Product development platform provider Seebo has announced a collaboration with IBM to combine its offerings with the tech giant’s Watson IoT capabilities.

Seebo will merge its user-friendly development capabilities with the Watson IoT platform and Bluemix to accelerate the delivery of smart products.

Seebo’s membership as a Watson IoT business partner will give its customers access to IBM’s capabilities in conjunction with Seebo’s hardware simulator and testing application, which the company says will help reduce development costs and accelerate time-to-market.

The two companies hope to encourage product manufacturers to innovate in the IoT space, which is becoming increasingly complex due to parallel software, firmware and hardware design considerations.

It is hoped that the combination of Watson IoT with Seebo’s software-as-a-service platform will give manufacturers access to the tools to build smart products quickly, efficiently and cost-effectively, while also incorporating native cloud connectivity.

Neil Postlethwaite, IBM’s director of the Watson IoT platform, said in a statement: “Seebo offers a unique set of tools that enable quick time-to-market for new IoT products in this fast-growing space.

“IBM sees this collaboration as one which will enable clients to rapidly design and develop their IoT products, while also having the ability to use cognitive capabilities from IBM’s IoT and Watson services.”

Seebo’s co-founder and CEO Lior Akavia added: “Through our collaboration, we allow our customers to enjoy the synergy of IBM’s most advanced IoT, cloud and analytics tools and Seebo’s fast development capabilities to become active players of their sectors’ growing digital transformation trends.”