How to Evaluate Consultant Service Partners for Enterprise IoT

[Kathleen Martin]

The time has come: You’re ready to deploy IoT technology. You know what you want to do, but you need help to execute your vision. You need help figuring out how to make your vision come to life. You’re not sure what roadblocks you may encounter. You want to make sure that your deployment is as successful as possible. You’re looking for an enterprise IoT consultant to be your service partner. This article covers how to find the right service partner to help you successfully deploy your IoT technology.
Do You Know What You Need?
Let’s start with the easy questions – the ones you ask yourself. Before you’re ready to work with a service partner, you need to understand your own project. (Yes, we realize that sounds a bit like a self-help book, but it’s true.)
Ask Yourself:

• Does the proposed project solve a business problem? (If the answer is “no,” you may want to step back and engage with a partner on a more strategic level, then later engage for implementation. )
• Does your organization have a strategic roadmap for deploying IoT?
• What’s the budget?
• What will success look like? What are the key performance indicators?
• Is the project industrial or commercial? Who is the end user?
• What’s the timeframe?
• Is there a hardware design in place?
• What’s your internal expertise around IoT? What will you require from a vendor?
• Do you have hardware design expertise, or will you need a full-service (hardware and software) engagement?
• Will you need some intelligent automation? Is machine learning part of the project? (Tip: Unless your system is simply shuffling data around, the answer to at least one of these questions is “yes.”)
• Do you have an interdisciplinary team that can focus on IoT? Even if you outsource the heavy lifting, you need to own the project.

Here’s one final question to ask yourself: Is leadership on board with IoT? It’s a little late in the game to be asking this question, but better to ask it now than after you’ve inked a contract. Before deploying IoT technology, it is vital that your board and C-suite give it their blessing – and see the value.
“Making sure stakeholders from all affected areas are involved in the buying decisions and implementation is critical to ensuring that the project is successful. It may work 100 percent correctly once deployed, but if the information isn’t useful to the people who paid for it or are expected to use it, then the project will likely fail,” James Falkner, technology evangelist and technical marketing manager at Red Hat, told TechTarget.
Of course, that takes us back to the first question about solving a business problem.
After you answer these questions, then it’s time to start looking for a partner. Many vendors call themselves IoT companies, IoT providers, IoT consultants, IoT experts, etc. To find the best IoT consultant service partner – the ideal one for you – you’ll need to ask a lot of questions.
Let’s start with the basics.
Start With Pre-Qualification Questions
Before you spend time deep diving with potential service partners for your enterprise IoT deployment, make sure they belong on your shortlist. You want a partner that knows how to implement IoT and has a history of success. 
Start with these questions:

• What’s your experience working with companies like ours?
• Who are your satisfied customers? (Be sure to assess if the use cases match what you have in mind.)
• What’s your timeframe for completing our project?
• Do you have a track record for staying on time and on budget? (You may want to confirm this with one of their customers.)
• Who owns the data generated by the connected products? (Tip: If the answer isn’t “you do,” walk out.)

Now Ask Some Deeper Questions
That should narrow your list. From there, you can begin to dig more deeply.
 
Continue reading: https://www.iotforall.com/how-to-evaluate-consultant-service-partners-for-enterprise-iot