The term IoT is almost 20 years old. It was first used in 1999 by Kevin Ashton of Procter & Gamble and later by MIT's Auto-ID Center. However, the first attempts to remotely monitor and improve the decision-making process based on the collected data were made more than 15 years earlier with Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh being a pioneer in this area. These studies, though, did not translate into a universal adaptation of the IoT technology.
Over the years, there had been many factors that have almost completely blocked the development process of the Internet of Things. These were mainly technological issues: sensors were too large and expensive, network access was limited, and a lot of computing power was practically unavailable to enterprises (imagine a room-sized supercomputer processing data from just a few sensors).
Fortunately, times are changing. In fact, the technology has changed so much that what was a few decades ago called a "supercomputer" today fits in every user's pocket. Access to the network is virtually unlimited and the sensors are the size of a needle tip. What’s more, there are many software solutions out there to help deal with the large volumes of data flowing through the complicated IoT networks, such as platforms specializing in IoT device management
So, what can I do with this technology?
Improve your products
An IoT platform allows you to connect different devices at the same time. By adding sensors to a device, you open up countless opportunities for your business to benefit from the sensor data. Information from each class of sensors represents different values for the company. If the information is provided by products equipped with sensors, the greatest value of this data will be related to the condition of the device itself and goods or services associated with this device. The closest application will therefore be the management of the distribution network or the services to which this device is linked.
Industry sensors can also analyze the quality of manufactured goods at each stage of the production. Thanks to this, defective products can be removed at the beginning of the process, which optimizes energy consumption for the processing of goods.
Improve your production processes
What you get is telemetric data which, when combined with advanced analytics, makes it possible to efficiently identify trends and thus gain various business insights? Even the basic telemetry data from IoT devices offers significant value for your business. Thanks to modern analytics, it is possible to immediately plan logistics processes, manage deliveries of goods with short shelf life, as well as determine profitability or dynamic sales depending on the condition of the goods.
If the connected devices are a part of the infrastructure used for production processes, the information from the sensors will reflect the state of individual places or devices related to these processes. Unlike the state stored in the database (for example, the location of pallets in the warehouse that can be found in the documents prepared at different stages of the process), IoT sensors report the actual state of the place or device in real time. Reported parameters, such as the weight of the goods in a given place or the stock levels in the warehouse, reflect the state of a given process and allow for very precise process management.
Modern analytics combined with the information from IoT sensors may also enable precise planning of production and sales processes. In some industries (e.g. construction or brewing), the weather information translates into sales very strongly. Information from IoT sensors makes it possible to forecast customer needs much better and plan production for the expected scale.
Launch new services
By introducing IoT sensors to existing systems your company will be able to launch new services that would have been very difficult to run before. In agriculture, the use of sensors in the fields allows you to increase yields, reduce chemical consumption and use water more intelligently. Distributing sensors on farms may provide extremely valuable information about the first symptoms of dangerous diseases affecting your animals. Garbage cans with garbage level sensors allow you to optimize the routes of garbage trucks, which means lower fuel usage and more efficient disposal. Health sensors enable remote elderly care to be launched and often save lives. The possibilities of IoT applications are only limited by our imagination.
Will my business really benefit from the IoT?
IoT technology is not always expensive, although the costs of implementing an IoT system in a company depend on its size. Sometimes, instead of using sensors, it is enough to connect your surveillance cameras (which are already installed in the building) to a common network. The process of implementing an IoT system should, however, be preceded by an analysis that will allow you to assess the company's situation and indicate places where the use of IoT will be particularly useful. In any case, there is no doubt that the opportunities created by the IoT get more and more attention from the business world and drive the competition in creating better and more innovative solutions. Investing in IoT infrastructure enables us to obtain even more data, analyze it even deeper, and thus take our business to the next level.