The practice will consist of more than 1,500 experts across IBM Watson IoT headquarters in Munich, Germany and in eight other IBM IoT centres in Asia, Europe and the Americas.

By integrating IBM Watson IoT Platform APIs and technologies, including cognitive, analytics, mobile, security and cloud capabilities, together with development and implementation consulting and ongoing support, the company hopes this simplified service will encourage clients can use the IoT. 

Harriet Green, general manager, IBM Watson IoT, commerce and education, said: "The Internet of Things is making an enormous impact on our lives and helping to spur even deeper levels of innovation for those developing the connected devices and products of our future.

"IBM is helping knock down the barriers to getting started with IoT, making it accessible for clients as they begin their digital transformation."

The industries it will prioritise first include automotive, electronics, industrial products, insurance, retail, telecommunications, transportation and buildings. Clients can apply Watson cognitive computing capabilities such as machine learning and natural language to tap into massive amounts of unstructured data to gain insights and help with decision making.