Contrary to the unpopular opinion of Internet of Things posing security threats and showing unstability; IoT is becoming a regular aspect of people’s everyday lives. Connected devices have left a positive impact to the point that inanimate objects have digital imprints courtesy of embedded systems that enables people keep tabs on their items through their smartphones and other devices.
Smart devices have been facilitating communication between the systems and the devices. And due to this reason, businesses have been leveraging this technology to their benefit. There are four major IoT trends that have been observed in the business world.
#1 Enhanced Customer Engagement
The whole idea of ‘smart products’ allow customers to engage with your product and communicate with it from the comfort of his current location. Taking the example of the household appliances that can be controlled now, this give immense benefit to the provider as the smart appliance can immediately generate a notification about certain fault or servicing that is required beforehand. This way, businesses can improve their customer support and immediately cater to the maintenance needs before causing any inconvenience to the customer.
IoT has transcended to new horizons as it is being incorporated in cars as well.
#2 Monitoring of Business Activities
When you are dealing with large scale businesses or industries that include heavy machinery, constantly keeping a check on each and everything physically isn’t possible. This is where IoT plays a big part in furthering the businesses by allowing them to effectively monitor all operations – be it field operations or office work.
Now how exactly is this happening? Wearable devices that have sensors built in. These sensors then monitor activities and gather data, which then can be utilized for analysis to see where productivity can be enhanced. In terms of field operations, smart machinery can send in the signals of any potential faults that may hinder activities if not resolved early. This allows businesses to run their operations smoothly, dodging any major maintenance issue, which results in cost saving.
#3 Automating your Services
When we are dealing with industries that deal with large-scale services like the shipping industry or the supply chain area – there is an evident need of high-priority management. This is where IoT sensors deployed on packages, machinery, or vehicles can help automate the entire extensive process of management.
Of course, there is a need for these sensors to communicate through a UI, which is why you have mobile apps developed by mobile app development companies. They provide a user-friendly IoT mobile apps that have the basic functionality you need to keep track of all the services, without having to physically make rounds and check sheets.
The real-time alerts allow professionals to be available at the right time and place without having to waste any time. Take shipment system for example, these IoT sensors enable the crew to make the right deliveries at the scheduled time, with the accumulated data that they provide.
#4 Embedded IT
Instead of adding IoT to the existing devices, and creating devices with IoT components built-in is the progressive future that businesses are leveraging and understanding. Before creating products that are smart, they are creating the mechanism that can deal with heaps of data that will be created, so that the product has a complete system embedded in it – instead of adding it later on.
These are the major trends that we see IoT projecting on to the business world. But if we were to see real-world examples we can observe 5 major IoT phenomena.
Internet of Things Real World Examples
#1 Data Analytics
Data has become one of the most crucial aspects driving the world forward. IoT is another extension that generates tons of data. This data has single handedly become a precious commodity for businesses. Since it helps understand the processes better and implement better and improved strategies that help yield more revenue.
Data in itself is useless if you do not have the skills and understanding of the various tools available for analysis. This is also where IoT applications like Zatar, Google Cloud, and ThingsSpeak help in data analysis and compilation.
#2 IoT in Farming
Who would’ve thought that IoT will revolutionize farming thorugh the use of robots, tags, sensors, and self-driving vehicles and drones; allowing farmers to easily cover huge acres of land and inspect crop without having to the extensive labor. In addition to this, IoT technology can be a better judge of the weather, soil, and help in monitoring the overall condition of the crop.
#3 IoT in Manufacturing
As discussed above IoT technology in the form of RFID tags and sensors can detect the machinery and its state, alerting you when there is need of maintenance of an imminent fault is approaching with the help of previous records. There is much that IoT has to offer in the realm of manufacturing, like ease of monitoring the collective state and operations of not just the machinery but the overall processes of the employees.
As many IT recruitment agencies london point out, tracking and managing assets has made considerably easy through IoT technology as it relives the operations to be performed manually.
#4 Smart Homes Smart Life
When all home appliances are connected which once seemed like a distant dream, now is a reality. With controls to your lights, security system, fridge, Air conditioning right at your fingertips – gives you the opportunity to communicate with your house without having to be physically present. Security is the main concern, and with these smart devices sending you real-time data, you can now keep tabs on your empty home and take action when sent an alert about a suspicious activity via camera detection and heat sensors.
Summing Up
All in all, Internet of Things has shaped businesses to provide better pro-active support to their customers and also enables them to establish a much productive environment in their workplaces through effective monitoring of all of their business operations. Of course, their maybe some drawbacks to this technology pertaining to data leakages or hacking, but if this concern is taken cared of – IoT has made the lives considerably easy.
