3. Real-Time Data

When it comes to Internet of Things solutions, merely connecting the devices is just one piece of the puzzle, executives said. Partners need to find effective ways to help their customers track real time data and make intelligent future business decisions based off that data.

"Getting that real time information to the customer is really what this all boils down to," said KMC's Mitch Kehler. "For us, part of it's being able to get the cost down to be able to apply this kind of technology at a smaller site like a dialysis clinic. It's one of the largest growing industries right now medical wise, they're popping up all these miniature dialysis clinics and those customers are worth over their life of the customer hundreds of thousands of dollars to the clinic. It requires a large amount of water to run a dialysis clinic, so to monitor in real-time the energy usage or energy consumption or water consumption at that facility, process it and get that back at the same time into one holistic platform that's going back and providing some user metric key performance indicator to the guy that's running the facility or the doctor that owns the facility. That's what this is enabling."