IoT ODMs (original design manufacturers) can bring considerable expertise to a project’s development phase, helping streamline design and speed time-to-market

A significant challenge for IoT developers and designers is not only to create devices that have the capabilities to deliver on a service idea or use case but also to do so within the constraints of cost, power consumptions and device dimensions. For many, this involves engaging in new areas for the first time and it can be counter-productive to either hire people with the necessary skills or build-up your skills internally. For others, there’s simply no appetite to divert resources from the company’s core business with many preferring to keep engineers focused on product performance and future innovations rather than on IoT-specific capabilities.

With specialist IoT engineers in short supply and time-to-market pressure a routine challenge, it’s often wiser to source this expertise from third parties who can apportion their experts across multiple projects. IoT organizations often only need IoT-specific skills during the development phase of their solution so building an IoT team for one or two products makes no sense. What’s needed is a means to access those skills when they are required but not to have them in-house waiting for the next project.

IoT ODMs can shorten development cycles, reduce costs and ensure device certification

Those skills are critical during the project so organizations are increasingly turning to ODMs (original design manufacturers) who can bring their IoT expertise to the development phase and help streamline design and development. These ODMs are able to draw on their long experience and in-depth knowledge to enable the most effective solutions to problems to be adopted, meaning customers don’t have to expend time, effort and money re-inventing the wheel.

The ODM advantage doesn’t stop there because an ODM can often help a customer by enabling high volume manufacturing with integration of a wide range of components. This can smooth the path to market, ensure certification is readily achieved and result in significant cost savings and accelerated time-to-market. In addition, an ODM will have the experience of designing devices for harsh operating environments, with demanding performance criteria at the same time as driving efficiency from idea to commercial launch.

The scale and scope of the benefits of adopting an ODM to help with your product development was explored in detail in a recent Quectel Masterclass presented by its partner, Ikotek. As an ODM, Ikotek has worked with companies across the world to take their IoT concepts to reality, building IoT products for any application either from customer specifications or from scratch.

The Masterclass, titled ‘ODM partners are crucial to unique IoT business challenges’ reveals how Ikotek can help and the flexibility with which it works to achieve mutual success. The speakers, Steve Burrington, the vice president of Engineering for North America at Ikotek, and Vladimir Rakic, the director of R&D for Europe at Ikotek, share their view of the role and capabilities of an ODM, they also detail the different challenges that face different verticals within IoT and reveal how these can be overcome by ODM-delivered services. Finally, the speakers showcase Ikotek’s solutions portfolio and share the company’s best practices.