The “new retail” demands interoperability of product companies
Technology has drastically changed the game—again.
Not that long ago, discrete manufacturing companies producing consumer products typically had to only worry about the mechanical and electrical components of their products. The basic process was fairly simple and straightforward: design, manufacture, ship—repeat. Add some customer experience and satisfaction work into the mix, and you were good to go.
All that has now profoundly changed as the smart phone and Internet combine to make simple devices “smart.” These smart devices, ranging from door locks to light bulbs, are the leading edge of how consumers will start to experience the much touted “Internet of Things” (IoT).
To compete in this new reality, product companies must now understand how their products are controlled by a cell phone, which means understanding application design, and network communications, and platform architectures, and the brave new worlds of big data, security, and privacy.
But it doesn’t end there.
Even after figuring out how to deal with the software and related components, products must connect seamlessly to home-based IoT ecosystems already in existence such as Lowe’s Iris system, AT&T Digital Life, and others that are emerging, seemingly every month.
All of a sudden, a company that was world class in physical product design, now sells its products bundled with software services. Sales and marketing teams will need to be retrained in how to sell the products, how to articulate their advantages, and how to reposition them in the marketplace of the IoT. Business development teams must forge new partnerships to ensure solutions easily connect to key IoT platforms.
Navigating this new world of retail will force companies to reshuffle their priorities and rethink strategies. Products will need to be conceived and developed as connect- and control-friendly, which may eventually require virtually “shaking hands” with known competitors.
Increasingly, products will need to connect to the growing infrastructure that the consumer has in the home. Consumers will demand interoperability, because it will make it easy to connect and control their product purchases—and, ultimately, their lives. These imperatives are driving very solid, “old school” manufacturing companies to reinvent themselves in the IoT world.
It’s either that or fade away.