Internet of Things or IoT can be defined as a network of connected electronic devices that gather, exchange and transmit data using various industry-recognized standards and protocols. Home appliances, lights, television, cars, and so on, are some of them but the list has already expanded across so many industries. There’s a reason why Amazon Echo and Google Home are making their foray into the voice-activated IoT market.
According to an IHS Markit whitepaper, there will be an estimated 30.7 billion connected devices by 2020, and a whopping 75.4 billion by 2025
These are signs that IoT is already paving its path, not just to enabling home automation. Are your businesses ready for IoT adoption? Whether or not you have a direct implementation of IoT devices in your business, it is for sure that most businesses are going to be immensely impacted. So, by the year 2020, the following may be some of the scenarios:
1. Search and Efficiency
With the power to look up products and research the market about their requirements, your customers of tomorrow will be able to locate exactly what they want and when they want. You will also be equipped with the technology that helps you, your suppliers and logistics to work in perfect synergy, ensuring timely delivery with an environmentally-conscious approach.
2. Inventory Tracking
IoT would be a boon for businesses dealing warehouses and storage. Different devices and high-tech scanners will keep your inventory in place. You will have the exact number of products in place with geo-location information to help optimize the closest or the best warehouse for efficient deliveries. You will have more time to focus on marketing your brand and products, rather than spending time on tracking inventory.
3. Productivity
Besides accuracy, you will also be in a position to accomplish more in less time. The IoT advancements will let you and your employees fulfill bigger job responsibilities with enhanced access to data analytics and quicken decision making backed by data. You will either need fewer employees, or you could utilize your employees better by expanding your business as you’d have become more productive.
4. Businesses shopping for smart connected products
With the phenomenal improvement in home automation technologies, the businesses of tomorrow will look for smarter and better things – things that would minimize their workload, make things comfortable, efficient and secure in offices. Things that will drastically reduce operational costs and overheads.
5. Access to granular data
Entrepreneurs and marketing professionals live and breathe data. Once these users get used to assimilating data from hundreds of thousands of connected devices, they will formulate different business strategies to take on a super-dynamic market. Smart devices will help in tracking performance of your businesses and correlate that to the behavior of your consumers and even recommend intelligent market maneuvers. Companies can use this to understand their demographics and probable customers and come up with different sales, marketing, and advertising tactics.
6. Enabling disruptive changes to traditional businesses
Once IoT technologies and applications get absorbed organically, there will be several industries that would have to change their business models – let’s say, drastically. Businesses such as cab aggregators, logistics, supply chain or healthcare could become completely automated while there could be some companies that may become obsolete or fade away.
Change, if progressive, is imminent and cannot be stopped – anonymous
