One of the topics discussed often among communications service providers is whether they want to be relegated to dumb pipes or they want to add services and increase the value of their offerings. The latter idea generally wins out and the concept also applies to satellite providers like ORBCOMM. I recently sat down to talk about the company with Sue Rutherford, VP of Marketing and we discussed how the organization has evolved by adding transportation management expertise through acquisitions.
The goal of the company is to become a solutions service provider, covering all parts of the IoT ecosystem. Their devices, satellite network and partnerships with seven tier one carriers around the globe allows them provide end-to-end solutions.
More specifically, they have devices for tracking, monitoring and controlling devices as well as a subscriber management platform which simplifies provisioning, connectivity, setting thresholds and alerts, and more through either a web-based interface or an API.
They also provide numerous cloud-base applications which help in tracking and managing assets. These include seven current solutions such as CargoWatch, Reefertrak (think refrigeration, not Colorado) and FleetEdge.
ORBCOMM’s IoT Toolkit components are available together or separately to enterprises, OEMs, solution providers and VARs to create M2M and IoT solutions with the assurance that all of the building blocks are interoperable and come with a single point of contact for support.
Think of it this way… The IoT pipe just got a whole lot smarter.