Design and release IoT products at speed by working with an original design manufacturer (ODM)

With billions of devices now connected and tens of billions more poised to enter operation over the coming years, the race is on for IoT organizations to develop appealing new products and service propositions. For some, this will see established corporations digitize their businesses by IoT-enabling existing offerings while, for others, this will involve start-ups accelerating innovation by bringing new concepts to market first. Both types of organization face unprecedented time pressure and, as is typical when a new phase of technology emerges, constrained access to resources to implement development.

To successfully – and rapidly – introduce IoT products and devices, organizations need to devote time and money to building device design and development teams. For many, doing so is far from their core competence or would simply take too long, or cost too much for the business case they’re looking to exploit. For example, a rapidly digitising maker of beauty products wants to focus on their digitized business proposition, not on building an IoT design team that understands the intricacies of cellular or low power wide area networks. Similarly, a start-up with a transformative idea can’t delay its launch while it learns the performance characteristics of different antenna types or modules.

An IoT original design manufacturer (ODM) can play a key role

Fortunately, an alternative exists. Organizations of all types can offload these tasks to an original design manufacturer (ODM) or an electronics manufacturing service (EMS) provider. These types of service provider can address discrete process challenges or bring their in-depth knowledge of a geographic market or an industrial sector to bear on device development. However, these only address parts of the device development and design process, what really speeds up development is a global ODM that can handle multiple processes from design through manufacturing, testing, validation and launch. Essentially, the customer’s idea is turned into reality by the ODM, allowing them to focus on their core expertise.

Ikotek, a US-headquartered IoT ODM aims to streamline product introduction for IoT companies both large and small. The company is focused on delivering system level and full product designs to customers and on ensuring products are certified. Ikotek’s goal is to be a one-stop-shop for design, development and manufacture on a global basis for companies in the mid-market.

Ideal for organizations that want to focus solely on their core competence

This approach is particularly attractive for companies that only sporadically develop solutions. Many IoT companies develop a solution and plan to keep it in the market for four or five or even ten or twenty years. That cycle means it’s impractical to continuously keep a development team in place. Instead, they can outsource to an ODM provider who is already up to speed with the latest innovations, and which can support it across all the different disciplines of design, development, certification and manufacture.

To unlock all these advantages, it’s important to choose an ODM partner that can be trusted to develop an IoT device to the customers’ specification, while meeting time constraints and achieving economies of scale. This challenge was detailed in a recent Masterclass titled ‘Selecting the right ODM partner for IoT devices.’ In the Masterclass, Tim Newberg, the Vice President of Sales US & Canada at Ikotek, detailed key criteria for selecting an ODM partner for successful connected products.

To view our ODM Masterclass visit: https://quectel-development.oriel-agency.dev/masterclass-library/odm-partner-iot-devices