Guest post by Deutsche Telekom. Save your seat at the 21st-annual CONNECTIONS Conference to hear insights from Jon Carter, UK Head of Business Development - Connected Home, Deutsche Telekom.

Deutsche Telekom’s new and improved white label smart home portfolio includes a platform, gateways, apps, compatible devices and services. Whether you are operating in the telco space, utility provision, hardware manufacturing or other related enterprise, creating unique and compelling propositions for more secure, comfortable and manageable homes has never been easier. With Deutsche Telekom’s White Label Smart Home portfolio, we help to extend your core business, generate new revenue streams and answer customer needs.

Our decades of experience in the underlying telecommunications infrastructure and extensive knowledge of the smart home market has led to the development of our modular portfolio, expressly designed to enable you to pick and choose different elements.

Core product offering:

These elements provide you with a modular and flexible portfolio to help deliver your smart home strategy. Our core product portfolio includes an extendable platform, gateways, apps, devices and services, and these are supported by our expert team, partner and developer networks and different pricing models.

Deutsche Telekom’s smart home platform is open, as we wholeheartedly believe that open platforms are more powerful than proprietary offers, and collaboration will lead to increased business opportunities, and ultimately success. Our QIVICON smart home platform natively supports key protocols including HomeMatic, Homematic IP, ZigBee Pro, Wi-Fi and DECT ULE, has maximum security—with an “Excellent security” rating from the independent AV-TEST GmbH—baked in, and enables initial development for low investment costs. Based on a wide range of use cases, our flexible and open smart home offer is ever expanding, while providing interoperability, security and scalability, all from one trusted supplier.

To put that into context, our portfolio offers more than 200 compatible devices from leading brands such as D-Link, Miele, Netatmo, Philips and Sonos, covering an enormous range of use cases including security and safety, energy and peace of mind. The ability to integrate different devices such as cameras, smart plugs, thermostats, lighting into the QIVICON smart home platform is a core asset.

Examples of smart home roll outs using Deutsche Telekom’s portfolio:

While we are very proud of the platform, the partner community and their combined capabilities, it is ultimately for our partners and their end customers to judge the offering. Many European businesses from telcos to utilities are experiencing considerable success with their smart home packages, offering a tailormade combination of the QIVICON Home Base, white label app, compatible devices and services to manage security, comfort and energy.

For example, European telecoms giant KPN rolled out Deutsche Telekom’s smart home platform and entered the market with ‘KPN SmartLife’, a service that offers users control over their security, energy and comfort. The company has partnered with third parties - notably security experts Trigion - to add additional, bespoke functionality to the platform.

Meanwhile, Slovak Telekom has launched a consumer offering with an initial focus on protection and monitoring, energy conservation and home convenience. It’s not just a market for telcos either - utility provider Vattenfall is seeing considerable market interest in different Smart Home packages bundling the QIVICON Home Base, app and hardware.

While in Germany, Deutsche Telekom customers are creating smart homes through the QIVICON Home Base, Magenta SmartHome App and compatible devices to manage security, comfort and energy. A popular package is Deutsche Telekom’s compact alarm system which bundles QIVICON compatible security devices, including a camera and smoke alarm.

Market and product diversity:

The flexibility of the Deutsche Telekom smart home portfolio helps to encourage this market diversity. With our offer you can choose between different Smart Home Gateway options to select the optimal approach for your business, either our “ready to use” QIVICON Home Base that enables fast and easy market entry or by integrating the smart home functionalities to an alternative gateway. Both options allow fast adaptation to market requirements and the easy addition of extensions with new features as well as support of flexible software lifecycle management.

Creating compelling connected apps has never been easier, as our White Label smart home app can be re-branded, so enabling fast and easy market entry, for example by integrating services from a 3rd party supplier As part of our offer, we can even supply an entry-level basic app which can be upgraded to a premium app when the business case is established. However, the opportunity to develop your own app in-house or via our partner pool of experienced developers remains open to you. As a member of the Eclipse Foundation, one of the largest independent developer communities, Deutsche Telekom´s platform QIVICON is open for developers wishing to realize their ideas, apps and devices, we have a solution for you.

Telco operators are particularly well-placed to benefit from the smart home market, and not just because their infrastructure already touches homes. The consumer relationship is an essential part of the mix, and telco’s vast experience in the marketing and billing of services puts them in a strong position to serve customers in their digital homes of the future.

Our white label portfolio for smart homes makes it easy for telcos to enter this market. If companies offer their customers applications including Internet, telephony, television and smart home from a single source, the smart home offers a strong opportunity to strengthen customer retention.

Additional elements to success:

Additional services provide the potential to increase ARPU and customer retention. Examples of services integration options to support your business, include energy modules or security from a 3rd party supplier.

To realize growth in the connected home market, partnerships, industry-wide collaboration and—most of all—a platform-based approach are crucial. With more than 40 partners to date, Deutsche Telekom is keen to partner with companies looking to offer innovative smart home solutions. If you would like to strengthen your smart home proposition and work with us—then please get in touch.

For more information, visit: www.smarthome.telekom.net/