How manufacturers can win big if they focus on Internet of Things
Internet of Things, or IoT, has become a modern tech buzzword. From toasters and toilets to Teslas, everyone is talking about connected technology. We are constantly dazzled by IoT feature-sets (“A fridge that talks to your cooker! An Amazon button to order detergent!”), but where is the real value in these? Just check out The Internet of Useless Things, or The Atlantic’s great piece on The Internet of Things you Don’t Really Need for more examples of application of IoT over functionality.
At coModule, we have always tried to think focus on the value application of IoT. We believe that connected vehicles will be market-changers in the coming years. How? By revolutionizing the way that manufacturers and consumers engage with each other.
A primitive, linear system
Let’s take a look at the value chain between vehicle manufacturers and customers right now (we’ll focus on LEVs (Light Electric Vehicles) as that’s our area of expertise).
Today the LEV chain is very simple: It’s a one-way street from the component manufacturers to the end user. None of the parties have a real understanding of what happens in the next steps. The vehicle manufacturers have very little contact with the end consumer. They don’t know what they want, or how they use and enjoy their product.
The dealers have great power, because they own the contact with the consumer. But the dealers are only interested in sales, no matter the brand. This puts the manufacturers in a weak position and disconnected to the customer.
How IoT turns a one-way street into a highway
The majority of manufacturers, dealers and even customers have a feature-focused idea of IoT in vehicles right now: Bluetooth® connectivity to mobile app to change motor characteristics or route tracking for performance analysis. What is often overlooked is how IoT will completely revolutionise the way business is done.
What we’re doing at coModule is turning this one-way street into a multi-directional highway, allowing the manufacturers to gather data from the user as well as from the dealers. By installing coModule tech at the manufacturing stage, we provide manufacturers the understanding of their clients.
Because our tech can monitor user data, including common journeys, battery performance, etc it helps the manufacturers to build products aimed directly at their clients. At the same time it gives the dealers the possibility to substantially grow their offering by having automatically service notifications for users (such as battery range).
For the first time ever, manufacturers have a communications ecosystem that allows then to send direct messages to clients and to gather feedback. They can build customer loyalty and find out about common customer anxieties and joys without expensive user testing. Instead of being at the end of the road, the customer is smack-bang in the centre of the value chain.
Half a million electric bikes are sold annually, and that number is growing 20 per cent per year. There will be approximately 400million LEVs on the streets by 2016. By 2025 is is predicted to become the biggest vehicular industry.
We’re just at the beginning of the time of connected vehicles, and we know that change won’t happen overnight. But we’re excited to be part of its future, to help bicycle companies and LEV manufacturers to redefine the value chain, to build more sophisticated, complex products that customers really want. Sure beats a talking toaster.
