Pelion Brochure Jan 2021 by Business Chief Europe

PELION

DIGITAL REPORT 2021

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION IN A MATERIAL WORLD: In Conversation with Niall Strachan

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NIALL STRACHAN, HEAD OF PRODUCT STRATEGY AT PELION, TAKES THE SUPPLY CHAIN DIGITAL HOT SEAT TO DISCUSS DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION AND SUPPLY CHAIN RESILIENCE.

n a world that seems to grow increasingly volatile with every passing day, companies are becoming dependent on technological

means to maintain their pre-COVID-19 dominance in the marketplace and meet the ever-evolving demand of hungry consumers. Many companies faltered and subsequently fell during the ongoing periods of lock04

down, while others have successfully managed to thrive amongst the turmoil, gracefully traversing the rock path that Mother Nature created in the very beginning of 2020. As it happens, I had the opportunity to sit down and chat with Niall Strachan, Head of Product Strategy at Pelion - a man, and a company that has clearly, with his team, created a strategy that provided resilience in the face of this year’s adversity. To begin with, we discussed exactly what Pelion is and what they bring to the table; “So Pelion is a connected device platform. It’s our recent spin-out of Arm that brings our connectivity and device management capabilities directly to the IoT market, which was previously run under the umbrella of Arm Holdings.” Essentially, the team who ran Pelion are flying the nest, Niall shared. “We’re now standing alone as our own brand, with our

“That’s where our superiority really is; it’s in our ability, as one vendor, to provide customers with a full suite of services. Not many companies can say that” — Niall Strachan, Head of Product Strategy, Pelion

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“ If a company features a truly multi-region or even multinational deployment, they want to understand all of this data that they collect. They want to know what the code is truly saying to them. At Pelion Connectivity Management, we are able to provide that understanding”

— Niall Strachan, Head of Product Strategy, Pelion

own product story, outside the umbrella of Arm, where it is clear that the market is ready for the launch of our capabilities as a standalone entity. Within Arm previously, we had a lot of benefits of being within part of such a large organisation, but that also came at the cost of agility and having the market understand our true capabilities.” “So coming out and standing alone, we provide a connected device platform that also has specific discreet products. These products range from connectivityenablement for deploying IoT devices to generate insights for enterprise products; connecting into networks, and providing connectivity from cellular operators. We also have a device management layer, which is all about helping people manufacture their own devices whilst simultaneously understanding and managing the firmware, security, and software that’s running on them,” Niall added. We delved into where Pelion’s offering to the market is prevalent, and where their current customers implement the available software. “It’s an excellent product that can run on ultra-constrained low power devices, even something as small as the RFID

Pelion Launch Video CLICK TO WATCH

0:27

07 systems on pallets; or it can be imple-

“If they can manage that, then their

mented in a very feature-rich system

data will become valuable and also

such as an edge gateway, process-

more secure.” That’s a hard ask, of

ing myriads of data in private networks.”

course, and that’s where Pelion’s true

Looking for some elaboration on Pelion’s

value shines. “Our value is in simpli-

edge capabilities, given that it’s a hot

fying the layer between the physical

topic currently, Niall told us that “edge

hardware and the application that

capability is something that we’re focus-

companies are trying to integrate

ing heavily on. The larger story is that our

and leverage. We provide the tools

customers have private networks, fac-

in the middle to help people deploy,

tories, delivery depots and other such

connect, and manage the devices in

assets that have edge networks within

their life cycle. Then they can really

them, and they desperately need their

focus on the data and they, in theory,

data to be processed effectively and effi-

won’t have to worry about the security

ciently locally at the edge.”

or costs of their assets and devices, www.pe l i on . com

PELION

because we’re already looking after

focused on data and data analytics.

it all for them.”

They want to harvest the data from all

On the topic of supply chain opera-

of their organisation’s interconnected

tions and the digital transformation

devices to both improve efficiency and

journey of many leading companies,

to keep an eye on where their goods

Niall was willing to walk us through the

and services are at any given time so

wants and desires of leading compa-

that they can mitigate risk, avert any

nies, from his own experience dealing

potential issues, and ensure customer

with them. “Our customers and part-

satisfaction.” Now, when it comes to

ners who are moving into specific

data and data analytics, it’s a heady

verticals in the supply chain are usu-

subject, we all know that, and that’s

ally, as you might expect, heavily

where Pelion comes in. “If a company

08 E X E C U T I V E P R O FILE :

Niall Strachan Title: Head of Product Strategy Company: Pelion Pelion was originally founded as an incubation unit within Arm, the world’s leading designer of key technologies at the heart of computing. Now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Arm, Pelion is forging its own path in the IoT revolution, building upon a solid foundation of connectivity and device expertise and a 500-enterprise strong customer base.  With a unique combination of global IoT connectivity and device management from a single vendor, Pelion breaks down barriers to IoT adoption for anyone looking to transform their industry.

“ You’ll pivot your way along the road before you, to ensure that you’re following the star; occasionally you’ll meander, but as long as you’re roughly heading in the right direction, you’ll always reach it in the end, and that’s the best thing for the business” — Niall Strachan, Head of Product Strategy, Pelion

features a truly multi-region or even

is the concept of having a ‘flagship’.

multinational deployment, they want to

If you think about mobile devices for a

understand all of this data that they col-

moment, technology giants like Apple

lect. They want to know what the code

and Samsung battling in the arena with

is truly saying to them. At Pelion, we are

their industry-leading, cutting-edge

able to provide that understanding; this

smartphones released yearly, will likely

creates a level of transparency across

spring to mind. At Supply Chain Digital,

the data space and gives companies

we always like to ask which flagship

previously-unforeseen insight and vis-

product our interviewees’ company pro-

ibility into exactly what they should or

vides, and why it puts them ahead of their

should not be doing in their daily supply

competitors. When I put this question to

chain operations.”

Niall, he answered openly and honestly,

Something that has become increas-

by stating that every company would

ingly important in the global, slightly

say that “our product is the best for this

oversaturated, technology marketplace,

or that reason or has the killer feature” www.pe l i on . com

PELION

The Head of Product Strategy then went

a strong position in the market, so our

on to say that the real golden-nugget

capabilities, expertise and functionality

for Pelion is “the understanding of how

have essentially been inherited from the

devices are manufactured and the smart

legacy of that business.”

decisions we can help our customers

“Being a subsidiary of Arm gives us

make in this space which comes from our

a unique position that allows us to work

heritage, being part of Arm. Arm’s core

with almost any device that our cus-

background, within the Silicon IP space,

tomers want to be manufactured - ultra

helps people manufacture devices;

constrained, feature-rich, whatever it

they’ve been around for a long time, and

may be. But then because we have all

they’ve trailblazed all the way. They have

these capabilities that don’t touch the

Pelion helps Sensize deliver full supply chain visibility CLICK TO WATCH

2:05

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“ If our business is going to continue to be successful and our teams are engaged in what they’re doing, believe in what we’re doing, and enjoy getting the job done, this is exactly where I would like to be” — Niall Strachan, Head of Product Strategy, Pelion 12

physical hardware or the application stack, we can work with a real ecosystem of, pretty much, anybody. So, for example, at Pelion, we can work with different hardware manufacturers or different systems integrators or different application providers. This allows us to provide a service that acts as a one-stop-shop for all of the solutions that our customers need.” End-to-end, if you like a feature that wouldn’t necessarily be possible without the influence and power of Arm, because, as Niall says, “it really does take an ecosystem of people to manufacture the very best devices, and get services deployed. You can’t do it alone, and it’s very difficult for companies to get on top, without standing on the shoulders of giants.” “So that’s where our superiority really is; it’s in our ability, as one vendor, to provide customers with a full suite of services. Not many companies can say that.”

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