Intelligent Things -Towards an Intelligent World

The Internet of Things (IoT) continues to evolve at an accelerated rate that has far surpassed simple connectivity. The world is now full of intelligent things and corporations are embracing the increased revenue that has derived from IoT platforms. The benefits of IoT are much richer than profits and growth in the revenue stream. This article explores today’s intelligent world and the many ways IoT is positively affecting the business landscape.

Improved Customer Experience

In today’s economy, it pays to give the customer a superior experience. While this may be a subjective concept that depends on the customer, enhancements to the customer experience have become a critical piece of business transformation that relies heavily upon IoT technology incorporation. Creating a personalized customer experience depends on IoT data deployed in real time, with companies responding quickly to requests and issues as they arise.

As an example, airports are in the process of employing IoT sensors and cameras to provide better experiences for passengers while they are waiting. Backed up queues for security, broken chairs, and restrooms in need of cleaning are examples of situations that can be addressed before they affect customer satisfaction, thanks to IoT platforms that dispatch maintenance teams or signal personnel to open new gates.

New Customer Understanding

IoT is also impacting the way corporations understand their customers by enabling them to observe behaviors in real-time. The visual analytics possible with IoT platforms captures information on customers, objects, and situations. For instance, on-floor cameras are tied to retail AI systems to provide insight into customer reactions to sales floor promotional efforts. This valuable insight is used to revise and reinvent the way retailers promote their merchandise, potentially increasing sales per square foot of store space.

Increased Efficiency

Business enterprises are also looking to save money through greater efficiencies in addition to increasing profit, and IoT technology is being relied upon for these efforts as well. By expanding IoT to various departments in the organization, costs are being reduced and speed to market is being increased, making the enterprise more agile and flexible. Data streaming in from all parts of the organization is analyzed and improvements are deployed without human involvement. A good example of this is a logistics company deploying sensors on its trucks to regulate delivery and pickup times with more effectiveness. In another example, drones may be used over farm fields to spot issues with predators or crop destruction, often overlooked or beyond salvation by the time humans noticed without this technology.

New Lines of Business

As previously mentioned, IoT is being used to increase profits by making current business models more efficient or more attractive to customer interaction. IoT platforms are also leading to the discovery of new business lines. Companies now have the opportunity to not only manufacture new products but also to offer ongoing monitoring services to track their performance thanks to the algorithms deployed to predict maintenance as required. This data, for example, can be shared across the organization’s ecosystem of suppliers and customers, providing greater chances for innovation in the form of value-added services and continuous customer loyalty and engagement.

Increased Data Increases Opportunity

This increase of data thanks to IoT customer observation, product monitoring, drone insights, and other methods increases the enterprise’s understanding of the entire concept of the business, from invention to assembly lines and production all the way through to delivery and customer experience. As data centers continue to create large volumes of data from, production systems, sensors, and other IoT systems, this real-time or near-time data helps the corporation gain insight into productivity and performance, which offers opportunities for growth and innovation in new business methods and products.

Security and IoT

In a report published by the IoT Privacy Forum, an international nonprofit organization that provides insight on the industry, the risk of privacy diminishment calls for responsible innovation. “The qualitative shift in people’s lives brought about by smart devices, homes, offices, spaces, and cities needs urgent attention because of the extreme diminishment of private spaces that will result.” As IoT technology becomes more prevalent in society, the risk to our privacy is a real concern. Companies employing emotional detection technologies such as facial biometrics, for example, make it crucial to control privacy and data related to IoT technology.

Conclusion

Almost every aspect of our daily existence generates data now. From the smartwatches that track our heartbeat and steps to smart vehicles that track our location and driving habits, these insights benefit us personally but can also benefit the corporations we do business with on a daily basis. Ultimately, the IoT world benefits everyone, keeping us connected to the people and things that rank high on our list of importance.

The IoT offers a compelling value proposition for corporate enterprises as it is a driver of transformation, innovation, and improvement. By merging data and intelligence to deliver new ideas for products as well as business models and production design, IoT systems and sensors across the enterprise and across the globe will provide business managers in-depth views of customers and their desires like never before as well as an innovative way to interact with them.