the bill very well, because it has that energy saving mode. And, you know, we talk about this cellular IoT networks that we, that we touched on at the beginning of our conversation, only wakes up the devices when it needs to transfer, and send data otherwise just leave the meters there.

– [Ryan] Yes, absolutely. I totally agree. Now, before we wrap up here, I have a couple of just kind of final questions. I know you all did a report in the past. I believe it was last year, or maybe within the last 12, 18 months or so, I wanted to ask about, without going into too crazy detail about that report, I just wanted to kind of, get a sense of how things have changed in terms of, kind of digitalization challenges, and goals organizations have had over, you know, between when that report came out and this report, because there’s a lot that has happened in our world, in the last 12 months alone. But, you know, even without the pandemic, a lot has changed as far as from a technology standpoint, but I’m just curious from your perspective, what has changed as far as challenges, and goals for that you’ve seen organizations have, from when that report came out to when this report has been, you know, it’s about as is out now.

– [Warren] Yeah, absolutely. So that previous report called connected industries, we released that about half a year ago. That previous report looks at business, and technology considerations for digital transformation. So it’s the same topic, but looking at different angles, right? We learned that from that report, that regardless of the business that they are in, all enterprises are pretty much in the same boat. And then that is, they embark on, they embarked on digital transformation, because they are looking for ways to be more efficient, to be compliant with regulations. Now that this is also a key point driver there in, you know we talk about smart meters, we talk about automotive industries, or even industrial. There are regulations in terms of safety, and energy efficiency that are being applied. So IoT is helping them with that. They are looking for ways to stay ahead of competition, right, and to exceed to exceed customer expectations. That report we also look at concerns, and what concerns them the most are, how to take advantage of data. So in this report we addressed at that angle more vividly, how to stay ahead of cyber security threats, and how to ensure a technology longevity. And again, you know, we talk about smart meters as one example, another long life cycle assets would be cars, right? Connected cars now. Autos, cars, they you know, they stay out there for eight to 10 years. So businesses are thinking about, “Hey if you deploy IoT projects today, “how do we make sure that the technology choice, “that we have chosen today won’t get obsolete, “in the next 18 months.” Now that’s a big challenge. So, so I would say, that the goals into the business driven outcomes, and challenges are still pretty much valid today, even though, as you mentioned, technologies, and new Applications are popping up all the time, especially at 5G and it’s computing, but main fundamentals are still pretty valid today.

– [Ryan] Okay, great. And the last question I have, before we kind of wrap up is, when I went through the report, it kind of finishes up by saying that, true digital transformation must be human centric. Can you just tell our audience kind of what that means, and what if any additional predictions, that you have for 2021, and beyond with regards to digital transformation, and what you expect to see.

– [Warren] Yeah so, that’s a very good quote, right? It must be human centric. Let, let me explain that by quoting one of our guests again, Phil McDermott, chief commercial officer, of our mobile operator partner, Arkessa. Phil said that, “At the heart of technology, there are always humans. “And if we keep that in mind, “as a focus of everything that we do, “exciting things will happen.” And again, I think that’s a pretty profound quote. So even though, you know, today we have been talking about IoT, and technology is really about us as people, right? Us, as consumers, as customers and us as workers. And in terms of predictions, Gardner research shows that COVID, has really accelerated IoT investment, not the other way around, because lockdowns and travel restrictions, have meant that businesses have, have been forced to do things remotely, and find new ways to interact with customers. In fact, you know, I think all of us, and the audience would have heard that COVID in general, has accelerated digital transformation overall, in the past 12 months, right? Companies are doing things, that they would not have done without COVID. So not just IoT that is accelerating. Our hope is that the world will go back to normal soon, but our prediction is this, that even in the post COVID world, advancement in technology, and in IoT is here to stay right? They won’t be going backwards at all. And this year 5G, will become even more ubiquitous than six months ago. And with the rise of computing, artificial intelligence, I think we will see you IoT Applications, popping up even more going forward.

– [Ryan] Fantastic, fantastic. This has been a, this has been a great conversation. I appreciate you shedding more light, and kind of insights into this report. Something that I really implore, everyone out there listening to go read. The last thing I wanted to ask kind of as a wrap up here, is talking a little bit more back to around, you know, Ericsson’s offerings to the market. I know there are kind of two, two things that I would like to just quickly, have you walk us through. One is the IoT accelerator, basically the Ericsson’s IoT platform, that manages connected products, and then the dedicated networks, private cellular networks, providing that dedicated connectivity for different sites. I know you kind of talked about the very briefly, at the beginning, but I’d love it if, you could just kind of elaborate just a little bit more, on both of them before we finish up.

– [Warren] Yes, that’s right. So, so the first offering that we have is IoT accelerator. This is our flagship IoT product, right? That allows enterprises, to manage their connected products anywhere in the world. So giving control, total visibly of those devices, so that they can understand the status, the performance of the products, and importantly how their products are being used. By their consumers, by their customers. And, you know, they’ve gone through quite a few examples of, connective coffee machines, the pump, you know, trace and track it logistics, et cetera. And they’re all managed by our IoT platform, and the second one private networks or dedicated networks. These are private cellular networks for connecting sites, or their venues. So network capacity is not shared with anyone else, meaning super high reliability, scalability, and security, all for your own use. And, and again, we are seeing the rise of private networks, in ports and mines and manufacturing sites, as they connect more self, self-driving vehicles, and robots on their sites.

– [Ryan] Gotcha, okay. That’s great. I appreciate you kind of sharing that with our audience, so they can get better understanding of how, you know, as they’re may be interested in exploring, working with Ericsson, and what major offerings you have out there are, among other things, obviously. And now last question I have is people that are listening. What’s the best way to find the report? Obviously we’ll link it up in all of our material, but just, you know, is there a clear, easy website for them to go find it? You know, how do you suggest they go about doing that?

– [Warren] Right just go to ericcson.com, and search connected enterprises report. You’ll find this latest report, and all the assets that we have on that site as well. So enjoy the report.

– [Ryan] Yeah, it was great. I really recommend everybody reading it. I’m not just saying that because you’re on here, but I do. I really do think it was great. I appreciate, I think the industry will appreciate the fact, that you guys took the time and energy to do this, and talk to a wide variety of companies, and individuals who have insights that will help companies, of all sizes, whether they’re in the IoT space, or looking to adopt IoT, and get into that digital transformation journey themselves. So Warren, I really appreciate your time. This has been fantastic. And thanks for being here.

– [Warren] You’re very welcome, Ryan.

– [Ryan] All right everyone, thanks again for joining us this week on, the IoT For All Podcast. I hope you enjoyed this episode. And if you did, please leave us a rating or review, and be sure to subscribe to our podcast, on whichever platform you’re listening to us on. Also, if you have a guest you’d like to see on the show, please drop us a note at ryan@iotforall.com, and we’ll do everything we can to get them, as a featured guest. Other than that, thanks again for listening. And we’ll see you next time.