Once seen as a gimmick to enable your fridge to tell you when you run low on milk, the Internet of Things (IoT) is developing rapidly to offer a range of useful applications not only in the home, but also in business. Amazon’s Alexa has helped promote take-up of IoT, with many people using it or other digital assistants from Google and Apple to turn lights on and off, control heating and boil kettles. Now there are many applications beyond household chores appearing and the technology is becoming more relevant to business.
Digital assistants are associated strongly with voice control so that you can use IoT to control your office lights, heating and air conditioning by voice as well as dictating messages to be sent as emails and texts or initiating phone calls without dialling on your phone.
Because IoT turns devices, such as light bulbs, from ‘dumb’ to ‘intelligent’, it creates opportunity for monitoring performance and alerting both users and manufacturers to the need for maintenance or replacement. If you manufacture security systems, for example, you could incorporate IoT features that will create an alert when, say, a door sensor is about to fail so that you can replace it before it stops working to ensure your customer enjoys uninterrupted service.
Monitoring can be applied to most business processes: in the field, in manufacturing and in the office, delivering alerts on computers, mobile phones or wearable devices. Sensors can be used to measure a variety of real-time information from location to temperature, which can be used to improve efficiency, such as ensuring a vehicle is in place at precisely the right time it is needed to collect an item for delivery.
With more intelligent devices recording, storing and reporting more data, businesses will have more information than ever at their fingertips and need the resources to be able to benefit from it. For example, if a device identifies a 10-minute delay in a collection process that is repeated 12 times daily 365 days a year, this adds up to 10 x 12 x 365 wasted minutes per year, equivalent to 30 days. To improve productivity, the business needs to be able to adapt its processes to recover this lost time.
The growing IoT infrastructure is also likely to benefit from increased use of machine learning, where intelligent devices and equipment will be able to modify behaviour to act on weaknesses in processes they identify from the data they collect.
With many IoT devices connecting via WiFi, security is a major consideration. Hackers will be looking for security weaknesses, so users must take care to fully secure wireless networks and firmware of all IoT devices. It is perfectly possible to hijack your email account by breaking into a software ordering a milk on your fridge. They are still in the same WiFi network!
Far from being a fad or gimmick, the Internet of Things is maturing into a range of tools providing valuable practical tools that businesses can use to improve productivity in any activity.
