The prototype works. The complete product does not yet.
Technical
Hardware and firmware fall out of sync
Hardware moves in months. Software moves in weeks. The mismatch means idle teams or rushed integration.
New chips need custom firmware
New silicon arrives faster than firmware support. Every new chip needs custom firmware written from scratch.
Connectivity fails in the field
Devices behave differently across locations, networks and environments the pilot never tested.
Cloud slows down at scale
Smooth with 50 devices. Strained at 5,000.
Supply Chain
Components go end-of-life
One discontinued chip forces an unplanned, unbudgeted redesign.
Industrial-grade sensors stall the product
Pilots run on basic sensors. Production needs industrial-grade sensors that are hard to source and harder to integrate, especially with firmware built elsewhere.
The factory handoff breaks
Misread design files. Unauthorized substitutes. Missing test setups.
Vendors lock you in
Custom parts and proprietary platforms make switching costly, sometimes impossible.
Organizational
Failure triggers the blame game
Hardware blames software. Software blames the network. Mismatched SLAs mean no vendor is contractually responsible.
Hardware and application teams misread each other
One vendor builds the hardware and firmware. Another builds the applications. Neither fully understands the other's work, and the gaps surface as defects.
Every decision routes through you
Five vendors. Five contracts. Five support queues.
Your IP gets divided
Fire a vendor and discover they own part of your product.