Just because a company is a multinational organization with thousands of employees and billions of dollars in resources, it doesn't mean it will continue to develop innovative products and services in isolation. The corporate graveyard is littered with businesses that were once on top of their game to prove that very point. With the Internet of Things (IoT) projected to be worth trillions of dollars, the Nokia Open Innovation Challenge 2016 is in search of the next innovator in the segment, no matter where they come from.
The business opportunities of the IoT will span virtually every industry in our society, eventually bringing “E”verything together. According to Nokia (News - Alert), its vision of the IoT is to improve society as a whole where billions of people, things, sensors and devices are connected in a programmable world of automated connected experiences designed for everyone.
The Nokia Open Innovation Challenge 2016 wants to find the innovators who will create new products and services by taking the massive amounts of data that will be generated from all of these connected devices and turning them into unimagined possibilities.
The company said it is specifically looking for innovations in connected
- Automotive
- Public safety
- Security
- Industry 4.0
- Digital health
- Utilities
- Smart cities
Finalists will have a chance to be part of the Nokia Innovation Accelerator Program. They will work with experts from Nokia to create business models in collaboration with the company, along with access to its products, services and resources.
The top three teams will also share a €100,000 or around $110,000 incubation prize, access to Nokia’s global market with the opportunity to form partnerships, and investment opportunities from Nokia Growth Partners (NGP) and other VC firms. The field is open to any innovator, startup or academia from around the world, and they can enter the competition by submitting their proposals in Nokia's campaign until August 15, 2016.
Nokia has an extensive portfolio of IoT products and services designed with device agnostic and multitenant platforms with the flexibility, security and scalability operators and enterprises need to quickly develop and introduce new application and business models in the marketplace.
The Connectivity Management feature of the platform gives operators the necessary tools to effectively manage the millions of connection from sensors and devices in any given location. In conjunction with the Application Platforms, they will be able to create apps customized for quick IoT deployment services while saving costs.
The Device Management solution gives Nokia's customers the support they need with rapid, remote deployment of any device, sensor, meter, or module with all the standards of today's IoT device management.
All of these technologies and the resources behind them will be available to the innovators that participate in the Nokia Open Innovation Challenge 2016 and make the final cut.
Those interested can submit proposals here. Nokia notes that in order to be considered you proposals will need to include a working proof of concept (PoC).
Edited by
Peter Bernstein
