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Steve Hilton - MachNation |
Over the last several weeks Orange has announced two new enterprise Internet of Things (IoT) clients--PSA Peugeot Citroën in the automotive/transport sector, and SIA in retail/financial services.
MachNation continues to be impressed with the various pieces of technology expertise--connectivity, platforms, applications and services--that Orange brings to its IoT customer engagements. The offerings continue to show Orange's flexibility in bringing IoT solutions to market with strong reference accounts.
Orange shows flexibility and technology prowess when it is able to win deals like PSA Peugeot Citroën and SIA. Unlike some of its operator competitors, Orange is harnessing the technology capabilities of its broader organization to win these opportunities. This allows Orange to differentiate its IoT and machine to machine (M2M) offering from other operators in the market. MachNation has written about Orange's participation in the Global M2M Association in prior research.
The Orange IoT/M2M offering has historically focused on three IoT technology pillars: managed connectivity; applications enablement; and development/deployment of services.
First, Orange provides various types of managed connectivity through its operating companies and use of either its own platform or Ericsson's Device Connection Platform. Second, Orange's Intelligent Apps Enabler is a home-built development platform upon which enterprises can create IoT applications, analyze data and facilitate user-friendly data presentation. Third, Orange provides a range of deployment services including early-stage solution testing; device certification support; platform management; application development; application management; integration services; and services management.
One or more of these IoT technology tools forms the basis of most Orange IoT enterprise customer engagements.
Not all operators are successfully bundling various IT and communications technology with enterprise IoT clients, but Orange has found success in doing so. We believe that by bundling non-communications services into these IoT contracts, Orange is likely increasing total ARPU (i.e., the combination of communications ARPU and value-added services ARPU) between 100 per cent and 600 per cent.
PSA Peugeot Citroën--a fleet management solution
PSA Peugeot Citroën and Orange are offering a fleet management solution to their customers.These fleet solutions include some very interesting applications including a set of eco-driving applications that analyze driving styles, compare the driving data to the fleet population and then provide recommendations for cost avoidance and environmental improvements. The solution also includes more traditional fleet management features including data on fuel consumption, driving times, maintenance requirements, mechanical alerts and geo-location.
Figure 1: Orange and PSA Peugeot Citroen IoT value chain
Source: MachNation, 2014
The overall solution is a strong partnership combining technology, integration services, management services and support services. Orange sells the fleet management service called Fleet Performance and Peugeot Citroën sells the hardware--an autonomous telematics box connected to the vehicle's controller area network bus. The partnership model requires good coordination between Orange and Peugeot Citroën for successful sales.
Orange designed the features in the fleet management solution using the assets and experience from its acquisition of Data & Mobiles International in 2009. Orange also built and provides the applications portal using the Intelligent Apps Enabler to allow fleet managers to access data about their vehicles and drivers. Orange provides a series of quality-of-service guarantees associated with the solution as well as end-user technical/customer support.
SIA--a mobile point-of-sale solution
SIA is offering a mobile point-of-sale solution to its customers. This solution allows retail establishments to use a mobile point-of-sale terminal to easily and securely take customer transaction information and deliver it to SIA's technology network.
Orange's experience in the financial services sector--and its understanding of related regulatory, compliance and security requirements--makes it a strong partner for SIA. In addition, Orange offered SIA a global roaming service, thereby reducing the complexity for SIA in contracting for IoT/M2M connectivity and other technology services.
Figure 2: Orange and SIA IoT value chain
Source: MachNation, 2014
Orange is providing to SIA the managed connectivity and various technology pieces. Orange is using its Mobistar platform for the connectivity management and is providing an M2M portal so SIA can manage the SIMs, place new orders, make changes and determine if there are any aberrant devices.
In addition, Orange is providing APIs to facilitate application integration between its systems and the customer care solutions of SIA, thereby increasing the overall level of customer satisfaction in the point-of-sale solution.
Bottom line: we expect Orange to continue to offer value-added, differentiated IoT solutions to enterprises, and it will capture a growing share of lucrative enterprise IoT deals.
Steve Hilton is managing director of MachNation, the only dedicated insight services firm for the IoT and IoE industries. MachNation specializes in understanding and predicting the IoT and IoE industries including developments in hardware, platforms, communication services, applications and deployment services. Steve has over 20 years experience providing guidance in the technology and communications sector. For more information, visit: www.machnation.com