System Dynamics and Strategic Relationships
As a systems thinker, it’s hard for me to think about business as anything but a systems problem. If we focus on strategic alliance as a component of a system, it’s clear that having strong partnerships is a key corporate asset and can play into a mutually beneficial advantage.
One of Blues Wireless’ longest-standing and most important relationships is with STMicroelectronics. STMicroelectronics creates and delivers the microchips at the core of our Notecard product. Chips from ST are embedded in a vast array of the most advanced IoT innovations today, and are an essential part of a diverse product lineup including electric cars and key fobs, industrial machines, data centers, washing machines, smartphones, and many other edge devices.
I’ll be attending the ST Technology Tour developer event in Burlington, MA on November 2nd, and would like to talk about your strategies for navigating the complexity of IoT development.
Connect with me on LinkedIn to start the conversation, and stop by the Blues Wireless booth at the event.
About the ST Technology Tour
The ST Technology Tour is a traveling event organized by STMicroelectronics for design engineers, purchasing decision makers, project managers, developers, technology package designers, and students. At this one-day event, experts lead technology presentations covering emerging markets, and attendees gain hands-on experience at workshops that cover cutting-edge technology and techniques.
Attendees will get access to:
- Hands-on training
- Technology demonstrations
- Presentations
Strategic Partnerships to Deliver Supply Chain Independence
In-person events aren’t the only thing to be impacted by the global pandemic. We’ve all felt the impact of the disruptions to the supply chain that resulted from labor supply shortages, fluctuating demand, and port congestion, among other things.
A hot topic in IoT continues to be the chip shortage, as it is still affecting the rate of market recovery.
“Despite a booming demand for IoT solutions and positive sentiment in the IoT community as well as in most IoT end markets, IoT Analytics expects the chip shortage’s impact on the number of connected IoT devices to last well beyond 2023.”
Source: https://www.iotforall.com/state-of-iot-2022
Supply chain independence is a largely under-advertised part of the value Blues provides to enterprise customers, solution integrators, and product design consultancies. Through our foundational relationships with supply partners such as STMicroelectronics, our customers have not been impacted by these shortages.
STMicroelectronics and Blues Wireless
Many of the key strategic components in our bill of materials are STMicroelectronics products. They fall under the STM32 family of microcontrollers (MCUs). We love these MCUs because they are known for being power-conscious, but also powerful. Suffice to say, we are big believers in STMicroelectronics and are thrilled to be partnering with them.
Notecard
The Blues Wireless Notecard is our flagship product that makes cellular IoT easy and affordable. It combines instant, prepaid cellular connectivity, low-power design, and secure “off-the-internet” communications in one 30 x 35mm System-on-Module.
It includes 500 MB of cellular connectivity and coverage in 137+ countries around the world, and it comes at a fraction of the cost and complexity relative to other equivalent products on the market. This means that you can truly scale up your IoT project without running into any budget constraints.
The Notecard uses a few key strategic components from ST which includes the STM32 MCU, a ST LIS2DTW12TR accelerometer, and an ST Safe Secure Element.
Swan
We have also implemented a ST component in our new Swan microcontroller, which is powered by an STM32L4+.
Sparrow
Our newest product, Sparrow, which helps customers build and deploy LoRa-based device clusters is also powered by an ST product.
Blues Wireless’ Focus on Developers
Blues is a company with a solution built by developers, for developers. We invest a lot in R&D and continuously share our products with the broader developer community in order to optimize the developer experience. You could file these relationships and our focus on the developer community as a key node in our system to help build our business.
But we don’t just take feedback from others who use our product, we “eat our own dog food”. A visit to the Blues Wireless Hackster Channel will reveal the varied and interesting projects that our own employees have built using the Notecard. This level of intellectual curiosity and enthusiasm for innovation is at the core of the company, and why we look forward to engaging with others who share this approach to IoT.
We recognize that IoT developers, and all manner of embedded, firmware, and cloud developers still matter. Within the enterprise, it’s still the developer who drives the ultimate success or failure of an IoT project.
What I’m Looking Forward to at the Conference
We will be sharing a booth with one of our partners, HAE Innovations. HAE Innovations specializes in IoT device engineering and testing. Stop by and see us to ask about some of the work we’re doing together.
There’s so much value gained from gathering at in-person events. I am really looking forward to meeting you and learning more about your successes as well as the problems you are facing when it comes to building your IoT solutions. When you see me, ask about the Blues Wireless Notecard; I’ll show you how this small-but-mighty SoM solves your connectivity challenges with a secure, integrated edge-to-cloud pipeline that works out of the box.
I am looking forward to connecting on Linkedin or scheduling some time to see how we can add value to your current and future IoT projects.
