Outsourcing IoT project management will only grow in importance with large-scale deployments.
Outsourcing is asserting itself in the transformation of companies, particularly in terms of the digital workplace, according to ESN Econocom, the leading player in user outsourcing in France according to the ranking published by the PAC in September 2022. Behind this term lies the outsourcing of computer systems. If the practice is well known in the market and spreads to IT services with SaaS offerings, what is the situation in the Internet of Things?
Outsourcing projects are still few in number in the sector but they are starting to emerge. According to the Révélations IoT 360 study, which has studied about a hundred IoT projects implemented in France every year since 2020, while the majority of projects are still carried out internally (in 58% of respondents in 2022), those that guide their choice of a service provider are increasingly looking About a business specialist. “When we ask clients if they have built an IoT team in-house, we note that the number of positive responses has not changed in three years. To get projects moving forward, someone has to take care of them full-time, which opens the door to outsourcing,” he says. Analyzes Philip Grange, in the study origin.
The interest in outsourcing in the Internet of Things has already been confirmed by the expansion that companies are now reaching. Clément Gutierrez, CEO and co-founder of private Internet of Things network operator Hâpy Services. An opinion shared by Philip Grange: “In the Internet of Things, there are many new forms of services that the customer alone cannot support on a large scale, such as cyber security, technological upgrade during maintenance in operating conditions (MCO) and the end of life of connected objects. The success of the project depends on them. , which will make great progress in outsourcing.”
Hâpy Services was jointly created in 2022 by Clément Gutierres to specialize in sovereign network-related outsourcing services, which the company calls Managed Services. “Customers wanted to master the technology they deployed. Now they realize that it is a profession in itself, that they should hire it at MCO and are more confident in entrusting their project to us,” explains the founder, who is taking advantage of the lack of skills to grow. Since its inception, expertise in security has been developed as well as knowledge in hardware – for selecting gates – and connectivity. “We have customized our VPN to adapt it to the needs of the Internet of Things through secure access, while offering an open solution so as not to prevent the customer from resolving ownership,” specifies Clément Gutierres.
external skills
Barely a year after its inception, Hâpy Services already has many customers who want to connect their electric car charging stations or distributors other than Ethernet. “For them, our solution is plug-and-play and less expensive than having to operate a private network themselves. This gives them the advantage of not needing IT experts,” asserts Clément Guterres, who intends to highlight the advantages of outsourcing during the Wireless Day, organized On Tuesday 21 March in Lyon. “Many people don’t know that in the Internet of Things it is possible to opt for managed services,” he adds.
Another example is with Ista, which supports smart metering projects for building managers like Foncia. “The Internet of Things is a complex technology that requires knowledge of hardware, networking, software, security, etc. in an industrial world that needs to focus on its core business to be productive. There is a real desire to adopt outsourcing so that specialized companies provide decision support data,” asserts Xavier Dupont. , CEO of the Webdyn resource that works with Ista.
For Philip Grange, outsourcing players will have good prospects “if they go beyond the usual operational boundaries to take charge of IoT-specific issues, particularly those related to upstream and downstream environmental responsibility.” If outsourcing is not a recent concept, new paradigms still need to be found.
