Often when people hear about IoT (Internet of Things), they think about it that it is for consumer-oriented scenarios like fitness bands, switching lights on, home security and so on. But in fact, the Internet of Things has a big room to transform business and that too, completely. You should accept this fact that telematics is not just consumer-oriented thing.

Recently, Daryl Plummer from Gartner – an American marketing, market research and advisory firm providing information technology related insight presented a webinar on digital innovation which he discussed where the IoT and business is headed in. He said that “e-business is conducting business electronically,” whereas in a digital business you “begin to change the structure and the nature of how your business processes happen. The difference is important.”

What Actually IoT Means for Your Business and how it is beneficial for you?

Everyone knows about Internet of Things but the question is: how it is beneficial for you, how it would affect your life or business or what things are included in it? These question often come to people’s mind whether the one is an individual or holding a business/company. We have already told how it would change the life of an individual in our previous article. Now, it’s time to discuss the benefits of IoT for your business.

1. It would allow you to make smarter products: Couple of years back, people used to think that their phone will be able to make calls and send messages only. But what happened? Today, those phones turned into smartphones and have become capable of doing almost things. Similarly, other objects that we carry in our pocket are expected to become smarter than before. It might seem unnecessary or strange at first glance to have an internet-enabled frying pan, a smart tennis racket, a smart yoga mat, but all these things are going to enter into our lives in near future and can be considered as the first forays of Internet of things. However, only time will reveal which one of them will stick and which one of them will go the way of Pet Rocks, but the point is that businesses/companies will have the opportunity to make smarter, more connected and more useful products.

2. It would enable smarter business operations and help taking smarter decisions: You need to accept this fact that a big part of the IoT is not so much about only smart devices, but about high-tech sensors. The tiny innovation which can be attached with everything from the cement in bridges to yogurt cups, enabling them to record and send data to the cloud/manufacturer in order to improve the services and products. It will allow businesses/companies to collect more and more specific feedback on ‘how products are working, how they are used, when they go out of service, and even what changes they need.’You must be knowing Rolls Royce – a British multinational public holding company that, through its various subsidiaries, designs, manufactures and distributes power systems for aviation and other industries. Company’s aircraft engines contain several high-tech sensors that send real-time data on the engine’s function to the monitoring stations at the airport. This information is used to detect malfunctions before they become calamitous and possibly to investigate (and hopefully prevent) the causes of airplane disasters. Similarly, Microsoft uses some software that constantly collects data and feedback on ‘what features of its products are used too often’, in order to pull down the least popular ones and to focus on the popular ones.

3. It would completely change the business model: Above and beyond all the aforementioned things, I believe the IoT will also signal the possibility of a major change in business model for some specific (at least for now) businesses. For example, take John Deere – an American corporation that manufactures agricultural, construction, and forestry machinery, diesel engines, drivetrains used in heavy equipment, and lawn care equipment. For decades, they used to sell tractors that made farming easier and more profitable. But if we look at recent changes in the company’s products, they have added data connectivity to their products, providing information to the farmers about ‘which crops should be planted, where and when should be planted, when and where should be plowed and even which route to go through during plowing.’ Means, eventually, they have entered into the business of selling data/information as much as they are selling farming products.

Overall, the IoT is representing a tilt into the lens which we see the world through. We have come to a point of our lives where we can’t afford going back to old products. In fact, we expect more advancements. Take a phone for example, none of us would want to adopt a phone that is just a phone. Now we need a smart phone which can do everything. Similarly, when smart cars, smart infrastructure, smart roads etc. will become a part of our lives, we will not be able to imagine a life or going back to a life without them.

Further, the IoT is changing the world. Invert the pages of history and see, companies that couldn’t update themselves with technological advancements went into dust. Similarly, IoT is the latest advancement and need to be considered seriously. Are you ready?