Introducing Stacuity: an innovative local IoT business!

At Digital Isle of Man, we believe that one of the fastest growing enablers of digital transformation, is the burgeoning ecosystem called Internet of Things (IoT) and we want to accelerate its adoption for the social and economic benefit of the Island.  We’ve talked before about the different elements that make up an IoT solution and today we’ll take a look at an innovative new local technology business which has developed a platform that provides specialist IoT connectivity for IoT Solutions Providers and Systems Integrators.

Introducing... Stacuity and its co-founder and Digital Isle of Man Board Member: Mike Bromwich!

It’s really exciting to see a new Manx IoT business! Tell us more about your business proposition?

Thank you – it is really exciting to be a new Manx IoT business!  At Stacuity we’re building a revolutionary set of telecoms technologies which will enable IoT developers and end customers to have more precise and intelligent control of the mobile connectivity which underpins many IoT services.  We call this our Programmable Mobile Network.

How do you describe your Programmable Mobile Network solution to non-industry audiences?

‘Programmable’ is itself a technical term.  It is used to describe a situation where a service can be controlled by software developers, via coded instructions which they provide.  That describes ‘how’ our technology works.

However, when we talk to new people about Stacuity, we prefer to focus on ‘what’ benefits our approach delivers for IoT developers and end customers.  Through the Stacuity platform, these audiences can manage mobile connectivity for IoT with far greater flexibility and control than is available elsewhere.  This flexibility and control means that mobile connectivity for IoT can be perfectly configured to suit the particular needs of a business and/or a use case, by the IoT developer or end customer, without them needing to have any telecoms experience or skills.

Who are your ideal customers and how do you reach them?

In our planning work, we make a distinction between customers and users.  Our users are software developers who are building IoT applications which harness and rely on mobile connectivity to transmit the data they are capturing.

As the IoT market matures and solution requirements become more sophisticated, our belief is that more of these developers will become frustrated with the lack of control available via existing connectivity providers.  These developers/users may deal directly with Stacuity, via our website, in which case they will also be our end customer.

Alternatively, they may work within IoT Solution Providers,  IoT Connectivity Resellers/Aggregators or Systems Integrator businesses.  Where that is the case, our goal is to demonstrate to the developer/user how powerful the Stacuity platform is, so that they can then persuade their employer to buy from us.

This developer marketing model has been extremely effective, in relation to voice and SMS services, for businesses like Twilio.

In parallel, we are also partnering with mobile operators and other connectivity providers, who have ambitions to grow their businesses in the IoT market.

By working with Stacuity, these types of connectivity providers can innovate more easily and effectively for their customers, unlocking new growth opportunities.

Can you give examples of how your solution is used and what problems it solves?

As we mentioned before, we are focused on the control of mobile connectivity for IoT.  That means, in practical terms, we are focused on IoT solutions which incorporate a mobile SIM card (or increasingly the eSIM version).  This ‘cellular IoT’ market is already huge and is expected to double between 2022 and 2026, growing to a value of $61bn globally (Source: Juniper research, February 2022).

Mobile connectivity has a vital role in such IoT solutions – ensuring that the data collected by the IoT hardware (e.g. air quality sensor, retail payment terminal, heart rate monitor) is sent securely to the back-end application for storage and processing (this may be in the cloud or customer’s premises).

The Stacuity platform is designed to enable the developer/users and the end customers to control this connectivity with great flexibility and precision, without them requiring any specialist telecoms skills.

By democratising control in this way, developers/users and end customers can improve security, privacy, resilience and value for money.

To give a real-life example, a company providing retail card payment terminals (which contain SIMs) wants to create a private, secured network for their devices, to protect their transaction data.  Typically, this company would need to ask their connectivity provider to set-up this private network, involving a lead-time of many weeks and a set-up cost of thousands of pounds.  With Stacuity, the customer could set it up themselves in real-time and at no additional cost.  Also, should they ever need to change network configuration later, they can similarly manage this themselves, saving more time and money.

The use cases for IoT are extremely varied.  That is one of the reasons why IoT is so interesting.  So, the particular applications of Stacuity capabilities will vary.  However, the core benefits always remain the same – unprecedented flexibility and control.

How many people are employed on the Island and what are your plans for the future?

Stacuity Limited is registered on the island and five out of the six founders/strategic advisors live here.  So, the business has a strong Isle of Man centre of gravity.  We are currently expanding our team, with a focus on technology skills.  We plan to bring a further 5-10 people on board over the coming year, including graduates and others early in their careers.  To coin a phrase, which will make sense if you are old enough, ‘the future is bright…’!

And finally Stacuity is a very interesting name…how was it chosen?

We chose Stacuity as our brand name because it is distinctive and combines two concepts which are central to our proposition:

Stacks – is the telecoms industry term for the modular components of technology which are used by mobile operators worldwide to power their services.

Acuity – means precision; sharpness or keenness of thought.

Our business brings these two ideas together!

We look forward to hearing more about Stacuity and we will be sharing more information about our own IoT initiatives soon.  If you have IoT news to share, or would like to learn more, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.