Is Your Business Ready for the Internet of Things?

There are more mobile devices today than people in the whole word. It is estimated that by 2020, there will be 2.5 billion people connected to social media, and they’ll be using or have access to fifty billion connected things. Known as the Internet of Things (IoT), this hyper-connectivity will help to bring in sixty-five trillion dollars in trade globally.

IoT has grown over the past few years to bring great changes to how businesses connect with people. From the push network of the 90s to one which gives information in real time and peer-to-peer connects, the Internet has grown a great deal. This has been highlighted by the super-fast growth of social networks such as Facebook and Twitter.

How Does IoT Help Your Business?

There are many areas in which IoT can help businesses run more simply. A few examples include:

Connected Logistics – This is changing the way people think about and manage their equipment and networks. You can now track the geo-location of any vehicle anywhere in the world, which gives real-time information to analyze traffic patterns, track congestion, improve customer service, reroute shipments by sending notifications and elevate the logistics of a network overall. Since logistics spend 8.2% of GDP, this is definitely an area where there is great potential.

Connected Manufacturing – Along with the convergence of the classical manufacturing space, this area is evolving with the rising intelligence of devices and internet technologies. With the introduction of Internet of Things and machine to machine (M2M), it is changing the operational environment of the manufacturing firm.

Connected Assets – These are revolutionizing preventative maintenance for equipment and devices and also enabling maintenance that is predictive. You can find, isolate and recover from any malfunctions in your system by using real-time fault management, while never having to send for a technician. You can even recalibrate a device remotely or locate equipment which is moving.

Is Your Business Ready for IoT?

A recent survey suggests that as many as ninety-six percent of business feel that they are ready for the rise of the Internet of Things in the years to come.

Almost all out of the six hundred companies that were surveyed said they were either taking the right steps towards being able to implement IoT into their business, or that they were ready to already. The majority, 80%, of respondents agreed that it is important in terms of having a smart and successful business strategy over the next 10 years to use IoT.

With these new technologies, the way shoppers interact with retailers is totally changed, however the shopping experience could be the strategic differentiator for the retailer. Retailers will have the intelligence to improve their customer loyalty and effectiveness of their associates while at the same time creating an exciting shopping experience for the consumer.

As with anything, there are plenty of concerns to go along with the excitement of the IoT, with 56% worried about integration and 47% concerned about privacy and security issues.

Out of the businesses surveyed, they had Wi-Fi, location tracking, barcodes for asset tracking and GPS tracking highest on their lists for potential uses with the IOT technologies.