If you imagine that your work ends after successfully implementing your IoT application, you’re sorely mistaken. While scaling up adds further complexities for IoT applications across industries like OEMs, manufacturing, oil and gas, healthcare, and transportation, application maintenance is crucial to ensure end-user satisfaction and loyalty.
Over 90% of IoT applications are abandoned after 30 days. Behind this striking statistic lies a simple reason that industries can learn from– the lack of application maintenance, troubleshooting, and support services.
In this article, we’ll explore exactly what makes application maintenance and support services so crucial, why you need ongoing support, and best practices to avoid remaining in ‘pilot purgatory’ when it comes to your IoT solutions and services.
Basic Definitions: What are IoT Application Maintenance and Support Services?
Let’s look at the basics first.
IoT Application maintenance is the regular updates and changes made to all layers of your IoT solution to ensure that it functions smoothly, optimally, and without bugs. This includes activities like bug resolutions, performance enhancement, fixing interoperability issues, and regular updates.
IoT support services are the ongoing assistance provided by you or your IoT services provider to ensure that all issues are resolved and the IoT platform continues to operate smoothly. This can range from technical support, staff training, and ongoing assistance with any issues encountered with your IoT solutions and services.
What’s the Difference between Application Maintenance and Support Services?
Here’s a handy table highlighting the differences between IoT application maintenance and support services.
Aspects |
IoT Application Management |
IoT Support Services |
|
End goal |
To ensure that the IoT solution is aligned with business goals and are running optimally |
To resolve all issues as quickly as possible, minimize downtime, and improve customer satisfaction |
|
Primary Areas of Concern |
Includes testing, IoT deployment, data management, security, UI design, and performance analytics |
Includes ongoing technical support, customer service, and quick problem resolution |
|
Tools used |
Dashboard, analytics tools, Application Enablement Platforms (AEPs), performance tracking tools |
Helpdesk software, ticketing tools to ensure quick problem resolution |
|
Business Impact |
Directly impacts operational efficiency, productivity, and ROI |
Impacts end-user retention, customer loyalty, and brand loyalty |
Why Adopt IoT Application Maintenance and Support Services?
Here’s the plethora of benefits you stand to gain adopting a robust IoT application maintenance and support service.
- Minimize downtime and improve revenue: On average, high-risk industries like manufacturing stand to lose up to $5 million an hour due to downtime. Regular application maintenance ensures that your IoT network, hardware, and software are working optimally at all times.
- Increased security and scalability: IoT application maintenance ensures that your IoT network is secure and end-to-end encryption at all points is stable. It also helps scalability and gives you an accurate analysis of how your IoT project is actually functioning.
- Regulatory compliance: With regular maintenance, you can rest easy knowing that your IoT solutions and services are updated to the latest regulatory standards and requirements.
- Adaptability to user feedback and increased reliability: When you update your IoT service regularly based on a user feedback loop, it ensures smooth functioning and improves reliability among end-users too.
- Cost savings and improved customer satisfaction: When proactive steps are taken to prevent security breaches and bugs, it results in cost savings in the long run and adds to your revenue margin. Customers are also more satisfied, leading to better project outcomes.
3 Best Practices for IoT Application Maintenance and Support Services for 2025
Here are some best practices to future-proof your IoT solutions investments in 2025 and beyond.
Implement TDD, version control, and a strict maintenance schedule
With a typical IoT solution requiring complex codes, you’ll need to implement Test-Driven Development (TDD) and version control to improve the quality of your code. For example, introducing codes without TDD could lead to new bugs causing issues for your IoT platform. Version control will ensure that all changes are documented and tracked. If a rollback is required, it can be done quickly with version control.
Prioritize issue resolutions
Start by categorizing the issues that need to be fixed into categories like critical or low impact. Prioritize fixing issues that have a high impact on usability, interoperability, and end-user experience. Then proceed to resolving low-impact issues.
Test and verify all updates
Conduct thorough and rigorous testing of all updates before launching them. Create a list of tests like user acceptability tests, regression tests, and performance tests. This ensures that updates will not cause disruptions at the time of launch.
The Right IoT Application Maintenance Partner can Make a Difference
Businesses across industries see higher rates of success when they partner with a reliable IoT solutions provider.
At Bridgera, we provide IoT application maintenance and ongoing support even after implementing our white-label IoT solutions.
Contact us today to get a free consultation on IoT application maintenance and support services for your IoT project.
About Bridgera: Bridgera effortlessly combines innovation and expertise to deliver cutting-edge solutions using connected intelligence. We engineer experiences that go beyond expectations, equipping our clients with the tools they need to excel in an increasingly interconnected world. Since our establishment in 2015, Bridgera, headquartered in Raleigh, NC, has specialized in crafting and managing tailored SaaS solutions for web, mobile, and IoT applications across North America.
About Author: Krishna Varma is a writer and researcher, who enjoys writing about technology, IoT, and lifestyle. When she isn’t writing and reading, you’ll find her relaxing with a quiet cup of tea over the weekends.