Pelion, a subsidiary of UK chip designer Arm, and IoT technology distributor Novotech have joined the IoT M2M Council (IMC), the largest community of users of that deploy IoT technology.

A provider of turnkey offerings for device connectivity and management, Pelion is looking to share its experience in IoT device and connectivity management with IMC’s adopter membership, comprised of 25,000 enterprise users and product makers that deploy embedded devices in the field.

A plurality of IMC’s adopters identify as operations – not IT or R&D – and cite business results as their highest priority in IoT implementation.

“Pelion streamlines and simplifies connectivity, management and security of IoT devices delivering scalable, meaningful insights for companies to achieve their digital transformation,” said David Weidner, the company’s chief market development officer who will represent the company on the IMC board of governors. “Much of the IMC’s membership comes from an operational background and our participation means that we are able to help people realise their organisations’ digital transformation goals.”

Roughly 35% of IMC’s adopters are based in North America, with about 25% each from Asia and Europe, and they operate in 27 vertical markets, from automotive manufacturing to healthcare services to retail point-of-sale.

“The IMC is an IoT industry accelerator, and we look to our board companies like Pelion to help us set direction for the industry,” said Kim Bybjerg, IMC’s chairman and head of European business operations at Tata Communications. “Based upon Pelion’s heritage in the semiconductor industry, we’re confident they’ll play a strong role in our group.”

Novotech, a distributor of IoT technology, hopes to accelerate the adoption of IoT technology by using the IMC as a platform for thought leadership, and to grow its supply network of OEMs. For its part, the IMC has become a standard for online IoT events and has recently launched an initiative to gather new data from its membership that it hopes will advise on how best to grow the industry.

“The Novotech team has a great deal of experience in industrial IoT and M2M communication across a wide range of markets,” said Richard Hobbs, Novotech’s president, who will represent the company on the IMC board of governors. “We are eager to collaborate with other leaders in this space through the various facilities that the IMC has to offer.”

The IMC’s online conferences routinely draw several hundred live attendees, and over 60% of them will consistently identify as buyers of IoT products and services – a rarity among IoT trade events.

“We know of no other group that gathers IoT buyers at the same kind of scale,” said Hobbs.

Bybjerg added: “We welcome Novotech to the IMC board as a company with the kind of hands-on experience that will help us to use the data we collect about our adopter membership to spread IoT best practices. Our membership is a unique asset that facilitates outreach for our board companies.”

The IMC curates an online content library, offers template procurement documents, and has become an IoT industry leader in producing online events. The IMC is also the exclusive IoT Infrastructure Partner for the Consumers Electronics Show, where it organises a pavilion and conference, and is building a similar relationship with Hannover Messe, the world’s largest manufacturing event.

The IMC is the largest trade group dedicated to the global IoT and M2M sector with more than 25,000 IoT enterprise users, product makers, designers and apps developers that buy IoT products and services as members. Board companies include Aeris, AVSystem, BeamLive, BICS, Blues Wireless, Digi, FloLive, Gurtam, iBasis, Ignion, IoT Launch, Keyfactor, KORE, Losant, Microsoft Azure IoT, MultiTech, NimbleLink, Novotech, Pelion, Pod Group, Quectel, Software AG, Somos, Taoglas, Tata Communications, Telit and Vodafone.