CHANNEL PARTNERS CONFERENCE & EXPO — AT&T is deepening its IoT portfolio in two of its channel programs and encouraging partners to take up the opportunity.
AT&T has rolled out several channel-oriented tools and solutions for IoT this week at the Channel Partners Conference & Expo in Las Vegas. AT&T Partner Exchange launched a written guide for channel executives looking to develop their IoT strategy. Partner Exchange also launched a readiness assessment that allows partners to see where they’re beginning, and it released an IoT starter kit that lets partners develop prototype solutions. The AT&T Alliance Channel added an irrigation solution to its smart cities portfolio.
“When you work with AT&T in the IoT space, as well as any of the other spaces, we surround you with support so that solution providers can feel very confident when they go talk to their customers about what the solution is, how the solution is and work with their customers on developing the solution,” said Kevin Leonard, vice president of alternate channels at AT&T.
Leonard took to the main stage with Sue Galvanek, vice president of marketing, pricing and product solutions for AT&T Partner Exchange, and Lisa Park, assistant vice president at IoT Solutions at AT&T, and the three discussed the growth of the technology and partner opportunities.
The projected numbers for connected devices in the following years continues to be massive, and Park said 85 percent of global organizations are considering implementing an IoT strategy.
“The magnitude of increase, the magnitude of the speed, and the magnitude in the pace of technology is changing unlike things we’ve seen in the past,” Park said. “And that means there’s tremendous opportunity here with these massive deployments of connected devices.”
Galvanek said 75 percent of those organizations considering an IoT strategy want outside help, bringing partners a huge opportunity.
“Seventy-five percent in an incredibly quickly growing type of business — they want help, and the channel can [address] that opportunity like no one else. It does create some need for change and looking at things a little bit differently, but for those of you who capitalize on that the opportunity is tremendous,” she said.
And how do partners make the leap to this technology? Leonard says one of the first things is to simplify the language, as “The Internet of Things” can sound much more complicated than it actually is.
“It’s connecting things,” he said. “So let’s take the mystery off the table.”
Galvanek said solution providers that are used to wired solutions can find an entry point with wireless WAN.
“It starts to move them into getting comfortable and is a nice adjunct to what they’re already doing in the wireline space,” she said.
