Take your IoT deployment from idea to success
If you do any reading today about the priority initiatives that organizations focus on, you’ll quickly come across discussions about innovation, digital transformation and emerging technology. Although you could easily toss these all out as industry jargon or buzzwords, there are true business advantages behind each one. Increased competitive pressure and consumer expectations mean organizations must uncover every possible growth opportunity and open new lines of revenue.
As a result, many companies have explored new ways to improve their business over the last few years, and have even deployed trial programs with emerging tech, such as IoT. Vodafone found in a survey that 34% of companies use IoT in some capacity. Simply deploying a pilot or test run of IoT within your organization is just scratching the surface. IoT technology has been revolutionizing industries and has even created new ones. Look at how we commute or use transportation today — IoT has transformed the shared transportation industry. For example, consider connected scooters, bikes and ride-sharing vehicles, which have changed how we get from point A to point B.
Nearly one-third of companies use IoT in some capacity and likely deployed the technology with a specific goal in mind. With the power to transform industries and have a disruptive effect on business, organizations using IoT must know how to move beyond the initial idea and turn it into widespread change. The reality is 84% of IoT adopters report growing confidence in IoT, according to Vodafone’s 2019 IoT Barometer, with 83% enlarging the scale of deployments to take advantage of full improvements. How can businesses dive in and take full advantage of IoT? Organizations can put key steps and strategies in place to take their IoT implementations to the next level and go from IoT ideas to IoT success.
Investigate existing IoT technology
Now is the time to take advantage of IoT technology and integrate it with existing infrastructure. Off-the-shelf services provide quality mechanisms that even the most sophisticated organizations use to receive the best possible ROI and user experience.
In some cases, existing technology offers a quick and low-risk alternative, especially in cases such as smart light or other digital building mechanisms. Even IoT-enabled security systems are being bought as a plug-and-play technology. These IoT mechanisms can be retrofitted, tailored and customized to fit the needs of IoT services.
Explore your connectivity options
To guarantee the best IoT implementations, you must explore your options. All IoT applications come with a different set of requirements, which means there are many different paths to take. The goal remains the same — to implement projects quickly and provide a better end-user experience.
This is why so many organizations use a range of connectivity options for their IoT projects. The Vodafone IoT Barometer identified the most commonly used options, including cellular, which is used by 76% of adopters; Wi-Fi, used by 69% of adopters; and a fixed line, used by 33% of adopters.
Get ready for 5G
5G is the future, and its improvements go beyond expectation. Not only does it support high performance, but also improved security, more credentialing options, improved quality of service management, more specialized and tailored services and drastically decreased latency that cuts transmission delays to mere milliseconds. Currently more than half of adopters consider using 5G.
Build on your experience
Companies generally start with a planned use for IoT when they adopt it. Often the popular uses are easier to implement, such as using IoT for improved efficiency. Once you experience the opportunity that IoT provides, it’s important to recognize how to gain additional enhancements.
The possibilities become endless. For example, organizations now use IoT to detect specific events, such as an impact or a leak. It doesn’t even require new hardware, sometimes just synthetic sensors. Building on your experience will aid in your organization’s continued growth. Eventually you won’t be concerned about cost-savings, and have more time to focus on revenue growth.
Get the expertise you need
It takes a dedicated team to implement IoT, whether it’s built internally or hired externally. Even with internally dedicated teams, don’t be afraid to work with third party specialists. 53% of organizations with dedicated internal teams still use third parties because they don’t have the expertise to do it alone. 60% of all surveyed adopters rely on third parties for IoT expertise. When you expand upon your IoT implementations, it’s important to have the necessary support to guarantee success.
Build security in from the outset
Security is a beast that needs to be tackled, but it’s not a reason to reject innovation. If you build in security from the beginning, it doesn’t have to be a barrier. Organizations can use third-party partner ecosystems to implement strong security and data management mechanisms. If that isn’t enough, you can take a range of measures to improve the security of IoT devices, such as training your staff or testing IoT devices during the development phase. As organizations do more with IoT, their confidence in security tends to grow. IoT is expanding and that will only continue. Companies that implement IoT will see that it’s easier than ever to get started and that there are advantages throughout the journey.
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