Ready or Not, Here IoT Comes

The Internet of Things will bring huge changes to the way markets and businesses work — and it could get messy.

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How does data inform business processes, offerings, and engagement with customers? This research looks at trends in the use of analytics, the evolution of analytics strategy, optimal team composition, and new opportunities for data-driven innovation.
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The potential of the Internet of Things is fueling a lot of interest (and hype) all across media and industry. But we aren’t ready.

We are attracted to, and ready for, the insights that will likely come. But being ready for the benefits isn’t the same as being ready for the associated changes. Before the smoldering ingredients of IoT catch fire, preparation for the coming market power shifts, increasing complexity, pervasive security, and process change would help most organizations make the most of the IoT potential.

Yes, the potential insights from IoT are enticing. For example, it’s fun to think about the potential personal and even societal benefits from self-driving cars, such as fewer accidents, no problems with parking, more productivity while traveling, car sharing, greater infrastructure efficiency, etc. But perhaps a more profound implication is the data that they can collect. These cars will also be widely distributed “things,” gathering performance data that can help manufacturers diagnose problems, operational data that can help mechanics prevent failures, driver data that can help insurers understand risk, road data that can help cities improve infrastructure, etc. These kinds of insights, we’re ready for.

But there are a lot more changes coming with the IoT transformation than many people may recognize.

In the classic triangle, fire requires heat, oxygen, and fuel; without all three, fire isn’t possible. By analogy, analytics required data, technologies, and knowledge to be possible. About a decade ago, advances in information technology converged to fuel a boom in corporate use of analytics. First, widespread implementation of information systems captured unprecedented amount of data in ways that could be used in isolation or combined. Second, tools and technologies allowed the inexpensive storage and processing. Third, savvy analytical innovators creatively combined these to show everyone else what could be done.

Now, a similar convergence is coming with the Internet of Things. First, the cost and physical size of sensor technology have dropped such that they can be incorporated into most items. Second, widespread communications infrastructure is in place to allow these distributed components to coordinate. Third, once again, savvy innovators are showing the rest of us the possibilities from the data they collect.

Topics

Competing With Data & Analytics

How does data inform business processes, offerings, and engagement with customers? This research looks at trends in the use of analytics, the evolution of analytics strategy, optimal team composition, and new opportunities for data-driven innovation.
More in this series

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Comments (2)
christian
And marketing!

See: Jamshed Dubash's "Marketing and the Internet of Things: Are You Ready?"
http://www.marketingjournal.org/marketing-and-the-internet-of-things-are-you-ready-jamshed-dubash/
Michael Elling
As the internet or IP stack does not include any inherent internetwork settlement models between the horizontal layers and vertical boundary points, we should shy away from calling it "internet" and instead focus on the "world of things" WoT which would focus on settlement systems the provide important price signals and (dis)incentives.  These would reduce the need for data sharing and mining and focus more on clearing supply and demand more effectively by directly relating the commercial value of a session to its network or communication cost.

This approach runs counter to the settlement free or bill and keep model that has fostered and sustained today's vertically integrated monopolies at the core and edge.