a hands-on tool for your next iot procurement...you will find this iot procurement guide helpful and...
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IoT Procurement guideA hands-on tool for your next IoT procurement
Tele2 IoT AB
“Best of luck with your next IoT procurement!”
Helena Ankar, Senior BID Manager, Tele2 IoT
How asking the right question in IoT can be worth millions?
Many who have written a procurement for Internet-of-Things (IoT) projects have found it extremely difficult. IoT has a tendency to encompass many disciplines and departments in an organization, making it harder to do a procurement that lives up to everybody’s expectations.Throughout the years I have witnessed how a weak procurement can cause big problems down the road. Not asking the right questions can be extremely costly, so this is why I decided to share our learnings and put together a guide for all of you out there, ready to dive into IoT.
Two main recommendations - think big and start small
Having a clear IoT vision and strategy is vital to be successful, but when it comes to procurements, you also need to focus on concrete needs that you have in front of you today. It forces the incoming tenders to be very specific in their solutions, making them easier to compare. With the right type of follow-up questions you can make sure that the solution will be scalable and flexible enough for your future needs. Another recommendation is to avoid bundling the IoT procurement together with other needs, such as telecom services or IT consultants. A dedicated IoT procurement leads to better tenders with a clearer understanding of the ambition of your IoT solution.
There isn’t one-million-dollar question, there are hundreds of them!
After interviewing our experts, going through data from incoming procurements and successful IoT implementations, we ended up with a checklist covering 27 topics and over 100 questions.Yes, IoT solutions are often more complex than we think. But if you start in the right end, asking all the right questions in your procurement, you will be able to launch your first small IoTsolution faster than you think, and scale sooner than you think. My hope and intention is that you will find this IoT Procurement Guide helpful and can use it as a hands-on tool for your next bid!
About Procurement
1. Commercial
1.1 About the company1.2 IoT Strategy1.3 IoT Business Model1.4 Reference cases1.5 Partner strategy1.6 Evaluation of Solution and Quality of Services1.7 Security & Business Services
2. Connectivity
2.1 Connectivity2.2 Roaming2.3 Access/Security
3. Operational
3.1 Support3.2 Delivery of services3.3 Invoicing3.4 Operations
Table of contents
4. SIM Lifecycle Management
4.1 Provisioning and Activation 4.2 Inventory Management 4.3 Cost Management and Billing4.4 Rate Plan Management4.5 Delivery and Product Release Cycle4.6 Integration Capability4.7 Configurable Automation Engine
5. SIM Cards
5.1 Robustness5.2 Form factor5.3 Configuration5.4 eUICC / Insurance5.5 Branded SIM
6. Value Added Services
6.1 Security6.2 eUICC
1. Commercial
1.1 About the company§ What is your company structure, please give a good overview of your organization.§ Where are your staff located?§ In which countries do you have available networks?
1.2 IoT Strategy§ What are the fundamentals of your IoT strategy?§ How does your IoT strategy differ from other IoT providers?
1.3 IoT Business Model§ Can you offer us a customized IoT setup? Please Describe.§ Describe your different Billing and Pricing Models.§ Describe your IoT Business Model.§ Can you advice us in how to start our IoT Journey? Describe.§ Describe your implementation process of an IoT project.§ How long time will it take for you to onboard a new customer?§ Describe your Delivery process, including which expectations and responsibilities there are on
each part.§ How will you guarantee that we have the best available connectivity at every geographical
location?§ Do you provide a Sim Management platform?§ If Yes, which Sim Management platform do you provide?
1.4 Reference cases§ Please describe 3 reference cases with emphasis on solution and strategy, to show your
delivery capabilities.
1.5 Partner strategy§ Describe your process for implementing a complete IoT solution, including IoT Strategy,
System integration, Devices and Analytics & Reporting of collected data.
1. Commercial
1.6 Evaluation of Solution and Quality of Services§ Can you please describe how you will contribute to the fulfillment of our required quality
levels.§ It is important for us that we reach a high Rol for our IoT investments. How will you
contribute to this?§ How can you support us in reducing the TCO regarding our IoT solutions?§ Please describe your SLA offer.§ Do you offer 24/7/365 support?§ Do you offer a dedicated IoT Support?§ SIM Management Platform Availability.§ IP Data Transport Availability.§ SMS Transport Availability.§ Attach to Mobile Network Availability.
1.7 Security & Business Services§ Can you please describe available security solutions?§ Do you offer any Business Intelligence tools? Please describe your offer.§ Do you offer any eUICC solution? If yes, please describe.
2. Connectivity
2.1 Connectivity§ What cellular connectivity technologies are currently supported? § What cellular connectivity technologies do you recommend?§ Is there any other connectivity technologies supported?§ What bearer services are supported?§ Can you please provide us with your Network Communication Policy.
2.2 Roaming§ Do you offer a global roaming solution?§ What are the available options for a tailored roaming setup? Both commercial and technical.§ What type of services can be offered for SIMs that are located in network providers home-
country and struggle with coverage or ongoing outage?§ How can device choose network from it's own logic rather than be served and interfered by
pre-configured preferred network lists?
2.3 Access/Security§ How is communicated data made secure?§ What type of security levels can be added to a custom APN over internet?§ What type of service are available for securing communication with the device?§ What type of service are available for securing device from threats like DDOS and hacker
attempts?§ How can uptime for a VPN-setup be ensured?§ What uptime on Service Providers core network can be expected?§ Is there a possibility to integrate our application to any SMSC?§ How is mobile network stability ensured?
3. operational
3.1 Support§ What are the supports opening hours and what type of support can be expected?§ What languages can the support be provided in?§ How will I as a customer be informed and updated regarding ongoing outages and
maintenance?§ What options are there available regarding Single point of contact (SPOC)?§ What options are currently available for reports?
3.2 Delivery of services§ What are your delivery times for standard service requests?
3.3 Invoicing§ Is it possible for you to support custom invoicing requirements?
3.4 Operations§ Please provide your operations Manual.
4. Sim lifecycle management
4.1 Provisioning and Activation § Enable automatic SIM activation only when you power on the device for the first time.§ Support a non-billable state for the SIM while device is in distribution channel.§ Enable instant state changes to the SIM, such as moving from Activated to Deactivated.
4.2 Inventory Management § Easily searchable dashboard of all SIMs, organized by:
Ø ICCIDØ MSISDNØ Provisioning StateØ Data or SMS consumptionØ Custom Labels
4.3 Cost Management and Billing § Displays all invoice details online.§ Displays how invoice was generated, including by type of connectivity service and all
applicable charges.§ Allows for invoice searching by SIM, Rate Plan, and Sub-Customer or Customer-division.§ Invoice and billing details should be available at a summary level and broken out at an
individual SIM level.§ Invoice data must be exportable to a common format, such as Excel, via API, or over a
data warehouse feed.§ Automatically notifies selected users when a SIM or block of SIMs is about to exceed its
expected usage in a 24hour or 30-day period.§ Automatically notifies selected users when a SIM exceeds specified data consumption in
a specific roam zone.§ Supports multiple currencies.§ Automatically notify selected users when a pool of SIMs reaches a certain % of its data or
SMS allotment.
(Requirement checklist)
4. Sim lifecycle management
4.4 Rate Plan Management§ Supports selecting of rate plans via web interface.§ Supports post-paid & pre-paid pooled plans.§ Supports time-based pre-paid plans.§ Supports discount tiers by total account payment or subscribers.§ Supports different overage rates.§ Supports proration of service fees based on activation.
4.5 Delivery and Product Release Cycle§ Fully delivered as a hosted service.§ Must not have any single point of failure ensuring mobile network services aren’t interrupted.§ Requires zero additional hardware purchases in a standard deployment.§ Deployment of new features and updates must not interrupt service.
4.6 Integration Capability§ All data and control found within the Platform must be accessible by a web-based interface.§ Web-based UI should be customizable to allow users to choose the appropriate view relevant
to their operational needs.
4.7 Configurable Automation Engine§ Supports rules-based business process automation with intuitive, easy and non-programmatic
way to create automation rules beyond notification.§ Supports automated SIM provisioning: SIM Rate Plan, SIM State and SIM custom field changes.§ Supports automated preventative security diagnostics.§ Supports standard automated business rules.§ Supports ability to automatically notify the assigned business owner when the account is
nearing a prescribed usage threshold.§ Supports ability to automatically notify the assigned business owner of SIM activations.§ Supports the ability to take action against defined business rules and triggers, allowing you to
make temporary changes to the device behavior in response to business conditions.§ Supports the ability to send an email message to one or more email addresses or to the end
user associated with the device, based on a business rule.§ Supports the ability to push an API message. Platform should be able to send a programmatic
message to a URL you specify when a rule is triggered.
(Requirement checklist)
5. Sim cards
5.1 Robustness§ Are SIM cards for both normal and extreme environmental conditions offered?§ What is the maximal operational temperature range for your different SIM cards.§ What lifetime can be expected from you SIM cards (Normal use)?
5.2 Form factor§ What form factors can be offered?
5.3 Configuration§ Is there any preferred network configuration on your SIM cards? (PLMN List).§ What's the standard configuration when it comes to PIN-code, on/off?
5.4 eUICC / Insurance§ Do you provide eUICC card? If yes, could you please specify the platform in use?
5.5 Branded SIM§ SIMs with custom layout and configuration shall be offered.
6. Value added Services
6.1 Security§ What other services are available for adding security layers than the standard IP-SEC, GRE VPN
and physical access?§ Flexible and easy VPN management.§ Is there any Device/SIM/Application dependencies?§ Support for API integration.§ Support IP data aggregation.§ What well known standards is the VAS based upon?§ What standardized client software is available for the service?§ What is the encryption endpoints?§ What number of nodes and clients?§ What secure service is suggested for remote management and devices/nodes without need for
fixed public IP address.
6.2 eUICC§ Do you provide eUICC cards?§ Is there any Device/SIM/Application/Service Provider dependencies?§ What form formats are available?§ GSMA specifications support?§ What platform is used?§ What kind of professional services can be offered for subscription management
implementation?§ What type of test and migration support can be offered?§ Do you Support device certification?
“Need any more help with your BID? Contact me and let’s make IoT happen!”
Helena Ankar, Senior BID Manager, Tele2 IoT