In its ten year history, Ayla Networks has been at the forefront of several IoT technical innovations that have been recognized with nearly 40 patents. These cover advances in edge computing, cloud services, and mobile application development. However our newest innovation, a program called ‘Fast Track’ might be one of the most important yet because it addresses the very real problem of IoT value and brings down the barriers to adoption.
Given the complexity of making IoT work – combining security, hardware components, cloud functionality, end-to-end security, and the services needed to integrate them – it's no surprise that simplicity & speed are among the most desired aspects for manufacturers looking to launch connected devices. However, this is difficult to achieve due to high upfront costs of development, unpredictable customization effort, and sub-optimal product & app ratings. Several vendors have unsuccessfully tried to ease the friction of connecting, onboarding, and deploying smart home devices and reduce that elusive time-to-market metric. Fast Track takes a different approach, leading with a purpose-built module pre-packaged with firmware and embedded agent, with a mobile app services bundle that cuts the onboarding time, reduces the cost of development significantly, and ensures a standardized, highly rated product experience.
The Program Elements and Growing Market Success
The major advantage of Ayla Fast Track is the mass customizable nature of the components that allow the easy creation of variations of the IoT module (which includes the firmware & agent) and mobile app suited for a variety of smart home devices. For example, the mobile app is a pre-built branded app that only requires minor configuration changes to become production-ready for a new device. This enables a true turnkey model that accelerates time to value for OEMs and de-risks IoT projects. Equally important, Fast Track offers a flexible path for customers to transition to a custom app in the future. Once customers have established a market fit with the initial turnkey app, they can (if they choose to) acquire the base source code from Ayla to develop their custom app, unlike other cookie-cutter vendor models.
Another point of differentiation is that Ayla has made significant investments over the years in expanding its partner ecosystem, specifically hardware module makers and ODMs. This relationship network offers broad optionality and real value to an OEM looking to bring new connected products to market rapidly – that makes Fast Track a compelling proposition.
In addition to the turnkey module and mobile app, the program also features a catalog of Fast Track-certified white-label devices such as air quality products, kitchen appliances, power and lighting products for manufacturers who prefer to go with Ayla-supported products and not build their own.
The market traction for Fast Track has been strong since its introduction in 2019. Case in point – a major North American retailer working with an overseas ODM to develop connected bulbs, plugs, switches implemented Ayla’s Fast Track firmware component for these device types to get to market 2X faster. Another manufacturer of residential air purifier devices is leveraging the Fast Track mobile app to save 50% in development costs. A third customer, an industrial company that makes power products aims to launch a complete home energy management kit using this program.
The IoT Business Model of the Future
The main outcome of this new go-to-market model is simplicity, speed-to-market, and proven ROI. While the program currently works with home and kitchen appliance devices, the list of supported products is growing rapidly. Fast Track is arguably one of the more important developments in the IoT market, a watershed moment that is providing the impetus to those manufacturers sitting on the sidelines to make that key decision to develop and launch connected products.
In Fast Track, Ayla IoT is bringing to bear its deep expertise in consumer IoT, drawing from numerous projects that have launched over 500 SKUs across 150 product categories in 180 countries. To learn more about the program or to schedule a consultation visit www.aylanetworks.com or email success@aylanetworks.com.
In its ten year history, Ayla Networks has been at the forefront of several IoT technical innovations that have been recognized with nearly 40 patents. However our newest innovation, a program called ‘Fast Track’ might be one of the most important yet!