Tag: IoT
The Internet of Things (IoT) is the next big thing in the world of Internet and has the potential to change life in a big way. Much have been written about how IoT will disrupt enterprises, but enterprises are still clueless as to how exactly they would invest in IoT. The confusion is largely owing to the actual implementation still being limited. IoT is yet to attain critical mass and become a normal phenomenon, like what a smartphone is now. However, it is only a matter of time before it becomes so, and enterprises who have a clear-cut idea of where exactly to invest, and how, can reap the early mover advantage.
The IoT Infrastructure Backbone
IoT essentially entails assigning an IP address to any “thing,” and making it thing a part of a wider ecosystem. Research major, Gartner estimates the number of physical “things” connected to the Internet to exceed 25 million by 2020, a big jump from the approximately five billion “things” connected to the Internet today.
The most obvious IoT investments are sensors, processor chips, and wi-networks, besides supporting equipment such as routers and modems. Hardware firms such as Qualcomm offer IoT chips, and networking companies such as Aruba Network, Ruckus Wireless, and a host of others, offer IoT solutions. However, not all enterprises would need to, or even have the capability to set up custom IoT implementations. They would rather deploy ready-to-go IoT solutions available in the market.
Ready to Consume Products
There is already a huge untapped market for smart devices, from smart cars that navigate automatically to smart lighting that manages energy automatically, and from smart shirts that capture body information to smart thermostats and many other things. Enterprises would obviously need to invest in “things” relevant to their business, or “things” which add value. However, even here the options are not yet clear cut, as IoT ecosystems are still its nascent stage, and yet to mature.
Usually, companies that market smart devices grab the headlines when in actuality such “marketing” companies rely on third-party firms who develop and support the products they sell.
A barometer of which IoT product or project is likely to succeed is the interest shown by investors to the device or project. For example, Google’s Nest Learning Thermostat is widely popular among investors, and backed by Google, is a safe bet for enterprises to control air conditioning and other devices and achieve optimal energy efficiency.
However, it is still early days for IoT products. For instance, Fitbit’s ubiquitous wearable fitness-tracking devices is already a household name, and to the unintended, is synonymous with IoT in the same way Xerox was once to photocopiers. But competitors are snapping at its heels, as evident from Microsoft’s recent launch of its own health-oriented wearable in direct competition with Fitbit.
Other companies, such as GE, are making big investments in innovation for the “industrial internet,” launching a slew of new products that would leverage IoT to enable new possibilities. GE has already pumped $1.5 billion into smart product research since 2012, and the results are starting to bear fruit. Side-by-side, major manufacturers such as Samsung are releasing new “smart” and IoT compatible models of their existing equipment and device ranges. Agri-giant Monsanto has taken over a technology firm that helps farmers better predict the weather, to signify its foray into the IoT space. Devices from such established majors gain the advantage of an established market and client base.
IoT is still an extremely fluid space, and investing in it is a hands-on endeavor. Enterprises need to indulge in a lot of research matching the available solutions to their specific business processes and models.
Early Benchmarks
Several leading companies are already making big investments in IoT, and reaping rich rewards in the form of improved process efficiency, and unlocking new business. Here are some high-profile success stories:
UPS uses sensors to monitor mileage, speed, and engine health of its fleet, thereby bringing in operational efficiency and considerable savings in fuel and associated costs.
Farmers Insurance uses IoT in its core business models, to automate automobile claims resolutions. For instance, the company has deployed a system where a sensor equipped car that gets hit by a shopping trolley in the car park could trigger an automatic notification alert to the car owner, through a smartphone, and file an insurance claim automatically.
Disney World’s Magic Band makes guest management at its resorts seamless. Guests can take fast pass rides, order food, park cars and do more with these bands, in a seamless way, and the company gets greater insights to fine-tune its operations accordingly, creating a win-win situation.
Soon a customer may be able to simply walk into a store, pick up what she like, and leave. IoT sensors would capture all the required information, and collect payment automatically.
Enterprises need to take a close look at their business models to see how IoT will fit in, to improve processes, deliver better services to the customer, and expand the scope of doing business. Investment in IoT needs to focus on this direction.
Invest in the Analytics
Setting up the IoT infrastructure is one thing, and benefiting from it is another thing altogether. Many enterprises investing in IoT make the mistake of focusing their energies on setting up the infrastructure. Success requires giving equal focus on the analytical tools that aggregate data from sensors, integrate it with information already available in the company database, subject the data to analytics, and present the results to the stakeholders, in the form of actionable information.
Several organizations and vendors offer solutions to help enterprises analyze and make sense of the vast amount of data the sensors collect. Since actionable information that benefits depends on the nature of the business, there is scope for considerable customization here. Enterprises would do well to rope in a competent strategic partner who is strong in delivering cutting-edge apps and other software solutions that can leverage IoT.
The service model is the in-thing in enterprise IT. Just about anything the enterprise requires, from storage to security, and from applications to hosting, is now available on the cloud, as a service. Such services offer enterprises the unprecedented convenience of paying for such resources as neatly packed line items on a monthly statement, a big jump from the often messy derivation of costs from various inputs and sources.
In tune with the trend, moves are afoot to deliver IoT in a service model. It matters little that IoT is yet to be entrenched, and the dust has hardly settled on IoT standardization. When even highly architecturally complex applications can be delivered in a simple service based model, why should the Internet of Things (IoT) be any different?
Commoditized Hardware
The latest trend in hardware is the increasing preference of open, modular hardware over custom or application-specific hardware design. Specialized custom-built hardware is fast being relegated to the fringes. A case in point is the success of the bare-bones Raspberry PI, designed as a bare-bones board, on which the required functionality may be added as required. For instance, wi-fi connectivity, analog sensors, and other capabilities each would require adding additional modules.
One of the earliest innovations that could set the trend for IoT as a service (IoTaaS) is the line of wi-fi sensors developed by the Naperville-based ConnectSense. The range of Wi-Fi sensors for home and building automation are for various purposes, such as temperature, humidity, motion, light, dry contacts, and more. The company organizes the portfolio around a base platform, allowing deployment of multiple sensors quickly, with only minimal modifications required to the common platform. The software is delivered through a proprietary cloud platform, sparing the need for additional hardware resources on the physical sensors. In the present business model, users may install the required hardware module at $150 a piece, and the cloud-based software subscription comes at no extra cost. However, there is nothing preventing a new model wherein users subscribe to the cloud-based software on a need basis and get the associated hardware free of cost! ConnectSense’s system is already in use in several applications, such as agricultural observation and data center monitoring.
Sensor based Services
IoT as a Service (IoTaaS) would help enterprise implement IoT technologies without having to deploy complicated software stacks in-house, leave alone go through the arduous task of integrating such software with existing enterprise architecture. The technology is already in place.
Nokia’s recently launched worldwide IoT network grid (WING) is an IoT managed service for the enterprise market, offering connectivity and management services to businesses, and designed for use in connected cars, connected freight containers, and other similar applications. Nokia offers multi-tenanted connectivity, through M2M Core, which supports IoT communications and smartphone traffic, and Cloud Packet Core, which gives each enterprise exclusive access to a discrete segment of the core network. The system incorporates device connectivity via the e-SIM subscription model, and also the company’s Impact IoT platform, allowing them to maintain connectivity to local provider networks. In addition to this connectivity, Nokia’s IMPACT IoT platform offers device management, security, and analytics.
Canada’s Rogers Communications offers a suite of services that simplifies deployment and support of devices, services, and connectivity. It is already in use in several key services, such as “Farm and Food Monitoring” and “Level Monitoring,” to oversee sensors and other endpoints in refrigerators, field machinery, waste disposal machinery, and everywhere else, enabling organizations to offload day-to-day operations effectively.
Igor Leprince, Head of Global Services at Nokia, opines:
“IoT connectivity as a managed service is an answer for enterprises to the current IoT deployments that are hampered by the patchwork of business agreements to connect devices around the world. These services allow enterprises to get enterprise-class services at lower cost, with greater scalability and functionality, compared to what enterprises can reasonably conjure up in-house, and be spared to the hassles of doing so as well.”
Pure IoTaaS
Managing sensors and edge devices is only one piece of the overall IoT chain. When advanced analytics and automation that powers IoT functionality comes into the mix, the picture becomes complex.
Pure IoTaaS, which is leveraging the “things” itself for revenue in a service based model remains a tricky proposition. The underlying stumbling block is the limitation of using the “thing” for more than one purpose. For instance, it is hard to offer the dongle in the car on a service offering, but if the same dongle can be used for a multitude of service, there is a strong case for it. However, it is only a matter of time before technology advances to offer solutions that remove such underlying limitations. Just as the smartphone today has replaced the need for stand-alone wrist-watches, flashlights, alarm clock, camera, and music player, IoT “things” could in future be used for different things, leveraging the same hardware.
Cisco’s recent $1.4 billion acquisition of Jasper is a big step in pushing IoT as a service. Many many millions of “things” are already connected to Jasper’s network, allowing ecosystem partners to bring their service-based products to market and run it at scale.
The true benefit of IoT comes not by the efficiencies on offer by connecting everything, but by using such connected ‘things’ to overhaul the business model from static products to dynamic services. In such a model, products become dynamic, and businesses may add new services and revenue streams. A business could, for instance, derive for itself more value by selling printing-as-a-service than selling a few printers. GE is already selling power-by-the-hour jet engines, wherein the user of the engine pays the amount of power consumed by the engine by the hour, rather than an upfront capital cost.
The basic underpinnings of these systems still under development, but it is only a matter of time before the complexities are resolved, and IoT embrace service-level operations in line with other areas of the enterprise data stack. IoTaaS is most likely the next major development in business technology.
As competition mounts. IoTaaS is one-way companies can innovate and gain one-upmanship over the competition. Make sure you have all your bases covered, and tie-up with a strategic partner to have your systems in place, to leverage the coming IoT wave.
The noted English poet A L Tennyson’s words “Let the great world spin forever down the ringing grooves of change” captures the impact railways and locomotives brought about in the 19th Century, transforming the world from a grouping of feudal villages to an interconnected urban and industrialized world. Today, the world is in the throes of yet another mobility induced revolution, propelled by artificial intelligence, IoT and a myriad of other technologies that promote convergence and connectivity. This new disruption will be just profound, and likely to change lives forever.
A portent of things to come is Venture investors placing $5.7 billion into transportation businesses in 2016, twice the level of investment in the previous two years combined. The big thing in transportation that happened during the period, Uber and its cousins such as Lyft and GrabTaxi would seem rudimentary compared to the technologies on the anvil.
Autonomous Vehicles
Think artificial intelligence, and the first thing that pops up into most minds is the driverless car. Autonomous vehicles, which facilitate hands-free and feet-free driving are soon set to go mainstream. What works in favor of such vehicles is the ever decreasing cost of production. LiDAR laser sensors that Google uses on its autonomous vehicles cost $70,000 three years ago, it now costs just 10% of this amount now. New technologies now cost even less.
The opportunities that arise from autonomous vehicles are endless. Improved fuel efficiency and greater safety owing to the elimination of “human error” from the equation are the direct benefits, but the indirect benefits are much more. Autonomous cars can plot the best route to the destination, saving time and money, and deliver freedom from traffic jams. Cities can reclaim public spaces devoted to parking. The smaller mass and weight of the autonomous cars enable propulsion by compact, efficient, and environmentally friendly powertrains, reducing energy consumption considerably.
Collaborative Consumption
Collaborative consumption brings most of the benefits of the cloud to the mobility space. Instead of investing in owning and maintaining a vehicle, technology makes it increasingly viable to rent a vehicle on demand, hassle-free, and reliable.
The fleet of autonomous, shared vehicles, fully integrated to the road infrastructure and connected to the internet will create incredible value.
At a macro level, the automobile market is worth $20 trillion, but the utilization rate of this asset class is just 4% to 5%. Uber-inspired on-demand mobility technology would increase efficiency to a potential 10% utilization and at the same time considerable capital which can be diverted to other productive uses.
At the individual level, users are free of the hassles of maintaining the vehicle, navigating traffic, speeding tickets, finding parking space, charging or fuelling up the vehicle, and several other non-productive tasks, time which they can put to better use realizing their core competency.
From a business perspective, the simultaneous rise of fully autonomous networks of long-haul trucks can operate for extended time periods, covering longer distances, with lower costs. The direct benefits are quicker deliveries and decreased costs.
There would be direct cost savings as well. As collaborative consumption gain traction, average costs per passenger mile is expected to dip from around $1 per mile today to about 30¢ per mile.
Revamped Public Transportation
The rise of autonomous vehicles and connected vehicles would also revamp and revolutionize public transportation as we know it today. The sci-fi take “Beam me up, Scotty” may just become closer to reality as individuals can access a reliable, fast and transportation at just a few swipes of their smartphones and get to their destination in the most comfortable, fast, and cost-effective way possible.
Uber-like solutions for public transportation, combined with autonomous vehicles, would mean public transport vehicles becoming flexible enough to cater to real-time demands of mobility, rather than individuals being forced to adapt to timings of public transportation.
Fully autonomous cars, accessible on demand, anytime, anyplace, would make last-mile connectivity hassles a thing of the past, and would in many cases deliver seamless end-to-end transportation in a single vehicle, putting an end to public busses and trains.
As seamless multimodal transportation becomes the new norm, commuters would achieve seamless interoperability, enabling them to reach their destination using multiple, connected modes of transportation, on a single fixed price charged on a single payment system, with minimal walking and wait times. The integration of robotics to the mix may also allow them to travel hands-free, as their luggage, be it files or handbag reaches the same destination at the same time, through its own route.
Efficient Multimodal Network Solutions
Several start-ups are already working to improve transparency and reduce friction in public transportation. Some of the methods already popular include crowdsourcing transit data, moving ticketing to the smartphone, and calculating prices for multiple trip options. Infusing artificial intelligence to make predictive analysis, linking IoT data to automatically calculate the demand for routes, and more are rich possibilities for the future.
A case in point is the Caltrain, the fastest and most cost-efficient way to travel between San Francisco to San Jose. The trip, however, involves long wait times and cumbersome schedules. Effective integration of data from users’ calendars, user’s geo-location, and travel preferences would allow smart apps to plan highly efficient trips, using real-time data. Integrating such data with sharing services extending from cabs to e-bikes offers an effective solution to “last mile” challenges as well.
At the backend, technology would be put to increasing use to develop and manage the vehicle-operating and traffic network information system that helps direct and control the movement of autonomous vehicles and shared mobility fleets.
In the new scheme of things, enterprises that can capture aggregate, and analyze mobility-related data in real time can aspire to gain a foothold in the “virtual” value chain. Enterprises would do well to forge a strategic partnership with tech solution provider companies who have the talent and the expertise to deliver cutting-edge solutions that allow businesses to stamp their digital competency so essential for success. We have the right talent and wealth of experience to serve your needs well.
An overview of the efficiency and ROI Opportunities that the Industrial Internet of Things Unlocks
Computing technology has been evolving steadily over the years, from mainframe to minicomputers, to PC-based software, and then to internet websites and now mobility apps. Each major push has a disruptive impact on the ecosystem. The Internet of Things, manifesting in the convergence of the physical with the digital, is the next big thing and all set to shake up the world like never before. It is all set to usher in a new Industrial age. Between now and 2020, when IoT is expected to become well-entrenched, conservative estimates pegs the spend on IoT solutions at $6 trillion, and more than 34 billion connected devices.
The recent CBInsights Conference sheds light on the range of possibilities that IoT offers. The possibilities are endless, ranging from the already popular health bands to self-driven cars, from AI-powered tools replacing manual error prone judgment of investment managers, unlocking new revenue models, to predictive models speeding up processes and improving accuracy, and much more.
The key driver of IoT is digitalization, which blurs the line between technology and the physical world of machinery and other “things,” and integrates value chains on an end-to-end basis. IoT in a sense represents a convergence of the physical and the digital. The success of IoT depends on the ability to collect data from the real, physical world, and analyze it digitally in a timely way, to create new models that propel efficiency and unleash better solutions. While IoT is set to disrupt all walks of life, a key impact in business is on the industrial front.
Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), broken down to its bare bones, is harnessing all data around the end-to-end value chain of enterprises. GE estimates the Industrial Internet of Things market to touch $225 billion by 2020, and the total investment in IIoT to touch a whopping $60 trillion by 2030.
IIoT brings about a change in approach in how companies approach and conceive their assets. From a model where the process remained sacrosanct, the “thing” or “asset,” be it an engine, a television, an oil refinery, or anything else, now becomes the focal point on which systems are organized. The under riding focus is to improve the performance of such “things”.
Efficiency Improvements
IoT drives efficiencies in a big way. Data from millions of sensors, subject to real time may be put to use for any number of purpose.
IIoT transforms business processes through smart predictive maintenance, better asset utilization, and dynamic scheduling, delivering higher productivity.
Smart maintenance: At a basic level, IoT sensors and actuators enable predictive analysis to preempt machine failure. Proactive analysis, delivered as actionable insights, ensures prompt repairs and replacement of spares, maximizing the life of assets. Such services would evolve into platform-as-a-service that provides asset productivity and efficiency-enhancing tools.
Improved production quality: The intelligent adoption of data generated from millions of sensors help improve the quality of production. Insights from precision data contribute to sort out glitches, identify and eliminate common trouble spots, and automate routine tasks.
Dynamic scheduling: “Smart” data enables optimal allocation of machinery and other assets, eliminating both idling and over-congestion. This results in a smooth and harmonious workflow, which directly contributes to not just big savings in overheads, but also better quality of output.
New Possibilities
IIoT also enables new businesses, by unlocking potential not possible before. A good example is remote monitoring through “anything-as-a-service” offering. Such IoT-enabled interventions can have a positive disruption in the entire value chain of the business, A good application is in the food industry, where the entire value chain, from farm-to-fork, or from planting the seed to food at the table could be optimized through the effective use of sensors and other IoT things, to bring each process to the ecosystem, aimed at making them more efficient, to improve the quality, to improve the safety and eliminate waste.
Positive ROI
The efficiency and other value IIoT unlocks directly translate to financial gains. IoT-powered linking the physical and digital worlds could generate up to $11.1 trillion a year in economic value by 2025.
Among specific sectors, autonomous vehicles and condition based maintenance offers a potential value of anything between $210 billion and 740 billion. Operation and equipment optimization in factories unlock potential value of $1.2 trillion up to $$3.7 trillion. Operations optimization and health and safety implementation in worksites add another $160 billion to $960 billion. Logistics and navigation have the potential to add $560 billion to $850 billion in value.
IoT users, including businesses, consumers, and other stakeholders may capture up to 90% of the value that IoT applications generate if they get their IoT systems right and deploy the right tools.
Manufactures, and oil and gas majors have already started to see big gains from their IoT implementations, and as IoT gets bigger, the returns to are poised to get bigger and wider in scope.
Challenges
The new industrialization ushered by IoT will force a paradigm shift in the production and distribution of goods, in the manner in which products are serviced, and in several other functions. The elephant in the IoT room is, however, innovation. Unless there is sufficient innovation in developing new business models and in the development of end-user products and services that leverage the IoT technology to actually bring the possibilities to the end-customer, much of the potential disruption would remain on paper.
Side by side with innovation, there needs to be a coherent action to ensure the systems and procedures in place facilitate leveraging IoT. There is a pressing need to encourage interoperability, ensure security, and protect privacy and property rights before IoT realize its full potential. On average, about 40% of all settings in enterprise require interoperability, before IoT can add value.
IoT data remains heavily underutilized as of now. IoT will cause positive disruption only if the available data is leveraged to the hilt, through cutting edge real-time analytics. To put things in perspective, an oil rig with 30,000 sensors, only one percent of the data is examined now, mainly to detect and control anomalies. For IoT to make a paradigm shift, much more data should be leveraged and applied for higher tasks, such as process optimization and prediction as well.
While IoT promises loads of potential, it is early days in the IoT game, making the situation dicey. Your best bet in riding the IoT wave is to partner with a sound developer like us, who not only have the right technical expertise in developing cutting edge and innovative solutions that take advantage of the possibilities IoT unlocks, but also keep abreast with the technology in the first place. We have a wealth of experience developing cutting edge solutions, cutting across industries.
Technology is always in a constant state of flux, and promises to be no different. Successful are those companies who keep an ear to the ground, and discern the latest trends, to gain early mover advantage. Here are the top tech trends unfolding in the coming days.
1. The High Demand for Enterprise Mobility Apps
If there is a sure shot winner in every year, its enterprise app development. As enterprises discover the tremendous potential that mobility brings in terms of productivity improvement, unlocking new possibilities, improving coordination between field staff and the main office, enabling on-the-move executives to remain connected, facilitating real-time decision making, and much more, they are scurrying to develop mobile app solutions for all their critical functions.
Gartner estimates the demand for mobile apps to outstrip supply by a whopping ratio of five to one. The challenge posed by the extremely fluid technology space, where technology changes by the day, is worsened by the severe talent crunch. New app development technologies that promote low-node and no-code options are becoming popular, but there is no short-cut to seasoned expertise to roll out intuitive apps that tick all boxes of customer satisfaction. Here is a list of top enterprise developers.
2. User Experience Becomes All-Supreme
The competition for eyeballs has never been so intense before. With more and more players scrambling to gain the attention of a finite number of customers, enterprises are not just offering multiple points of contact, such as websites, mobile optimized websites, mobile apps, and more, but they also ensure all these channels come fully optimized for the device, to deliver an immersive user experience.
Users able to navigate the website or app easily, finding what they are looking for without putting in much of an effort, are likely to stay long. This raises the stakes of web development and web designing, to offer powerful yet simple user experience, optimized for the device. Web development now becomes a strategic activity, packing in the optimal list of features, in a simple easy-to-navigate design, and ensuring good UX at the same time. This trend of rolling out simple, yet powerful UX will gain further ground in coming years.
3. Collaborative Tools Gain CentreStage
The cloud and mobility are well entrenched, offering executives a world of convenience to work from anywhere, at any time. However, online collaboration still requires supporting infrastructure. Among the various solutions that have come up to facilitate collaboration, Microsoft SharePoint leads the pack, and is likely to continue its domination in future. Microsoft SharePoint is basically a collaboration and document management platform, enabling groups to set up a centralized space to share documents.
In 2016, Microsoft launched SharePoint Hybrid, which is in a sense the best of both worlds, an enterprise platform residing partly on-premises and partly within the Cloud. There is now also the provision to link on-premises version of SharePoint with Office365. As the New Year unfolds, further advancements are in the offing, especially in facilitating better content collaboration, mobility, intelligence and trust. As the cloud become even more popular, the cloud version of SharePoint will likely see big improvements.
4. The Return of the ERP
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is in a revival of sorts, after years of lull. ERP may seem as anarchism in today’s fast paced world, considering deployment of ERP required complex rollouts running into years. What pushes the case for ERP is top ERP vendors reinventing themselves and delivering a far faster and smoother rollout. The game changer is cloud based ERP, or a SaaS offering, allowing enterprises the unprecedented flexibility of picking and choosing the modules they like for their ERP implementation. SaaS-based ERP is likely to gain considerable ground in coming years, as a means for enterprises to remain organized on a structured and connected way. Success would depend on the ERP solution that continues to deliver traditional service, and leverage the available big data to the hilt.
Among the many ERP vendors, SAP, the time-tested old warhorse leads the pack, as the most popular ERP suite preferred across sectors and company size.
5. Artificial Intelligence and Augmented Reality Goes Strong
That Artificial Intelligence (AI) has awesome potential is never in doubt. AI powered tools such as Google Translate, Amazon’s Alexa home assistant, and more have already become well entrenched and hugely popular offerings. More and more such apps would go mainstream in the coming year, with the power of Artificial Intelligence tapped for everything from driver-less cars to medical research.
Side by side, virtual reality will continue its golden run, but it eventually stands to be supplanted by Augmented or Mixed Reality. Virtual Reality based products such as Oculus Rift, Sony’s PlayStation VR and HTC Vive are the rage now, but in the coming days, AR based products such as Pokémon Go, which allow superimposing information or content of any kind on real world settings will take over.
6. Internet of Things Gets a Reality Check
The Internet of Things received it first big challenge in September 2016, when some malware took control of millions of internet-connected devices and launched what has been the largest-in-class attack to date. The attack left large swathes of internet inaccessible for days. Undoubtedly, the coming days will see several such attacks, much more potent, bringing a reality-check to the hype surrounding the Internet of Things. There will be a major focus on security as well in the IoT scheme of things.
IT stakeholders are still like hares caught in headlights, when it comes to cyber attacks. To counter security threats, encryption has now become mainstream, to the extent the New York Times is now accepting news tips via the encrypted app Signal. However, it would require much more innovation to truly secure networks, and it remains to be seen whether any path-breaking security paradigms emerge.
7. Convergence Inches Closer to Reality
This year will also witness a convergence of the internet and television, or live TV, allowing us to see television when we want it, rather than fix our schedule around television shows. YouTube is already putting together a live TV package, and players such as Hulu and Amazon are positioning to enter the fray.
Mere knowledge of the top tech trends is useless unless the enterprise is capable enough to leverage the trends, to roll out cutting edge solutions that confer early-mover status and significant competitive advantage. This is where most enterprises, faced with talent crunch and an already overburdened IT team, falter. We can help you here. Our team of highly experienced and talented developers is always on the top of the game, having successfully executed several mobility and other solutions for enterprises cutting across sectors and industries.
So, the customer makes time, waits for the service technician to show up, to troubleshoot the error that has been showing up quite often lately. The clock ticks by and there is no sign of anybody at the door, you muster patience and keep your other important stuff aside for a while longer. But, alas! The guy is nowhere to be found, giving up hope that he would show up, you finally make up your mind to get on with the other stuff. Just when you are about to get busy and make the wasted day productive again, there sounds the door bell. Annoyed as much as you are, you open the door there he stands, the service guy. The moment he gets to work he realises that there are some essential parts missing to go through with the job. Talk about a day going from bad to worse!
For a service company, there is no other bane that shouts out foul louder than the Field Service technician who hasn’t responded, or been helpful, irrespective of the multiple calls and wasted efforts by the customer.
Such scenario that blows the customer satisfaction to 0 on a scale of 10, makes the customer disgruntled and annoyed. But on closer introspection, what the organisations should realise is that these are caused due to the absence of the right tools in the arsenal of the Field service guy. With the advent of time, technology has become an enabler and a good preventive for such issue that affects your customer satisfaction to go down south. Right technology incorporated can help you to optimise service delivery, delight customers and in turn result in transforming your business. The right tools can help you render world class service levels on a consistent basis and make a lot of difference the way your company is perceived by the customer.
Right Approach with the Right Tech
Field service requires efficient ways in which data and information can be provided to a remote technician, away from his workstation, so that he can take the right action without delay. What better way than to use the power of mobility to scale your areas with the most relevant information. Mobility, when coupled with the right technology, can make well-rounded tools that help you to stay informed, relevant and to give the right advantage.
Being mobile-centric can help you have a real-time approach to field service management, such as having visibility and streamlining communication with your field service technicians, giving them real-time access to knowledge and back-end systems, accurate data entry, real-time scheduling and data tracking. This can be best done with a combination of techniques and tools that help the field service technician enable better first-time fix ratios and establish a good customer relationship.
Internet Of Things
IoT for business is becoming the norm and the number of businesses investing in connected technology is rapidly increasing . The connected world that IoT brings forth and the equipment telematics would provide added value of monitoring the equipment health and the efficiency at which it operates. This invariably means lesser downtime because the preventive IoT data can help organisations take real proactive approach when required. This can also go a long way as the information can be utilised to re-engineer the product and make necessary quality improvement, by utilising the equipment performance diagnostics and performance metrics.
Embedded Analytics and Big Data
IoT can churn a lot of data from machines, customers, and products. The challenge lies in turning this data into actionable insights that can improve the bottom line of the company. Being able to replace the paper with mobile devices as the primary input device, can help in reducing the redundancies and save time. The data analytics allow fast and timely action on the vast data from the field giving more real-time feedback on the state of field operations. When the field service personnel is provided with sophisticated analytical tools, they can improve and tweak their operations according to the real-time data input from both the mobile apps and equipment sensors. This visibility enables the field service managers to gather insights on performance, tasks and service quality.
Be Cloud-Based
If there is one technology that has become the backbone of most field service applications, it is the ubiquitous power of the cloud. The cloud plays a critical role in field service mobility by providing the worker access to information whenever, wherever they need it. This leads to better collaboration among the workers by sharing the reports and documents that can be accessed through different devices. Cloud security becomes more sensitive as the workers would have access to data over various networks. This points out to the importance of choosing the right field service software with software upgrades and policies to keep your data secure.
Remote Resolution
With IoT, cloud and analytics it becomes easier for remote resolution of problems. The smart machines can go a step further and raise a flag before something goes awry. IoT would grow bigger, with more connected devices, it is imperative for organisations, that, they leverage the potential to resolve problems via remote resolution. The first time fix rates of organisations can go up since the field service manager has the information to take the required action, ahead of the actual occurrence of the incident.
Network Reliability
The data generated from cloud-based and mobile apps, email and the communication technicians try to establish, can put a lot of strain in the underlying infrastructure of Network. The investment in mobile solutions means that the network in which they operate should be able to take this load and run with it effortlessly, without any glitches. Neglecting the requirement of a reliable network can impact performance, handicap productivity and make the devices less reliable with high traffic. The Hybrid clouds, Virtual servers and high capacity storage provides the network with scalability, flexibility and keeps it reliable.
Security
With the power of IoT and an anywhere, anytime expectation of services and data, there are more points in the grid, where possible security issues may arise. The security concerns would be a primary issue that the organisations should be paying attention to, advanced security applications and an increase in financial commitment to prevent attacks would go a long way in securing the overall setup. Security should ideally begin with the user being educated with the do’s and don’t’s on how to be secure with mobile devices, and then it is essential that the devices be updated with tools and protocols to limit security issues.
Predictive Maintenance
The connected devices enable a field service capability that emphasises more on preventive maintenance rather than firefighting when things go wrong. The preventive nature of work empowers the organisation to give higher levels of customer service with little or no downtime. This can lead to stronger foundation between the business and the customer by keeping the business up, devoid of any hiccups or downtime. The predictive power of IoT-connected devices can automate the field service process and trigger service calls when something needs a maintenance.
There are components in business that ride the wave of time to have halo’s associated with it, when space, time and the event coincide, the companies that wear the halo accelerates its reach and hits the bull’s-eye. The resulting amalgamation of people, processes and ideas have time and time again celebrated success. This has been etched in stone, but what’s more contrasting and less surprising is that the components that create the halo is never the same and are subjected to disruption from around. There were innovations that elevated organizations and disruptions that have catapulted few others to the top. Particularly, the digital forces that once was touted as a disruption, which is now increasingly becoming the norm for the future.
The Whole Picture
Digital Transformation is not about islands of digitization like digital marketing, digital customer behavior or transformation from paper to digital media within an organization, rather it is a demanding process that requires considerable time, holistic thought and skilled people to guide the transformation process. The change has to be ideally driven from top-down, where the business leaders can put together the pieces of the digital puzzle thus enabling a rapid transformation in the business processes, activities and work models to move faster and efficiently to meet customer and business needs. This transformation of business by leveraging technology ultimately rests on the people who can drive the change into all layers of the organization.
Common Frontiers, Different Approach
Digital as the way forward is being experimented at varying degrees and varying pace by organizations. Some become more successful than the other to make this change a holistic one that touches the entire organization. The successful organizations show traits of digital maturity that touch different areas within an enterprise like Marketing, Operations, HR and Customer service; business models that unite these areas, and processes that embed efficiency through business automation, optimization, and management.
The foundation of successful transformation into the digital realm lies in organizational change, this change needs to address some key areas:
- For existing business, there is a need to take stock and understand why to transform, what to transform and how to transform. Once the reflection is carried out and you have figured out the answers to these questions, you should ideally start your mission to a digitally modified business. Improving on digital lines can help to have improved decision making by the use of big data, analytics, creating an effective corporate control, Risk optimization by automating manual labor, improved targeting with insights from customers, augmentation of traditional channels into digital and whenever wherever service propositions as well. Granted your journey would require much change from the status quo, and even you may not be as digital as a “Born Digital” company, but effective action can leverage the existing business, giving better reach to help multinational companies to truly have global operations.
- For an organization, Digital transformation process is multifaceted. Right from the beginning, it is essential that the organization has leaders with the potential to drive this change. The company has to make changes in their best practices in business architecture, BPM, continuous improvement, continuous innovation, crowd computing etc. Latest tools for robotics and sensors that can automate much of the mundane, so that the organization can focus on building lasting relationships with the customer. A mix of digital technologies, tools, and best practices can set the stage for Digital Transformation.
- The end part of the digital transformation is the customer experience. The models, the processes and the coherence of the activities carried out within an organization should ideally drive the customer journey with an emphasis on the physical and digital touch points. With Digital it is possible to effectively map this journey by understanding the way the customer interacts with business and brands, this invariably helps to find the best-fit solution for the customers. This is made possible through the combination of software, IoT, Big data, Mobile, CRM, Augments reality etc. In reality, a company may not be able to perform all these alone, it would have to seek partners that can run part of the show for them so that the companies can, in turn, focus on building their main offering.
The final touch points, like the interface, should invariably help the customer feel at ease and add touches of modernity. Looks aren’t everything, but when you and your competitor have the same product, looks, and a streamlined interface would come in handy
The Digital Wave doesn’t mean to throw away the method in which the business is being currently being conducted, rather it should dovetail and leverage the current best practices. When this is executed in the right way, the businesses can cater to a wider array of customers, speed to hit break even in shorter time, improve workflow employee efficiency within the organization. All companies irrespective of the segments they cater must invest proportionally so that risks can be mitigated and key opportunities are addressed in the most prudent way.
Think of field service operations, and the odds are of the term being associated with inefficiency, delays, and other ills. Field service operations are not just reactive in nature, but characteristically prone to high incidence of human error, induced by various causes such as skill deficiency of the technician, lack of adequate tools or information, technical limitations, inconsistency or ambiguity of instructions, time limitations, and so on.
There is a solution in sight though. The IoT revolution offers a chance to not just set things right, but also to transform the ecosystem itself in a big way.
1. Optimize Provisioning of Resources
M2M, the core subset of IoT, enable sensors on devices or “things” to communicate with one another, transmitting location, movement, temperature, environment, and other relevant data. Top service teams of today tap into M2M data to gain visibility into the device they maintain, and offer timely support.
Sparked, a Dutch start-up, places such M2M enabled wireless sensors on cattle, to alert farmers when a cow is sick, pregnant, or in some other state. Replicating the same set-up to devices allow field service technicians to detect anomalies in real-time. The service controller taps into the technician’s geolocation, and assigns the repair job to the best poised technician closest to the location.
2. Undertake Proactive Preventive Maintenance
Very often the agony users express on finding a device conked out, is not concerns about what happened to the device, but the downtime. The fix itself may be simple and even obvious, but the wait can be nerve wrecking. Service firms may use IoT to change over from a reactive service model, waiting for the customer to call and log a service request, to a proactive model that automatically predicts problems, and thereby play into the pressing need of instant gratification.
Consider the case of Diebold, the Ohio-based international ATM manufacturer, responsible for the maintenance of repair of thousands of ATMs spread across the globe. Its global service team leverages M2M generated data to identify how long a specific component has been in use, and how many times a machine has been used. The team keeps track of data emitted by each ATM, on a 24×7 basis, to identify when a technician need to replace a specific machine’s parts, and schedules services accordingly, on a proactive basis, pre-empting machine failure.
An Intelligent Business Operations Platform that embeds actionable predictive analytics into business processes equips field technicians with insights not available before. It empowers them to take data-driven decisions, allowing them to fix things before they break. Aberdeen Group estimates 50% of top-performing service companies having such preventive maintenance models in place, with 26% of them able to resolve issues remotely, even without making site visits.
3. Invest in Remote Diagnostics
IoT-enabled remote diagnostics help to cut downtime even further.
The trends and patterns made explicit by M2M data allow technicians to pin-point what is wrong, which components to replace, which tools to carry to the site, and more. This enables more first-time fixes, reducing downtime for the customer and greatly reducing rolling inventory for the service provider.
In many cases, such as, if the equipment simply requires reset; the task may be done remotely, by issuing commands to the sensor, eliminating the need for a site visit entirely. Medical tech provider Welch Allyn’s cloud-based M2M solution that runs software updates and even makes remote repairs to their equipment from afar is a good case-in-point.
Beecham Research estimates such remote monitoring and diagnostics reducing service visits by as much as 60%. Diebold could resolve about 17% of their issues remotely without ever sending a technician onsite. Needless to say, the reduced downtime improves customer satisfaction greatly.
4. Empower Field Technicians to Ensure Better Fixes
IoT-powered wearables offer the potential of making field service technicians much more potent and effective. He could, for instance, tap onto the NFC tag attached to the device being repaired, and read notes on previous maintenance carried out. Taking cues from surgeons using Google Glasses, less experienced field technicians could have ready access to their instruction manuals, or hook up with other experts to get insights and instructions on complex problems, sparing additional field visits.
Taking the concept to the next stage, IoT and wearable technology offers the potential of self-service and eliminate the need for service technicians to visit the site at all. A smart glass endowed user could get accurate step-by-step instructions to fix the device, from a remote technician who draws in M2M data from the device being fixed.
5. Develop Better Business Models
Applying M2M and the larger IoT technology improves the efficiency of the field service team manifold, and help them do more with lesser resources. It helps to propel FSM 2.0, which promises a win-win proposition, with the provider able to adopt outcome-based revenue models, and pass on some of the gains of improved productivity and efficiency to customers. The service team may also share M2M intelligence with the customers, especially at the invoicing phase, forging an effective working relationship and improving transparency of the whole exercise.
IoT promises a better, transformed world, where field service operations never had it so good. But it still requires effective solutions to tap into the possibilities. ReachOut Suite, for instance, offers a complete solution for all your field service requirements, allowing you to manage everything seamlessly, from one central console.
The field service industry, as we all know, is at the peak of its transformative stage now. The technological advancements in the industry have been coming on, one after the other for the past few years, and now the rate of the revolution has reached an all time high.
As new tools and technologies continue to take over the field service market, let’s take a look at some of the major trends for the coming year:
- Predictive Maintenance – Last year, we saw the expansion of the Internet of Things as well as a more widespread use of analytics tools to handle all the big data. From this year on, it is time to put those tools to real use, and enhance the predictive capabilities of all connected devices. That way, a more predictive or proactive approach to service can be taken up, along with automation. For example, sensors could be fixed on equipments, and devices, that can notify its users when it needs a repair or when it is due for its regular maintenance. Thus, the whole process becomes automated, as it provides enough insight to the service providers to serve customers, without having them make a service request or call.
- The Internet of Everything – The Internet of Things isn’t exactly a new trend to look out, but we will definitely see an increase in its adoption by businesses in various industries, making it sort of an established industry best practice. According to Gartner, there are going to be about 26 billion devices, apart from smartphones, tablets, and computer systems, that are connected through the Internet of Things by 2020. Hence, the range of devices through which people are connected is getting bigger, which is exactly what the field service industry needs. The field service technicians need to be connected with the main office, with their colleagues, with the equipments used in the fields, as well as with their customers in real time. Information captured in the fields, with the help of such intelligent connected devices can then be used further, in predictive maintenance practices too.
- Better Integration – As an implication of the “Internet of Everything” phenomenon, there is going to be an exponential increase in productivity and efficiency over the next few years. As mobile devices, equipments, telematics, and the offices are connected and integrated with field service solutions, there can be more chances or opportunities to work closely and communicate more effectively. A custom field service software will be the right way to go about it.
With the help of vehicle tracking, scheduling and routing facilities on mobile devices, field service technicians can take decisions in real-time remotely. It also helps them avoid issues related to reckless driving, control maintenance costs etc., all from a handheld device. All this besides the regular utilities like access to customer history and billing information, location information of colleagues and the like.
- Mobility all the way – We will see most field service companies embracing mobility in the years to come. Field service solutions will take different mobile forms like tablets and smartphones, customized to suit the different business models of companies. Here are some of Gartner’s predictions for future:
– About 40% of the field service workforce will be mobile
– More than 65% of the mobile workforce will have a smartphone
– Field service organizations will buy up to 53 million tablets in coming years
- A Single Provider – Along with modernization and further technological developments in the industry comes an increasing trend of relying on a single provider for all the functionalities required for work. Most companies entrust a single company to deliver the software and skills to manage their work, employees, and assets. This calls for comprehensive, robust as well as flexible platforms supported by strong providers.
What other trends do you think can be added to this list? Share with us in the comments below. Let’s discuss.
By now, we all know that we are living in the midst of billions of devices and machines that are connected to the internet and to each other. Need more evidence to believe it?
Well, Gartner predicts the number of internet connected devices and things to grow to almost 21 billion by 2020. IoT is in fact, huge and growing.
We humans are literally on the verge of being outnumbered by connected devices in the coming years. Now, I bet we didn’t see this coming when we first started using smartphones!
And get this, each of these devices, whether they are smart or wicked smart or even not so smart, are constantly collecting data through various sensors around them. In fact, a lot of our personal information is being accessed by our smartphones alone for crying out loud!
Is it almost time to start fearing the appalling situation of “Technological Singularity”?
Are we all going to get phased out by the intelligent machines one day?
We will have to let time answer that question, although we do have a hold over it through security measures.
Security and privacy are two of the most questionable aspects of IoT. Especially, now that the number of devices, as well as the amount of data are increasing rapidly, it becomes all the more difficult to monitor its use.
Connected everything – is it a boon or a bane?
When you take consumer devices like smartphones, think of the data it collects from your applications. It takes note of everything we do with our phones, wherever we go, including things like what we eat, what mode of travel we use, which route we choose, who we communicate with, what pictures we take and so on.
When it comes to fitness and health care, we have wearables and other smart devices that monitor our heart rate, our sleep time, our exercise routines and the like.
Likewise, we have sensors sending and receiving information on a number of devices we use on a daily basis. Combining all this information, along with analytics in the cloud, the value and amount of information that can be collected about our health and lifestyle is massive. The issue here is that, the level of technology has grown so much that, it surpasses the ability of law to control and protect how this data might be used. And needless to say, the endless number of devices being used, the amount of data generated and the applications that use the data, together make it worse. It is pretty hard to ensure security on such a wide scale.
Wearables
Delving a little deeper into wearables, a study in 2015 showed that around 41,000 patents were granted from 2010 to 2015 for wearable technologies. This only shows the pace at which wearables are advancing.They are seen more as a means to overcome some of the common issues of the modern society, and encourage people to move more. They help us in leading healthier lifestyles by tracking our sleep patterns, monitoring temperature, heart rate, glucose levels and the like.
For example, the Microsoft Band, makes use of galvanic skin response sensors, just like the ones used in lie detectors to track your activity levels, heart rate and more.
CES (Consumer Electronics Show) this year saw the first ever Bluetooth connected pregnancy test along with its app.
What we earlier thought to be science fiction, is a reality now.
In healthcare, though, we do have the HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996) rules and regulations to monitor and control the sharing of health information. They are pretty strict as well. Devices like Fitbit are majorly being discussed around the world, on whether or not they violate the HIPAA rules. So, we do seem to have a certain safety element around health wearables.
Privacy?
According to a paper published by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on Consumer Data Privacy and the IoT, out of many issues that could affect data privacy, there are four basic ones that need our constant attention, namely security, data minimization, choice, and notice.
Data minimization is the practice of limiting the amount of data collected from various devices, to only what’s necessary for the application, and deleting any old information as well, all for privacy purposes. The paper mentioned that such data minimization affected innovation, as even though collecting extra information may not seem to be useful at present, it may help future applications and functions, and restricting such possibilities affects the chances of better, improved applications for the consumers.
Notice and choice refer to the information given to the consumers about the amount and kind of data they are going to be sharing, and the option for them to opt in and opt out.
How many times have you seen an application asking for access to your smart phone’s camera, contacts, location and the like?
Even an app that doesn’t seemingly need to read your contacts, like a fitness app, prompts you for such information. Sometimes these permissions are hidden in clickthrough approvals of end user agreements necessary for the app to function or to activate a device or an app.
And many other apps claim to use “bank grade security” and “encryption” as protection measures for your data, but seldom do people know even the meaning of those terms.
Hence, the bottom line remains, that security and privacy are indeed two important aspects of IoT and data collection. But a lack of standards, and rules to ensure adherence to the same makes it an ever growing concern in the IoT era.
What are your thoughts on security and sharing of data across devices? Let us know in the comments below.