I’ve been responsible for Deutsche Telekom’s IoT division since April 1. I celebrated my first day straight away at the Hannover Messe and was able to get to know the amazing team there. Read my impressions of the trade fair, our presence and the team on the ground.

What a lightning start to my first week on the job: right in the center of things on the floor of the world's largest industrial trade fair in Hannover. I was able to see our amazing, highly motivated team in action. People with experience, ambition, expertise – and passion. And I was able to get to know our great technologies and comprehensive solutions that have so much potential to help our customers. Something very important for me: on my first working day, I could get to know our customers and have intensive conversations with them.

But back to the Hannover Messe, which was hugely impressive. From global corporations to medium-sized companies, all the most renowned names in the industry were represented here. And it was clear what drives all these companies: the digital transformation of industry. Above all, the Internet of Things is both a driver and a trailblazer for the various industries. It networks machines, devices and vehicles with each other and with the cloud and opens up countless possibilities for optimizing production and logistics processes and saving time and costs. It was exactly these opportunities that we showed at the 400 m2 Telekom stand – with visually-striking exhibits that were aimed at using tangible examples to show companies the potential of IoT.

PAVING THE WAY TO THE IOT

It was immediately clear to me: Telekom was certainly in the right place here in Hannover in the midst of all these industry giants, because we are paving the way for companies to the IoT. As an end-to-end provider, we have the right network infrastructure for every scenario, with fiber optics, LTE, our machine and sensor network NB-IoT and, in the future, LTE-M and 5G. In addition, we are now also offering our customers our innovative campus network, which we demonstrated at our stand with the OSRAM customer showcase.

DIGITAL SUPPLY CHAIN

We advise our clients on how they can benefit from digital transformation to emerge as winners. We manage the IoT devices and networks, provide security, and always have the right solutions to help companies add value to their production. For example, Digital Label and Goods Tracking is one of our most important products for the logistics industry. The e-label replaces the sticker on transport boxes; the e-paper replaces the shipping document. Both devices are equipped with radio modules and sensors, which register location, vibrations and temperature. This offers our customers a decisive advantage: The completely paperless logistics saves costs and time and every participant in the supply chain has an up-to-date overview of the position and condition of the goods at all times. For me, this solution is a particular highlight because it demonstrates the added value that the Internet of Things can generate from collected and evaluated data.  

DATA IS THE NEW GOLD

Our new data platform, the Data Intelligence Hub, demonstrates the enormous value creation that can still be drawn from data. This unique virtual data marketplace gives companies access to valuable information that can be used, for example, to more accurately predict the arrival time of a container ship or, as the city of Bonn is currently doing, to offer its citizens new services. It offers huge opportunities to a wide variety of industries, such as retail or the automotive supplier sector, as was clearly shown by the interest in our stand in Hannover. My Telekom colleagues explained the Data Intelligence Hub in more detail to many customers and visitors at interactive screen presentations, which included the appropriate application examples. My impression: The Data Intelligence Hub is the best example of how IT companies and industry providers can work together to create innovative business models. There will certainly be many more valuable use cases in the future; the possibilities are almost endless.

All our innovative solutions show that we as Telekom have the capabilities to create enormous added value for our customers in the IoT and beyond – not only through state-of-the-art technologies that have been developed over many years, but also due to our team’s extensive know-how and unconditional commitment. I was very impressed and motivated by the absolute competence with which the more than 80 colleagues in Hannover took care of interested parties and customers and showed them our Industry 4.0 solutions. After this professional performance, I am convinced that together we will take IoT at Deutsche Telekom to a whole new level for our customers. Not only because we have the best products, but also because we have the best team!