IoT: Hype or Real Benefits? Success Stories About How Companies Use the Internet of Things
In this Article:
1.1 What is the IoT?
1.2 IoT Benefits
Hi. I am the Internet of Things. Somebody still calls me just a hype topic and is afraid to invest in my implementation. Others believe in my powers, bet on them, and get the most out of opportunities.
What group do you belong to?
If you’re an experienced innovator, I suggest you scroll down and find out how different industries have been benefiting from me in recent years.
If you are a newbie in my mastering - amazing. I invite you to get to know me better: discover who I am, what value I can bring to your company, and how businesses meet their expectations because of my assistance right now.
What IoT is in 2022: General Benefits and Trends
What is the IoT?
I’m the Internet of Things, the technology that makes a seamless and wireless connection between different devices possible. In 2022, I will unify 29 billion gadgets from smartphones to satellites. Following Business Research, the IoT services global market will grow from $162.39 billion in 2021 to $381.16 billion by 2025.
As seen, those who try to work with me once will stay with me for many years.
Why?
Because I show businesses lots of invisible ways to develop and give keys to locked doors.
IoT Benefits
I speed up companies’ growth by transforming their business models and revealing new revenue streams.
I help enterprises respect their staff and improve employee experience, turning routine work into an easy, fascinating process.
I do my best to help businesses retain their clients and engage new ones by providing customer data in real-time.
I care about business safety by making accurate predictions on obstacles and issues.
I teach companies the art of economy by reducing their operation costs, optimizing employee operation, and preventing downtimes.
Yep, IoT is efficient. But, if it’s not enough, give me one more try to convince you.
You may also like: How to Turn the IoT Market from a "Wild West" into a "Federated State" The Internet of Things is a motherland for technologies like digital twins, Industrial IoT, the Internet of Behaviors, and even the Internet of Everything. If you’re confused because of the last one, the smart city Neom in Saudi Arabia or Las Vegas in the US would be shining examples to explain it.
Looks impressive, doesn’t it?
Now you have two options:
to jump over to the fascinating post Internet of Behaviors: Thinking Out Loud on What to Expect
or to stay with me and discover how enterprises are benefiting from IoT now
IoT Trends in 2022
I am strengthening with you every day to make your home & office convenient and business - more profitable.
Companies always find new ways to use the Internet of Things in their favor. Every new year, they share forecasts concerning my development. Every Christmas, they tell others about their experience from working with me.
Now it’s February, the time for eating fortune cookies and discovering predictions for 2022.
Minimization of data relays. For many enterprises, the real-time data transfer feature remains a dream. All because of limited accessibility to 5G. It becomes a huge obstacle for those who want to launch real-time apps. Enterprises will update their strategies and implement supporting technologies like 5G and AI to eliminate the low latency.
Investment in IoT security. I confess it’s my weakness. Hackers use my wide accessibility and overloading to steal valuable information. Last fall, Kaspersky posted its tweet informing that “the first half of 2021 saw 1.5 billion IoT cyberattacks”. Companies are worried about it since I help them collect terabytes of sensitive data. Its leak at least will lead to high penalties under the CCPA, GDPR, or other data protection act. This year, enterprises will continue to fix this issue by covering bottlenecks.
Spread of the digital twin software. Enterprises found IoT-based digital twins usable. And how! They can create an accurate virtual copy of anything: a gas station, an entire company, and even the Earth. It helps businesses validate their ideas with minimal risks, monitor all the processes through one point, and choose the most suitable scenario for further operation. So, companies will continue to use these benefits this year, popularizing the technology among competitors.
What IoT Brings to Different Industries: Use Cases
Manufacturing: AWS & Volkswagen
Challenge
How do you distinguish one car brand from another? That’s right, labels. Automotive companies even create departments to manage their creation and application. You can open your vehicle and find other handy labels containing data on usability and safety. Sometimes they are much more crucial.
Volkswagen Group reports about 25 labels with 2,000 interpretations in different languages. Any word inconsistency, wrong area of application, or other defects can lead to legal liability and damage a reputation.
Solution
Volkswagen decided to optimize the management of this process by creating an AWS-based intelligent Sign Inspection. The solution uses IoT to check labels automatically and manually through connected devices.
Built-in cameras fix each label and transmit data for analysis. In case of inconsistency, intelligent Sign Inspection notifies a responsible employee about it. The next level here is manual checking.
Employees scan damaged labels and send data to the server. The solution compares received information with a stored standard and shares results. This way, staff can fix mistakes during production.
Outcomes
Intelligent Sign Inspection helped the company optimize employee operation, reduce the number of errors to a minimum and ensure clients’ safety. Now, only one Volkswagen brand, Porsche, is using this technology. Winfried Oberkersch, a Product Owner of AI-based computer vision at Porsche, shared that the brand is first but not only. Volkswagen Group promises to apply intelligent Sign Inspection to Lamborghini, Ducati, Scania, and other produced vehicles.
Source: AWS
Energy & Utilities: Toshiba and Vodafone & Kurita Water
Challenge
Japanese company Kurita Water provides water treatment services with chemicals to deliver clean water to countless houses and offices. It’s arduous to keep an acceptable level of potentially dangerous substances there. The cost of human error or negligence might be too high.
So, over 30 years ago, Kurita did what enterprises are afraid to do now: it launched remote monitoring software for the water treatment process named S.sensing®. Just imagine, the company became a pioneer of online monitoring.
This technology became widespread because of its innovative nature. Looks good, but because of it, the enterprise faced a few crucial needs:
to increase data throughput & scalability
to create a secure system that could monitor water treatment in real-time worldwide
to reduce communication and maintenance costs
to gain agile customization of tools
to ensure additional value because of accurate analytics based on collected data
Solution
They choose Vodafone, and Toshiba as allies in this case by using their IoT Management Connectivity Platform. It allowed them to build robust integrations between millions of devices in 30 countries and 10,000 locations.
Outcomes
Due to the new solution, Kurita simplified communication with gadgets, unifying them under one roof. Now, the company can manage the water treatment by receiving accurate data from any part of the world.
Earlier, S.sensing® used a 3G connection, but it can’t cope with the scope of real-time data now. Vodafone reports that today, they’re working on “smooth switching of communication speed to 4G and 5G, and customization according to clients’ conditions”.
Source: Vodafone
Retail: Microsoft & Starbucks
Challenge
They say Starbucks is not a company selling coffee. It’s an IT company selling an innovative & custom approach to each client. Starbucks serves 100 million buyers every week. Different equipment like blenders and coffee machines helps employees deal with the above hair-rising number of customers. Following Microsoft, it should work unstoppably within 16 hours daily.
In such conditions, the risk of glitches is too high. This way, the company might lose customers, reputation, and income.
Solution
Starbucks decided to avoid it by implementing Azure Sphere. This solution had to provide a seamless IoT connection between all pieces of equipment in the store/company and ensure real-time data transmission. The main task was to generate accurate analytics and prevent downtime. Microsoft installed 15-20 sensors in each store to gain it.
Outcomes
The smart connection allowed the enterprise to fix issues at the early stage, control the entire coffee-making process and collect valuable data on employee experience & customer behavior.
As a pleasant bonus, it also simplified hardware firmware procedures by making it fully remote. Jeff Wile, Senior VP of Retail & Core Tech Services at Starbucks, shared, “Earlier Starbucks had to download new coffee recipes on site in each of 30,000 stores in 85 countries. Now it can do it from one management point.”
The Bottom Line
How do you like case studies? Agree such results are impressive and even inspiring. There are many reasons large businesses did it successfully. But it doesn’t matter that you can’t.
If your enterprise needs IoT, you’ll find a suitable way to get the most out of my powers.
Meanwhile, XME.digital will help you achieve results by applying their expertise in the IoT integration field. Drop them a line to discover how they might be useful.