Tony Shakib, GM/Partner, Microsoft Azure IoT, leads the Microsoft Internet of Things (IoT) Business Acceleration team within the Azure engineering organization. He drives the Azure IoT partner ecosystem and strategic business engagements for the top 100 IoT enterprise accounts. Tony is accountable for IoT customer value realization, business development, rapid solution deployment, joint customer go-to-market programs, and accelerating time to large-scale commercial deployments.

In the first video of this new series “Azure partner insights,” we hear from Microsoft partners directly on where they see opportunities to digitally transform their customers’ businesses with Internet of Things (IoT) technology. The goal of this series of shorts is to share specific insights and learnings in areas where partners will find the most value.

Brendan Mislin, Managing Director at Industry X.O IoT, is a firm believer in the power of organic growth and nurturing existing relationships. For example, a manufacturer might bring in Accenture to connect equipment and machinery to reduce cycle time, increase throughput, or reduce costs. As the manufacturer accrues the benefits of IoT, the customer will likely look to Accenture to expand its IoT solution by connecting multiple factories to increase efficiencies.

Connected operations can also include implementing IoT in a supply chain to track the movement of assets to proactively manage inventory; it could include monitoring the health of products as they are being used by customers for insights to drive innovation.

Where do you see IoT opportunities?

Leveraging technology to provide better healthcare services is another area of opportunity in the IoT space. Kathleen Mitford, Chief Strategy Officer and EVP at PTC, explained that medical devices were the first market that PTC pursued. By connecting devices using IoT, their medical device manufacturer customers can monitor the real-time health and performance of their devices in the field. This enables the manufacturers to ensure that hospitals and clinicians deliver optimal care and provide the best possible service to patients. 

Kent Thexton, President & CEO at Sierra Wireless, sees IoT opportunities in automotive and smart meters. However, he also sees customer excitement is greatest around industrial IoT solutions. From air compressor and power tools suppliers to washing machine and battery manufacturers, enterprise customers leverage industrial IoT solutions to monitor and track their assets, transform their business models, and build lasting relationships with customers.