Essential Install | Smart Thinking
Smart Home Expansion Needs Fresh Verticals
Antti Vihavainen , board member of Finish tech start-up and smart home manufacturer Cozify , argues that the European smart home market needs to embrace new models and verticals to prevent the Internet giants of North America swallowing the market .
Antti Vihavainen has some interesting ideas of where the next phase in mass market automation might come from
Antti took time out from taking part in the 11th-annual CONNECTIONS Europe event , an executive conference which addresses innovation , business models and valueadded services for smart home and IoT industries , hosted by Parks Associates , to offer his thoughts on the future .
Cozify offers an entry level smart home package which whilst focused on the DIY market is available to pro installers looking for an entry level system , however Antti has some observations that should be of interest to the whole market .
Observing that the conference is going well , Antti underlined that attitudes have hardened of late with those not currently directly involved with the smart home market are now demanding more concrete answers to how it can be monetised .
Antti argues : “ Analysts have been pumping up expectations for some time now , predicting ever increasingly large numbers of connected devices being sold through to consumers in the coming years . As far as the wider business community is concerned , it ’ s now time to deliver some pay back on these promises and offer workable models that will deliver profit or clear business advantages .”
Antti is also clear that the future of the home automation market is best shaped by collaboration : “ As an industry we should not just be about what slice of the cake we are going to get , but we should also be focused on making the cake bigger . Some consolidation will come as the industry grows , but we are not there yet by some distance .”
The strategy Antti suggests is for existing smart home players to be proactive and help create the models of the future which widen the appeal of the smart home and start to pull in other partners who can benefit such as insurance companies , telcos and utility companies .
With companies like Google and Amazon likely to subsidise their entry into the smart home market in order to data farm customers , Antti says the time is right to maintain some control and create models advantageous to existing stakeholders including manufacturers and installers .
One of Antti ’ s ideas is for insurance companies to provide a ‘ smart home ’ package to their customers as a value-added service . This provides extra revenue for the insurance company , also the possibility of minimising risk through smart home security and utility control features . Although these are likely to be of fairly basic , the potential for upgrade paths within the same system or the addition of something a little more involved , is when it can get interesting for the installer and any manufacturer getting involved in supplying the goods and installation services necessary .
Antti argues : “ All the evidence shows that increasingly consumers do not mind having systems that monitor their
activity if there is a benefit for them in receiving tailored products and services , so again there is value here for client and provider alike .
“ As the market grows , verticals like insurance companies will need assistance in installation – the product itself as well as with support . Insurance companies could be of particular interest as they have none of this in place .
“ There could be opportunities for installation companies to build partnerships here and not just the package offered by the insurance company , but add in their own enhanced products and services like AV , once they have their foot in the door . There are similar opportunities with telcos , but they are more likely to be able to adapt existing products and services of their own to deliver some sort of smart home experience .”
With a growing market , Antti argues that the market needs to be proactive and approach new verticals to explain what is possible and provide the support and knowhow to make it happen . This is starting to happen in some countries already . With pressure on German providers to deliver energy savings , utilities are beginning to pay serious attention ; is this about to happen elsewhere as well ?
Potentially , this is where bodies such as CEDIA could help in approaching potential verticals .
No doubt that the smart home concept is about to get much larger – who stands to benefit directly has yet to be decided – existing stake-holders need to be on their toes to make sure they get their share .
48 | December 2016