Mark III Systems Blog

Building an IoT Platform or Service? Don’t forget about deployment, support and maintenance!

 

When putting together all the pieces to build an IoT-centric platform or service, it's pretty straight-forward on how to account for the basics.  These basics might include some subset of sensors/instruments/embedded devices, IoT-centric networking, your IoT app/platform (whether it be in the cloud or on-premise), and any special team or processes needed to operate and iterate on it.  Whether it be with prototyping and procuring sensors/devices/networking or building a cloud-native IoT platform in the public cloud or in the datacenter to manage your sensors or engage with your targeted end-user, Mark III has the capabilities to assist.

With all that said, it's easy in the process of building your project or platform to neglect the need to plan for the logistical deployment of sensors/devices and/or the ongoing support in the event your sensors/devices fail or need maintenance.  As a very long time IBM Premier Partner (and IBM Platinum Partner, as of this month), we were excited last year to hear that IBM's Technical Support Services (TSS) organization would be providing deployment/technical support/maintenance services for IoT sensors/devices/instruments in the field to complement some of Mark III's strengths in helping our clients and partners execute on their IoT initiatives.

We've been fortunate to partner with IBM's Technical Support Services (TSS) organization to provide technical support/maintenance services on IBM and non-IBM systems and equipment, so the extension into IoT seemed natural and perfect in our eyes, and enables us to offer a single technical support services provider across the entire "new" IoT stack, spanning from sensors, to the edge, and into the datacenter (if on-premise).  Our partnership with TSS enables our partners and clients to be able to leverage the global breadth of IBM's support organization, which is critical in IoT scenarios, since the actual locations are likely more fragmented than current support scenarios with traditional enterprise technology.

Here are some of the offering descriptions that come with IoT services from TSS via Mark III:

  • Deployment:  Forward logistics of the sensor/instrumented/embedded devices and network devices, which includes staging/kitting, warehousing and transportation
  • Site Survey and Installation:  Onsite field services for sensors/instrumented/embedded devices and network devices
  • Steady State:  (1) Remote technical support for the integration solution including call receipt, ticket creation, entitlement, L1/L2, resource and parts dispatching, monitoring, and live chat, (2) Onsite field services for sensor/instrumented/embedded devices and network devices including swaps or repair and preventative maintenance, (3) Logistics including inventory management, planning, warehousing, transportation, depot repair, and testing for devices

 

For more information or start a conversation, please reach out to us at Mark III and we'd be happy to give you our thoughts about this or anything IoT-related.