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IoT Pipe Dream? How Ready Is Your Company?

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The Internet of Things (IoT) may eventually change how your business interacts with your customers and clients.

A Forrester Research predicts 42% of the global population will own a smartphone by the end of 2015. With mobile trends growing, IoT now gives businesses the ability to connect more of their data across digital channels. Learn how mobile technology should be implemented.

If you’re unfamiliar with how the IoT technology mind shift may fit into your business strategy in the coming years, think one thing: smart connectivity.

What is IoT?  

If you ask any IT tech what exactly is IoT, you’ll likely receive many different answers from smart thermostats to wearable technology. Simply put, IoT is connecting all electronic devices you come into contact with throughout your life. If it has a power source, it’s part of IoT.

For example, you’ve probably heard of Nest Labs (a Google subsidiary), inventors of the Nest WiFi Learning Thermostat. Their smart thermostat not only learns your favorite heating and cooling preferences but also can be adjusted remotely with a mobile APP.

IoT and Big Data

A recent Forbes article outlined how businesses will benefit from IoT. Specifically in the area of big data management. Instead of focusing on merely selling products and services, some companies see IoT technology as the gateway to develop new revenue sources using their data as solutions.

So how does your company capitalize in IoT? We recommend starting with a deep analysis of how you interact with your customers. Are there better ways you can service them using data trends? Chances are good you’re not maximizing the value of your data analytics.

For example, consider the agricultural equipment manufacturer John Deere. As early adopters of the exponential power of data, they integrated IoT technology into their business years ago becoming agricultural consultants who also happen to sell tractors.

Does your business monitor large data sets? If so, you can harness these data resources to provide better incite how your customers use your products or services. Think more about solutions than technical jargon.

Essentially, IoT is about helping people interact with all things powered to make their lives easier.

How Soon Will Your Company Be All In On IoT?

There’s been debate whether or not consumers are ready to invest in connectivity products. Although Nest has become the industry leader in smart thermostats, they did so because they filled a gap in the residential home heating industry. Therefore, finding untapped markets is the best approach.

Pinpoint Your Market

How do your clients interact with your products? One key component to pinpoint is if you can monetize your data into new product features to enhance how they use your services. Research is vital to growing your plan.

We advise evaluating your current business model. Then develop a data analysis formula to cull out trends your company can rebrand as new services for your end users.

 

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As The Wired World Turns, So Does Is Terminology

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Terminology

I have worked in the Information Technology field for over 16 years and it still amazes me of new acronyms, technical terminology, and sayings that I am unaware of. Recently I was interviewing a candidate for a position within my organization and I asked him what technology he felt passionate about. Most of the time the candidate will say networking or creating scripts to achieve some type of application automation. This candidate spoke of how he enjoys IoT. IoT? What is IoT? Once the conversation concluded, I knew I had to Google it.

IoT is short for Internet of Things. IoT is the interconnection of uniquely identifiable embedded computing devices within the internet structure. IoT is not limited to PC-to-PC communications anymore, but any type of devices that utilizes an IP address, communication protocol, and some type of user authentication. What once was a personal computer, networking equipment, and the internet has now lead us to household appliances, medical equipment, health care management, manufacturing, and yes, even vending machines. For the most part, these types of technical breakthroughs are advancing humankind.

With its amazement, I do have concerns with this type of evolution. I see the internet backbone as a man-made virtual highway, with the introduction of these additional devices, may completely congest and overcrowd this virtual landscape. I see IOT as the Wild West, the uncharted waters to introduce new devices with unique protocols, with new security concerns, and privacy exploitation I actively observe in my daily interactions with people, in how even the smallest technical market, such as cell phones, is debilitating human interactions and connections.

I am thankful that I was able to come across a candidate that broaden my horizons. He allowed me to take a moment in my life to think about the future and the advantages and disadvantages of its advancement.  As the wired world turns, so does it terminology and not all things seem as they are made to appear.