Legrand India, a world leader in electrical and digital building infrastructure, entered into the IoT domain with the launch of ELIOT programme. ELIOT aims to inject the power of communications, advances in connectivity and intelligence in the building environment and improves the value of connected products to enhance user experience.
Sameer Saxena, Director – Marketing, Legrand India, in an interview with EFY bureau, talks about the IoT market, government’s role in expanding IoT market, Legrand’s ELIOT programme, its unique proposition and many more.
Q. Many opine that IoT is just a buzzword that industry gurus have coined to create hype? Do you agree with that line of thought or you feel that IoT is opening an entirely new market?
In the initial days, IoT was just a buzzword. The skepticism was due to lack of real applications available in the market for end consumers. But in recent times, the buzzword and hype created have become true. The IoT business has already started transforming the way we consume and interact with products in a way to suit our needs better.
India is at the cusp of technological advancements and it is the right time for IoT to become mainstream. Customers have evolved, and millennials are already using app-based services.
Q. In your opinion, is the Government of India (GoI) playing any significant role in expanding the IoT market right now? If yes, how?
The IoT market in India is at a high point and is expected to grow and transform the global economy. IoT is closely related to Digital India programme, which aims at ‘transforming India into digitally empowered society and knowledge economy’. The success of these products depends on the easy and seamless availability of internet around us. The success of IoT products requires proximity to the people who are the users of IoT devices as well as to the power and data connectivity that will enable those IoT devices and services.
Digital India projects like Smart Cities are already going forward using the public-private partnership (PPP) model and will showcase IoT-based solutions for almost all aspects of personal and work lives of Indians.
Another key initiative taken by the Government is the formation of centres of excellence (CoEs) on IoT as a joint initiative with NASSCOM. As part of this joint initiative, the Government plans to nurture and grow the IoT ecosystem.
Q. What are your expectations from the government in terms of the initiatives they should take to make India an IoT-super power?
Having a data ecosystem, where all relevant partners can participate and communicate to develop an environment based on synergy and shared thoughts would be great.
Reduction in duties on imported components to encourage IoT hardware assembly in India would encourage local production.
Q. Which industry segments do you believe will be driving a larger chunk of demand? Why?
India is one of the countries where a lot of innovation is happening around IoT across different verticals and technologies. The IoT market in India is projected to grow at a CAGR of more than 28 per cent during 2015-2020. It is industrial applications of IoT, primarily in manufacturing, automotive, transportation and logistics that are expected to drive the IoT revenue by 2020.
In coming years, we expect to see the successful deployment of IoT in India in other key areas like healthcare, hospitality, automobile, etc.
We, at Legrand, are trying to build an environment where various devices can seamlessly be connected and combine it with analytics to improve the performance and interoperability of the devices.
Q. How do you see the IoT market evolving in the next 2-3 years? How Legrand will be contributing to the market growth?
IoT and interoperability are going to be big trends in the years to come. As per NASSCOM, the number of IoT devices in India is expected to increase significantly from 200 million units in 2016 to 2.7 billion units by 2020. NASSCOM also claims that the adoption of these devices will make India a leader in the space. The IoT market in the country is poised to reach US$ 15 billion by 2020, accounting for 5 per cent of the global industry.
Having devices which speak to each other and are compatible with products from various brands is going to be the next milestone in the switches and electrical infrastructure space. To that effect, Legrand India rolled out IoT programme ELIOT, for the Indian market. ELIOT which stands for Electricity + Internet of Things is a programme that aims to inject the power of communications, advances in connectivity and intelligence in the building environment and enhance the value of connected products to improve user experiences. Aimed at providing a new dimension for connecting living, ELIOT programme is based on interoperability and connected solutions which are device agnostic.
Q. How do you see your IoT-related business growing in the next 2-3 years?
By 2020, 40 out of 100 product family at Legrand will be fully digitised globally and by the same timeline, we expect 25 per cent of our global turnover to come from connected living products.
Q. What’s your strategy to create a differentiation for your solutions vis-a-vis your competitors?
Our strategy is to offer ELIOT programme to inject the power of communication into Legrand’s products and services, wherever the IoT can improve the user experience.
Legrand firmly believes that openness and interoperability are the keys to success.
ELIOT has a three-pronged approach, which differentiates us:
- The development of connected solutions;
- The creation of suitable infrastructure;
- The promotion of interoperability, enabling third parties to deliver services by means of Legrand’s solutions.
Q. What’s unique about your solution or your firm for them to opt for it–vis-a-vis competitors?
ELIOT solution is pretty simple to understand as the system architecture is very simple. The user is at the heart of the IoT. All uses and solutions must be able to talk to each other and interact when the user so wishes.
The Legrand ELIOT programme is based on three cornerstones:
- Connected solutions,
- Interoperability and
- Sustainable digital and electrical infrastructure for buildings.
Legrand offers the triple focus of digital trust in ELIOT programme i.e. advantage in using the brand relationship satisfaction, ensuring security where no one else can access your data and ensuring privacy where no one else except you can access your data.
