By the year 2025, studies have suggested that IoT has the potential to generate up to $11 trillion dollars in economic value. If you’re planning to jump into the industry and develop the next great smart devices, you have two options to choose from: build it from the ground up and start from scratch, or partner with a proven IoT solution provider. 

 

While the idea of making something your own is enticing, the downfalls that can come with it may be too great to risk your business. This includes a lack of in-house expertise in various areas, timelines and budgets blown as a result, and solutions that ultimately fail to differentiate from the competition and don’t meet consumer needs and demand. 

 

The Pros of Developing Your IoT Application

We’ll get to the trouble with IoT app development from scratch in just a bit, but there may be cases where building IoT solutions yourself is the right model. The bottom line is that building yourself offers ultimate control. You are in control of who is designing the products, what platform devices will run on, the features that will be built in, and more.  

Taking a DIY approach also means more flexibility when it comes to customizing solutions to your specific business needs. Of course, while there is no one-size-fits-all solution for developing consumer IoT devices, there are some common challenges you may run into along the way. 

 

The Trouble with Starting from Scratch in IoT App Development

 The “do it yourself” (DIY) model may seem cost-effective at first, but considering it may take longer to get to market, costs can add up fast. Without the right in-house expertise, it will take your teams longer to develop solutions, and the longer it takes to get devices into consumer hands and homes is time and potential profit missed out on.  

 

When building in-house, scalability and functionality can become issues as well. As the number of connected devices you develop grows, managing and integrating multiple devices into a seamless consumer experience becomes increasingly difficult. Not only that, but consumers are craving simplified, connected experiences that utilize as few apps as possible for a single easy-to-use solution.  

By taking the DIY approach, it may be difficult to develop a single consumer-facing app to control various devices, like a doorbell camera, home lighting, and temperature control all in one. That’s exactly the challenge device manufacturer Merkury Innovations faced when preparing for a major retail launch. Rather than develop their own IoT platform from scratch, and with deadlines quickly approaching, Merkury partnered with Pepper to power their latest smart home devices. Not only did Pepper’s white-labeled solution keep Merkury’s retail launch on track, but it continues to provide the scale and support needed for their growing business. 

 

Ongoing maintenance and support must be considered during the build process as well. While it may not be a top priority in the development phase, it’s important to consider how your solution will be managed and maintained for the long run including security, customer support, the addition of value-add services like video storage subscriptions, and more. This means all maintenance costs and updates that need to be made further down the line (and rather frequently) you’ll have to do yourself. That’s an additional time and budget constraint on your teams – taking away critical time they should be spending focused on innovation and differentiation to put your products over the top. 

 

Partnering with an Experienced IoT Solution Provider Leads to Speed, Quality, and Reliability 

Rather than building it yourself, IoT solution providers exist to offer a helping hand, augmenting the capabilities of your in-house team. Together, you can tap into the resources of an IoT solution provider and have a true partner throughout all phases from design, to the app, cloud, firmware, and beyond. Not to mention with a white-labeled solution that’s already proven you can save crucial time getting to market faster to beat the competition.  

 

It’s important to note that once you choose a partner, you’ll be working with their technology, and it may be difficult to change platforms. That’s why it’s important to find a trustworthy partner who can scale with you from the get-go. 

 

With Pepper’s Platform as a Service (PaaS), you can bypass the challenges that come with IoT app development and work directly with a trusted, secure IoT platform to power your solutions. Including the benefits described above, Pepper works alongside your team to achieve an IoT solution that is: 

 

• Turnkey and can get to market faster 
• Scalable, working with any device and any protocol 
• U.S.-based ensuring secure and protected customer data 
• Profitable through revenue generating services like video storage subscriptions and consumer cyber insurance offerings 

 

Most importantly, when you partner with Pepper, you’re tapping into our team of IoT experts including knowledge of the best practices and industry trends.  

 

With high development costs, extended time to market, limited scalability, and security concerns, the build-it-yourself model is not sustainable for successful IoT solutions. Learn how partnering with Pepper can help you create a true connected consumer experience without the hassel of figuring it out on your own.