The evolution of Internet of Things (IoT) has created an era of digitalization which has unlocked the doors of communication, conversion, and collaboration by connecting devices, places and people. Internet of Things (IoT) has gained immense popularity for its application in consumer applications and smart products. The growth of Industrial IoT is creating new avenues and innovative opportunities for conventional industries to leverage its benefits. With the help of IoT, business processes can track, count, observe, identify, evaluate, and act in a truly smart way based on real time situations impacting the business. The impact may be in form of consumer behavior for retail companies or a critical piece of machinery in a manufacturing environment.
Types of IoTIoT is a systematic & structured innovation that connects ideas of any businesses to its resources and makes it tangible without human intervention. IoT tools & devices communicate one-way or two-way according to its usage and criticality. They collect, compute and analyze an ever-rising variety of significant data that businesses can put to use for competitive advantages.
According to the reports, wearable devices, connected cars, intelligent homes, smart cities, and industries will relate 25-50 billion devices online, which will create $19 trillion worth of the commercial market by 2020.
At a broad level, IoT devices can be categorized into three types:
Industrial (IIoT):
It is a correlation between machines, physical objects, systems, and applications. IIoTs are aspired to focus on advancing strongly on safety and efficiency of operation for the highest return.
Consumer:
It increases the convenience of individuals by connecting machines to physical objects, people, or infrastructure. It relies on IP-based networks to transfer device data to a cloud or middleware platform.
Machine-To-Machine:
It is a part of IIoT, but focuses on the communication between machines only. They are embedded systems and rely on point-to-point communications through cellular or wired networks.
Adapting changes in the business leads to challenges and many complexities. IoT insists rethinking them with two core questions: how to create value for customers and how to capture the value of a business.
IoT requires innovation with the blend of deep multi-disciplinary proficiency and models – business, network, plan, software development, and device. They are all interrelated and extremely rely upon each other. As discussed, IoT has multi-disciplinary usage. Some examples of innovative applications of IoT, which were conventionally not possible, are provided below:
Sports:
The football contains a small sensor (an IoT device) in the middle and records speed, spiral rate and efficiency, distance, catches, and drops. It connects with the application, and sportsperson can view the statistics later. In addition, the app identifies the scope of improvements and gives suggestions to advance the performance. A real-time analysis of such data would enable coaches to quickly change strategies.
Health:
Many hospitals have started implementing “Smart Beds”. It identifies occupancy and detects movements of patients. The bed automatically adjusts itself and ensures to provide required pressure and support to the patient to get up without the help of a nurse.
Furthermore, by embedding IoT-enabled devices into medical instruments helps a supervisor to monitor the patients more efficiently. Moreover, he can find out the patients that need the most attention. In both the cases, hospitals can utilize their workforce more effectively.
Agriculture:
Sensor on the farm can monitor the life cycle of farming and advice how to improve crop yielding and minimize grain loss. The farmer can monitor his entire farm on a computer or mobile devices. Moreover, through these sensors, field mapping, nutrient balance, fertilization, crop harvesting and other planning can be scheduled.
Automotive:
Smart cars are not new to anyone. Cars connect without the driver and help passengers to travel from one point to another. Furthermore, the dashboard can have apps and gives the drivers real-time travel reports, traffic information, control operations through speech, saving stream up playlists, offer roadside assistance in case of emergency and much more. Nowadays, “Connected Car” is being a significant revenue generator for the automakers.
Manufacturing:
Connecting operational information of distinct silos from a different system, machines, assets, and people can generate a real-time operational visibility and performance. In addition, implementation of IoT can eliminate the complexity of predictive analysis and deliver information that helps decision-makers to improve the performance and quality. Enabling embedded system and detailed monitoring can minimize the downtime and potential failure of the machines.
Home Automation:
With the help of IoT, thermostats and cooling system can be operated from any location. Even more, such automated HVAC can reduce the heat or cooling when the room is not occupied and adjusts the temperature at a specific time based on the schedule and occupancy of the room.In addition to convenience, it helps in power consumption.
Smart Kitchens, with connected devices like Smart Refrigerators, are already available and gaining popularity.
Enterprises that recognize the value of IoT and putting it into an innovative use will gain a significant competitive edge over its competitors. Considering almost an unlimited landscape and possibilities of utilizing the benefits of IoT, businesses should include IoT as part of their digital transformation strategy. IoT solutions enable businesses to develop newer revenue opportunities, operate more efficiently, increase customer satisfaction or offer newer services to its customers. By converting traditional approaches and assets to smart and intelligent assets, enterprises are creating smart Winning Strategies.