IoT can transform operations, as long as businesses understand its full value
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Across the world, millions of devices are now connected to one another via the Internet of Things (IoT). The breadth of connectivity allows consumers greater insight into everyday activities, with greater power to make decisions and take action: we can now remotely control our household heating via our phones, track parcel deliveries to the minute, receive data on our daily exercise routines, and more.
But IoT is also now a critical operational asset for businesses. Its power to enhance business operations is proven: from manufacturing to retail to logistics, it enables automation of processes, enhanced collaboration between stakeholders, closer tracking of products across a supply chain – all things that increase efficiency and innovation, lessen wastage, and boost profit margins. Even though the market for IoT is established, it’s projected to be worth more than $1.3 trillion globally by 2026[1], it keeps growing because there is no limit to what it can encompass.
Put simply, IoT has had a transformative effect across sectors. The question, therefore, is no longer whether or not IoT benefits companies, but how exactly decision makers in industries in which IoT is yet to be fully harnessed can use it, so that they can operate at the highest level.
No longer the preserve of big business
IoT was once the domain of large corporations. Now, everyone from SME’s to SoHo’s and beyond can take full advantage. This democratisation of usage is partly a result of a reduction in the costs of technologies over the past decade, and partly due to the fact that businesses now understand its benefits at every level of operation, no matter how big or small the decision.
“I don’t think you can’t say that it’s better for the big decisions or the small decisions,” says Erik Brenneis, IoT Director at Vodafone Business. “It makes everything a lot more efficient, and gives insights which previously weren’t there.”
By helping any company, large or small, to boost their processes, IoT enables them to punch above their weight in the market.
LeakSafe, which specialises in the supply of water leak detection and prevention systems to UK households and businesses, is an example of a company operating in a niche sector that has embraced the power of IoT.
The issue LeakSafe addresses is significant: last year, insurance companies paid out nearly a billion pounds for what is termed “escape of water damage” – a sum second only to pay-outs for catastrophic fire. Next year, it is estimated that at any one time, 1 in 300 homes in the UK will experience significant water leak problems. That’s 95,000 homes across the country.
But IoT has revolutionised the way in which water leaks can be detected and action taken.
“IoT helps us find the leak itself,” says Andy Welch, Senior Business Development Manager at LeakSafe.
“It will determine exactly where it is, whether it’s in a kitchen or bathroom…and transmit data to our data platform. That sends a message to either the occupant or the property manager, for example, and that tells them exactly where it is, so that they can find it in time and correct it before substantial damage is caused.
The precision accuracy of its detection systems, coupled with the data analytics provided through its platform, has enabled LeakSafe to innovate its business in such a way that its end customers – the insurance industry and landlords – can save thousands of pounds every year.
Optimising processes across industries
Across business sectors, the application of IoT is far-reaching.
“There are many industries who use IoT to basically optimise their processes,” Brenneis says. “A very big industry is the transport industry, where fleet management is a big IoT application.”
Vodafone Business has its own market-leading fleet management product. But with over 160 million IoT connections globally (which makes it the largest global IoT provider), Vodafone Business also supports customers to provide specialised fleet management solutions to enhance their own operations.
Sycada, a tech and software development company, is one of these. Its Green Fleet Monitor enables fleet operators to closely analyse the fuel and CO2 consumption of individual drivers and groups of vehicles, thereby helping it to spotlight things such as unnecessary use of fuel.
Sycada is also facilitating the large-scale transition from fossil fuelled to electric vehicles, monitoring battery state-of-charge, providing range estimations and managing charging cycles in the context of operational planning. Real-time provisioning of data from vehicles and chargers is provided to create full operational transparency to fleet operators and to prevent potential service outages.
Artificial Intelligence is meanwhile used to make predictions and forecasts when it comes to, for example, energy demand at day-end or battery state-of-health throughout its lifetime. To facilitate this, a lot of new data points are required and at an increasingly higher sampling rate.
Kristian Winge, CEO of Sycada Group, says that IoT has become indispensable to its service.
“We have suddenly become part of the primary business processes of our clients, and they rely on us to deliver that data and make it available in a timely and integral fashion.”
Securing a reliable network partner
Key to both Sycada and LeakSafe’s offering is the quality of the network they use.
“IoT is not only about being able to send a lot of data in a timely fashion,” Winge says. It’s also about “making sure you can send that data at any given point in time, wherever you are. We need the best quality network we can get and we are not willing to compromise on that quality.”
Both Sycada and LeakSafe have turned to Vodafone Business for their IoT connectivity. The global reach of its service, together with its recognition by industry analystsas the leading IoT provider, empowers businesses like these with fast and insightful decision-making capabilities.
Its service is also reliable. LeakSafe uses Vodafone Business’s Narrowband IoT – a robust, low-energy and low-cost IoT solution that leverages radio technology rather than Wi-Fi, and which therefore isn’t dependable on Wi-Fi to keep devices connected.
So much of Vodafone Business’s work is about ensuring that customers understand how IoT will transform their operations, wherever they are in their project lifecycle, to ensure they are making the most of IoT, whether they are novices or experienced users.
When they do that, businesses can better understand that IoT makes the job of running operations measurably simpler and more cost-effective. By working together with Vodafone Business, enterprises large or small can make the most of IoT and transform their operations, ensuring they are fit for the future.
Originally published on Business Reporter