GLOBAL DATA SERVICE PLATFORM

USING VODAFONE M2M PLATFORM

A world-class management platform

Using Vodafone M2M Platform

The GDSP service lets you manage your connected IoT deployments through our centrally hosted, secure self-service platform.

Our Global IoT Platform — a powerful self service delivery and management tool, underpinned by patented technology — is at the heart of every IoT solution we offer.

Year

Billion Connected Devices

*IoT is transforming the way businesses operate. According to ABI Research, by 2020 there will be 41 billion connected devices.

The Challenges

of IoT

IoT is like any other large technology initiative; you need to be able to manage it effectively, from deployment to in-life operations.

You need a way to monitor your SIMs all over the world, order and deploy more SIMs as your business grows, diagnose faults quickly in hard to-reach areas, and much more. You also need to ensure that your data remains secure and keep costs under control.

Making IoT simpler

Our Global IoT Platform simplifies IoT management — so you can realise the full potential of IoT.

Whether you have thousands of IoT-enabled assets worldwide, or just a few in one location, the GDSP enables you to manage your entire IoT estate centrally.

The Platform gives you visibility and control of your IoT devices anywhere within our global footprint. It can track the location of any IoT SIM installed in an asset, alert you to unusual activity, produce reports on performance and data usage, activate new SIMs, and much more — all in real time.

With our partnership with Vodafone who wholly owns the GDSP, we can:

  • Integrate it tightly into our core network for better performance, reliability and manageability.
  • Control the development roadmap so we can extend the platform’s capabilities to meet your changing needs.
  • Give you a single point of contact for any questions or issues with the platform, network or SIMs.

Key Features

Using Vodafone M2M Platform

A user-friendly dashboard

The portal’s dashboard gives you a picture of your global IoT estate at a glance. It can be customised according to job role, ensuring you are presented with the most vital information. The Platform enables you to group SIMs according to characteristics, so you can manage them in bulk and reduce your administrative workload. From this screen, you’ll get an instant overview of the different groups of SIMs you’ve set up, along with information on the number of SIMs, data usage and current operational state.

Easy SIM management

Using the convenient self-service management tool, you can order SIMs in bulk, set country and regional restrictions, and change operational states to align with different stages of your manufacturing lifecycle. For example, you can set SIMs to “test” for those in factory testing to make sure they are functioning properly before activating them. You can set SIMs to “ready” when they’re in manufacturing or warehousing prior to activation, or “live” for active use, and “suspended” for stopping data transmissions.

Real-time alerting

The Platform enables you to define upper and lower data thresholds for SIMs in each group. If a SIM should operate outside of the parameters you set, the Platform will alert you immediately. For example, if a SIM exceeds its data allowance, the Platform will let you know and you can halt transmissions to keep costs under control. And if a SIM isn’t transmitting as much data as it should, the Platform will notify you so you can investigate potential faults.

Transparent reporting

The Platform generates a variety of standard reports for the current and previous billingn period to help you understand how your remote assets are operating on the network. The reports contain graphics on high and low data usage, usage by IMSI, current states, state changes, alerts, and much more. Using this information, you can optimise total data consumption and control your costs.

Service diagnostics

The portal is your first port of call for support for any issues with your SIMs. Using the selfservice diagnostic tools and the transaction log, you can diagnose SIM problems, such as misconfiguration, RADIUS proxy issues, sudden spikes in data transmissions, and more. If you detect a problem, you can try changing the SIM state, but if you’re still having issues, you can contact the IoT service desk 24×365.

Configuration Options

We offer a range of advanced capabilities and features that we can tailor to suit your individual requirements.

Service integration

We can integrate IoT data directly into your existing back-end systems — like your ERP or SCM systems — via APIs and SMPP.

Location-based services are just one example of IoT data that can be integrated into your environment. Using Cell ID and assisted GPS, where available, the Platform can feed location data directly into any system, for example a fleet management or asset tracking system. To locate an asset, you can easily access the GPS data or information on where the first communication session happened.

With location-based services, you can also set geofences for SIMs. If an asset strays outside of the boundary you set — for example if it’s been stolen — the Platform can alert you immediately

SIMs for every environment

The Platform supports multiple SIMs suitable for a wide range of operating conditions:

  • Standard Plastic: Our standard plastic SIM is great value and ideal for a wide range of working conditions.
  • Robust and Super Robust Plastic: These SIMs are hardened for tougher conditions and have a highly stressable memory area that preserves frequently updated files.
  • Standard Industrial: This is our toughest SIM, designed for extreme environments. It’s also soldered directly to the terminal’s PCB, making it ideal for tight spaces.
  • Automotive: A tough SIM, specifically designed for automotive uses — and is capable of operating at high temperatures and can withstand intense vibrations.

Communications types

In addition to packet-switched data over 2G, 3G and 4G networks, we also support SMS (mobile originated and terminated), or circuit-switched voice over GSM networks to connect your SIMs to the Platform.

Our Global IoT SIMs have dedicated IMSI and mobile number ranges that are not assigned to a geographical destination or network. This means our global IoT SIMs can be used on any Vodafone or Vodafone IoT roaming partner network anywhere in the world.

Enhanced reporting

These reports supplement those in our fast track offering, giving you extra information on the performance on your SIMs so you can improve connectivity performance and optimise the total data consumption of your devices.

You can configure each report, for example, setting a date range, copy and move operations between profiles and applications, and change SIM custom attributes. Reports are downloadable in CSV, XML and PDF formats.

Vodafone Global IoT Platform web portal

Authorised users can access the customisable Connection Dashboard, which provides an overview of your entire SIM estate, with quick access menus and a SIM/connection search.

You can define the capabilities of a group of SIMs, such as roaming permissions. And you can retrieve a list of SIMs based on predefined criteria like status, or your own custom attributes.

Part of a complete solution

The Global M2M Platform is part of a complete solution that helps make M2M simpler

Global IoT SIMs

We provide global IoT SIMs to suit every operating environment. All of our SIMs feature dedicated IMSI and mobile number ranges not assigned to a geographical destination or network, so you can use them on any Vodafone or Vodafone partner network anywhere in the world. Because you don’t need to customise SIM settings for each country, you can reduce the complexity and time it takes to deploy IoT.

Global networks

Vodafone has the largest mobile telecommunications network in the world. Vodafone provide services via 70 wireless networks on five continents and fixed-line infrastructure in more than 40 countries — serving more than 444 million customers. Wherever your business may take you, Vodafone probably already there.

Integrated IoT terminals

To help you reduce time to market and deploy your IoT solution more cost-effectively, we can provide Integrated IoT Terminals — a range of handpicked terminal models from leading manufacturers to suit different IoT applications. 

To speed up implementation even further, we can pre-configure each terminal for your specific application environment and pre-register them to the Global IoT Platform. Each model is tested and approved for compatibility by the Vodafone Innovation Park Labs — so they work perfectly on all Vodafone and Vodafone partner networks. By choosing our Integrated IoT Terminals, you can benefit from one point of contact for both connectivity and hardware, and have access to Glyn’s extensive expertise and support.

Simple pricing and contracting

We offer a flexible range of commercial models and a single global contract to cover your entire global IoT estate. Our tariffs let you forecast and manage costs without you needing to worry about roaming charges. All you pay is a monthly fee for data usage per month, and a fee for changing SIM states.

You will be able to drill down to information on individual connections and access a variety of standard reports such as usage, alerts or newly activated SIMs. You can also customise the portal for different roles. For every SIM, details like connection status or location can be easily viewed. 

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