The internet-of-things (IoT) has definitely evolved a lot ever since it was first given birth to, initially purely in theory, by Kevin Ashton in 1999 during his time employed with Procter&Gamble; Ashton, who had experience in supply chain optimisation at the time, hoped to draw senior management’s attention to a new tech referred to as RFID,’ 

Since that time, IoT has come into several aspects of our lives, ranging from voice assistants to smartwatches and other smart wearables, and they’re redefining the manner in which we work, talk, and engage with one another. In 2021, it’s obvious that it is here to be a mainstay, with countless practical use case around the globe. 

There are believed to be 35.82 billion IoT devices setup globally and a market&markets report indicated that this will appreciate to 75.44 billion devices by 4 years time. 

The IoT Tech Expo 2021, hosted in London this week, looked into the newest challenges, opportunities and innovations within IoT and looked at the influence it’s having throughout all domains. 

A few of the most compelling discussions were with regards to smart energy, the challenges of developing IoT tech that is advantageous to your business in a genuine fashion measuring success and how IoT can be integrated into a digital transformation strategy. 

Smart energy challenges 

Talking at the event, Nathan Pierce, programme director for Sharing Cities, Greater London Authority, stated: “We are required to retrofit all buildings. In a majority of scenarios, it’s expensive, but additionally a massive technical challenge as well, as some buildings are comparatively simple to retrofit but a few are massively tough to retrofit. 

“Then you’re getting into the region of complications with regards to retrofitting public buildings, private buildings, or as we have across London and across the United Kingdom, mixtures of publicly and privately owned buildings. 

“Therefore, for us, smart energy inside of that type of ecosystem, there are things that people can be doing at an individual level. But a critical thing is the Green New Deal, which is a big government policy push as aspect of a recovery strategy following COVID. 

“It’s summing up how we can retrofit our legacy buildings to make them more energy efficient leveraging smart technology, sensors and data. Changing windows and insulating buildings will have an enormous impact, but the digital smart controls and IoT platforms can factor in an additional 10-15% energy reduction.” 

Enhancing efficiency with IoT 

Harry Tayler, European manufacturing and supply chain lead, Palantir, stated: “As an enterprise, question yourself ‘what decisions am I making by the thousands every year, but perhaps a tad bit suboptimal, a bit inefficient? And what would the impact be on the bottom line, and the KPIs that we are concerned about, if we were to enhance those decisions by minimal amounts moving forward?” 

“Then question yourself how IoT could assist with that instead. And that could be beginning with something very small. That could be a root cause analysis of anything within your supply chain or your logistics operations. It could be something consistently present, like improving the productivity of the production line, a piece of industrial equipment. Whatever it is, whichever you make the decision you decide to manage first, it requires to throw off an immediate and measurable impact or KPI that you are very concerned about, preferably income. 

“You are required to do that in order for your more medium term digital transformation journey, and for a majority of you, we’re sure you are on – to have an opportunity of succeeding in what presently is a really restricted environment. And that really is our challenge to work through with out clients. How do you get IoT functional today? 

IoT and the digital transformation journey 

Richard Allbert, prior head of digital innovation, Pirelli Deutschland, stated: “To begin you should really just begin small. Find a specialist company and get them on board. This can save you time in adding and creating value. 

“I believe there’s a massive amount of progress to be had in this regard. There are some massive companies and it’s always the same. They develop these huge systems. Lately, Microsoft developed a map of the world and it seems nice but what are you practically going to achieve with it? It took them a whopping six months to create. For that time investment, what is it bringing to the table? You cannot measure the benefit of it. 

“So we would state begin small. And for that supplier and the client it has the prospect to become something much quicker, very, very big and very valuable.” 

Measuring success 

Sylwia Kechiche, principal analyst, IoT, GSMA Intelligence, stated: “The way enterprises measure IT success is that 60% state via revenue generation and 65% cost savings. And the latter one is down in contrast to the previous year. Then 50% of enterprises state compliance. 

“So it’s these three in fairly equal measure. However, the bottom line is, we are not aware whether or not they’re actually measuring this.”