What is a Connectivity Management Platform? 

The Internet of Things (IoT) and, largely, the landscape of digital solutions has been undergoing significant maturation over the last two decades. There hasn’t been a well-defined footprint or framework for solutions to follow throughout the solution’s lifecycle and that particularly holds true for a connectivity management platform. 

Numerous components of the technology stack have shifted and adapted to the rising demand of millions of connected devices amongst thousands of use cases. Let’s first address what exactly a connectivity management platform is. 

Defining a Connectivity Management Platform 

A Connectivity Management Platform (CMP) is a system designed to manage and optimize the connectivity of deployed devices. These platforms typically provide tools and services to manage the lifecycle of SIM cards, monitor network usage, and ensure secure and reliable communication between devices and networks. Here are some key features and functions of a CMP:

• SIM Management: This includes activating, deactivating, and provisioning SIM cards, as well as managing their inventory and status.
• Network Management: Monitoring and managing the connectivity of devices across different networks (for example, 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G, and LPWA). This includes switching between networks to ensure optimal performance and coverage.
• Usage Monitoring: Tracking data, SMS, and voice usage for each connected device, which helps control costs and ensure that devices operate within expected parameters.
• Analytics and Reporting: Providing insights and analytics on connectivity performance, data usage, and device behavior. This can help businesses make informed decisions and optimize their IoT operations.
• Integration and Automation: Integrating with other systems and platforms to automate processes such as billing, customer management, and troubleshooting.
• Global Connectivity: Supporting international connectivity and roaming, allowing devices to connect to networks in different countries seamlessly.

A connectivity management platform is used by a wide range of organizations in the industry. These include:

Network Operators: Mobile network operators (MNOs) and Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs)  use CMPs to manage the connectivity of mobile devices, SIM cards, and other network-connected devices. They offer CMP services to enterprise customers for managing large-scale IoT deployments.

IoT Service Providers: Companies that provide IoT solutions and services use CMPs to manage the connectivity of their devices, ensuring reliable and secure communication across networks.

Enterprises: Enterprises need control of deployed devices and insight into device behavior. These enterprises sit in key verticals including asset and supply chain management, logistics, healthcare, agriculture, smart cities, and more. 

The Evolution of Connectivity Management Platforms

Legacy platforms have largely been in use by MNOs and MVNOs, which are not entirely agile enough to support the complex requirements of IoT, as well as being cumbersome, difficult to integrate, and expensive. There can be a significant lack of features, including billing and support, which creates a need for additional integrations and management. 

The demand for a more nimble, feature-rich CMP has grown alongside the demands of IoT with its many requirements to support a wide range of connectivity technologies, devices, and applications. Additionally, the cost of connectivity continues to be driven down, leading MNOs, MVNOs, and otherwise to look outside of cost-intensive legacy CMPs. 

There are certain functions within a CMP that are table stakes – SIM management, a user interface, and an API. But the new CMP emerging to meet the needs of IoT and the major players in the industry contains much more and is much more well-suited for this new generation of IoT. 

The Next-Generation CMP

Raising the table stakes is imperative not only to the direct function demanded within IoT but also to create a unique value proposition for those in the market offering CMPs. Key functions and capabilities include:

• Core Network: Many organizations manage their own core network functions, providing greater control over connections, data flows, and billing. This enhances the transparency and real-time functionality of the CMP.
• eSIM Subscription Management: Discussing cellular-based IoT connectivity now inherently involves remote SIM provisioning. Advanced CMPs include access to SM-SR/DP and/or SM-DP+ for managing eSIMs.
• Global Connectivity Orchestration: Beyond providing eSIM/RSP infrastructure, CMPs can orchestrate multi-country connectivity solutions from operators on their platform. They offer frameworks to facilitate these connections without directly contracting with enterprises.
• Analytics: CMPs offer a variety of analytics functionalities, such as churn prediction, root-cause analysis, anomaly detection, and other operational insights, which serve as key differentiators.
• Integrated Billing: Integrating with an existing Business Support Services (BSS) can be far more complex than initially anticipated. A BSS encompasses a wide range of applications and services, including customer management, product catalog, rating, billing, invoicing, and more. Beyond the standard integration work, each of these elements requires detailed operational and functional workflow designs before the actual integration begins. Inadequate planning can lead to limitations in billing plan functionality, billing cycles, product catalog offerings, inter-system synchronization, and more. These tasks are time-consuming and add significant complexity to the integration process. This is where a new generation of CMP becomes invaluable—a unified platform where all components are pre-integrated and workflows are fully streamlined. This reduces the complexity, capital investment, and time-to-market for your projects.

A Holistic Approach to Connectivity Management

floLIVE has developed a SaaS-based approach to connectivity management that ties in simple integration, exposed APIs, and a holistic, feature-rich suite of services that streamline IoT and can meet the demands of MNOs, MVNOs, and enterprises through a single source. 

Want to learn more? Reach out to get the conversation going.