There is no dearth of IoT platforms in the market. No matter the need, there is an IoT platform built to help organisations with it.
With the mounting variety of technologies, most enterprises often wrestle with a choice – which technologies to build and which technologies are better to buy.
Decoding the Build vs. Buy Platform for IoT App Development
The Build vs. Buy process is different from selecting a software service that enables integration and helps enterprises work more efficiently. If truth be told, there is more complexity involved.
IoT platforms provide various integrated offerings, ranging from software, hardware, security to device management. These platforms reduce the burden of enabling connectivity from scratch, thus letting enterprises focus on core priorities.
Having said that, we must concur that most enterprises prefer building an IoT platform rather than buying it. Reason? The need to hyper-personalise it for the company’s ongoing and upcoming market demands.
Secondly, investing in an IoT platform doesn’t mean there would never be building involved. The urgency to scale the IoT platform will sooner or later emerge – and leaders will have to think about what components should be altered or changed to align with the competition.
As a leading IoT app development company, one should lookout for a guide around a range of aspects companies must look into before choosing to build or buy.
- Assess Business Requirements
When it comes to IoT app development, jumping to conclusions doesn’t help. Instead, companies must understand the pain point first and how IoT can solve it to bring value to a business. IoT products can only benefit enterprises when they deliver continuously and at speed.
2. Define the Scope of Product
It is wise to define an IoT product’s functional and architectural features. Begin with asking a few pertinent questions – how should the product work? What are you aiming to achieve with it? What will it be manufactured? Decisions based on functional aspects will relate to sensors, location tracking, billing, and reporting, whereas those based on architectural aspects will relate to OTA, RESTful APIs, security, device management, cloud connectivity, and more.
3. Identify the Scope of Work
The next sane step is to define the minimum and ideal functional scope for each feature? Mark thresholds required to run optimally and tackle risks in the process. Ask what resources will be required to make a feature viable, what will be the infrastructural and maintenance costs, and whether anyone has ever built a feature as anticipated.
4. Do Market Research
Market research is a stepping stone to discovering what trends dominate the business sphere, what competitors are up to, and what choices will fetch optimum results in the long term. Ask what platforms are used by competitors, what challenges they faced and how they overcame them, what IoT features proved beneficial, and which product is climbing the charts lately. Finding answers to these questions can lead leaders to the right path of IoT product development and gain constantly.
Build a Prototype
Progressing without a prototype is much like walking a tightrope. A prototype helps enterprises assess the viability of their decisions made in the early ideation and planning stages. It gives a taste of what an IoT platform can offer – both in the short and long term. If a prototype isn’t delivering what’s expected, enterprises may need to go back to Step Two and reconsider its functional and architectural aspects. Alternatively, they may also revisit the team’s expertise.
