Imagine cutting your product development time in half while simultaneously reducing technical risk and accessing world-class expertise you don’t have in-house. This isn’t just wishful thinking—it’s the reality for companies that choose to work with Blues’ network of partners.
At Blues, we’ve built an extensive ecosystem of trusted partners experienced in successfully bringing connected products to market using our technology stack. These partners have already navigated the complex challenges of connected product development, allowing you to benefit from their hard-won experience rather than starting from scratch. While many companies initially consider the DIY approach, our partners’ specialized knowledge can be the difference between a successful product launch and costly setbacks.
The Hidden Complexity of Building Connected IoT Products
Creating a piece of hardware is hard; creating a wirelessly connected device is deceptively complex. What might initially seem like a straightforward engineering project can quickly become overwhelming as challenges emerge:
- Wireless connectivity hurdles: Selecting the right connectivity technology (cellular, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, LoRaWAN) for your specific application, handling complex certification processes, and ensuring reliable connections in unpredictable environments.
- Hardware-software integration: Bridging the gap between physical components and digital systems while optimizing for power consumption, size constraints, and environmental conditions.
- Data security vulnerabilities: Implementing robust encryption, secure boot processes, and over-the-air update capabilities to protect sensitive information and prevent unauthorized access.
- Scalability challenges: Designing both the device and backend infrastructure to handle growing data volumes and user bases without performance degradation.
- Certification and compliance: Navigating the maze of regional certifications (FCC, CE, IC), carrier approvals for cellular devices, and industry-specific compliance requirements.
Coming up against one of these challenges can quickly derail IoT projects’ budgets and timelines, or cause them to never reach the start line. The good news? You don’t have to face these obstacles alone.
Debunking Common Misconceptions About Working with Partners
Before diving into the benefits of working with a Blues partner, let’s address some common misconceptions that might be holding you back:
“We’ll lose control of our product vision.” Quality partners enhance your vision rather than replace it. They bring your ideas to life while respecting your ownership of the concept and final decisions.
“It costs more than doing it ourselves.” While there’s an upfront investment, the DIY approach often leads to costly trial-and-error, hiring specialists, delays, and rework that typically exceeds partner fees. Our partners help you avoid these hidden costs.
“I don’t need someone to build the whole product.” Partners aren’t here to take over; whether you need support from the first day of development to deliver your product at scale or a single step in the process, partners are here to meet your needs.
“Adding another party will slow us down.” Experienced partners actually accelerate development by eliminating learning curves and leveraging established processes, components, and frameworks.
“We need to build this expertise in-house for the long term.” Strategic partnerships allow you to focus on your core competencies while accessing specialized skills as needed, often a more efficient approach than developing every capability in-house.
“Partners won’t understand our specific industry challenges.” Many Blues partners specialize in particular industries and bring valuable cross-sector insights that can enhance your product’s market fit.
Now that we’ve cleared up these misconceptions, let’s explore how a Blues partner can transform your product development journey through accelerated time-to-market, reduced risk, and specialized expertise.
Accelerate Your Time to Market
The connected product space waits for no one. Research shows that time-to-market for IoT products has increased by 80% in just four years, making speed more critical than ever.
When you work with a Blues partner, you gain immediate access to proven architectures and development frameworks that eliminate the trial-and-error phase that often plagues in-house teams. This means:
- Getting your product in customers’ hands faster
- Beating competitors to market and establishing your position
- Collecting valuable user feedback earlier to refine your offering
- Maximizing your revenue potential with a quicker launch
- Lowering overall development costs through efficiency
Instead of spending months researching components and building infrastructure from scratch, you can leverage established solutions that our partners have already optimized for performance and reliability.
Accelerating time to market was a major benefit to the team at True Manufacturing when they discovered Blues. Dominik Gothe, Team Lead, Electrical and Embedded Systems at True Manufacturing said, “True sought out Blues because we knew what we wanted but our previous IoT pilots had failed. With the Blues solution, we were in pilot within 120 days.”
Minimize Risk at Every Stage
The statistics are sobering: 72% of IoT projects fail. Beyond that, IoT data breaches have exposed billions of records, and attacks on connected devices continue to rise year over year.
Blues partners help manage these risks through:
- Integration of proven components that have passed rigorous testing
- Implementation of security best practices from day one
- Experience navigating certification processes (which can be a major stumbling block)
- Scalable architectures that grow with your business
- Reduced prototype failure rates through experienced design approaches
By working with experts who have successfully navigated these challenges before, you avoid the common pitfalls that lead to budget overruns, security vulnerabilities, and certification delays.
Dan Wang, the owner of Pulsar Labs, a Blues partner, has leveraged his teams experience using Blues to enable multiple companies to get their products to market, he said, “Blues has a very attractive technology offering for our enterprise IoT clients. Their Notecard product is flexible and easy to integrate, extremely low power, and includes cellular data. Working with Blues, our team has designed and shipped many IoT products that weren’t possible before.”
Tap Into Specialized Expertise
Building a connected product requires a diverse set of skills that few companies have entirely in-house. According to recent research, the skills shortage is one of the biggest barriers to IoT adoption globally.
Consider the expertise needed: hardware design, embedded programming, cloud architecture, security protocols, wireless connectivity, power management, UX design, and more. Blues partners bring this comprehensive skill set to your project, offering:
- Immediate access to specialized knowledge without costly hiring processes
- Teams that work seamlessly together, having collaborated on previous projects
- Experience across the entire product development lifecycle
- Troubleshooting capabilities that prevent common mistakes
- Focus on your core business while experts handle the technical complexities
The founder at Evexia Telehealth, Francois Koutchouk, told us how leveraging Blues allowed his team to focus on their area of expertise, “Over many years we have tried many IoT solutions. Only Blues solved the needs of our target market, allowing us to focus our innovation and our resources on the work that actually brings value to our customers and the patients who need it most in the communities.”
Finding Your Ideal Blues Partner
Every product and company has unique needs, which is why we’ve cultivated a diverse network of partners with various specializations. The right partner for you depends on your:
- Product complexity and requirements
- Timeline and budget constraints
- Geographic location and target markets
- Industry-specific compliance needs
- In-house capabilities you’re looking to complement
Ready to explore how a Blues partner can help bring your connected product to market faster and with less risk? Visit our partner catalog to find the right partner for you, or reach out for help to find your perfect match.
Your product deserves the best chance at success. With a Blues partner, you gain the expertise, speed, and risk mitigation that turn great ideas into market-ready products.
Additional Resources
