Nestlé picks Telefónica to build IoT for coffee machines

International food and catering services supplier Nestlé has chosen Telefónica Business Solutions to provide a 50-country internet of things (IoT) communications network for its Nestlé Professional coffee business as part of a major digital transformation.

Alongside other Nestlé products, Nestlé Professional supplies both staff and user-operated coffee machines – including the Nespresso range – to caterers and small businesses. It hopes to use IoT telemetry to improve customer experience and business efficiency by monitoring the working parameters of its machines.

It will incorporate IoT sensor technology into new products, while products already in use will be able to support a bolt-on module to achieve the same impact.

“Telefónica enabled us a new way of communicating and interacting with our coffee solutions at a global scale, allowing us to personalise our customer experience,” said Nestlé’s global head of business applications, Henri de Roo.

“We trusted their capabilities to deliver this project and they were able to respond to our needs beyond their own network footprint.”

Telefónica’s web-based Smart M2M Solution was specifically designed to provide automatic machine-to-machine (M2M) communication for enterprises that want to manage, display and monitor devices efficiently and centrally but do not want to invest in their own M2M deployments or reorganise their IT processes to account for M2M.

It is capable of analysing a number of metrics, including temperature and device condition, based on standard protocols. The data is consistently edited, individually visualised and logically included into business processes.

An application programming interface (API) allows users to integrate their back-end systems and processes with the platform, so customers can use existing applications to perform some of the tasks available via the web, including customer or inventory management.

The system also incorporates a number of fraud detection features, including the ability to restrict communications between a list of given devices, and the ability to set traffic caps.

Besides Nestlé, Smart M2M is in use at about 2,500 customers worldwide, including construction firm Balfour Beatty, car leasing provider Sixt, and Spanish lottery Once.

Nestlé plans to exploit the technology to control a number of key aspects of its machines, such as remote configuration and predictive maintenance of failing components, down to adjusting the strength and taste of the drinks they dispense.

“This key commercial deal demonstrates our global reach and enduring relationship with Nestlé, which has trusted Telefónica this time to provide cutting-edge connectivity across the globe,” said José Luis Gamo, European corporates and multinationals director at Telefónica Business Solutions.

“We aim to empower all-sized companies with prominent communications to help them lead the digital revolution ahead and consequently better serve their own customers.”