How the Internet of Things Will Help Your Company in the Future

We spoke about data analysis, and in many ways this is the central point of the Internet of Things. We’ve all heard the term “Big Data,” which essentially means data sets so large that human simply wouldn’t be able to process them in a timely manner. We need computers to help us with it. But the Internet of Things doesn’t only apply to Big Data, it applies to any data set at all. If you can gather information about it, then you can process that information in order to learn something. This will ultimately lead to companies that use data analysis in so many capacities it would be impossible to round up all of the different ways that data analysis is helping companies out. For now, though, let’s take a look at some big picture examples.

Data analysis in manufacturing is already happening. Companies like Shire and Genzyme use data analysis to augment production of pharmaceuticals not far from TechDecisions’s offices in Framingham, MA. Here’s how it works: You start with sensors on your manufacturing equipment. These sensors could be measuring air pressure in parts of a machine or certain chemical levels in a batch of pharmaceuticals or heat measurements in a plastics factory. Anything that quality control might want to check out, really. Only this is happening in real time and taking more samples than your QC technician ever could.

Then, those readings are analyzed and paired with the end result product to learn how different aspects of production are affecting the final product. So, you might learn that when you heat your product at 290-degrees for fifteen minutes it provides greater yield than when you heat it at 350-degrees for ten minutes. Or you might learn that when your machine is operating at 500 PSI it produces the same yield as at 450 PSI, and you’re wasting energy resources getting that PSI up for no reason. Or you might be able to notice a batch is going south halfway through the production and fix that before the yield is fully compromised. However you use it, the data can be analyzed in weeks that once took months, days that took weeks, and minutes that once took days to analyze. Sounds helpful, right?

Let’s look at another example. You’re a marketing manager that needs to measure the reach of your company’s brand. You have all of this information about social media engagement and website interaction and how many times your whitepapers have been downloaded, videos have been viewed, and demoes have been requested. You can measure where these downloads are coming from, what other websites these people have visited, how long they stayed, what Facebook pages they like, etc. That’s all essentially possible right now. Soon enough, however, this data becomes a mountain and you lose the reason for engagement under a pile of data that doesn’t really tell the picture.

With the Internet of Things in full swing, you’re software will know as soon as a user clicks on one of your blog posts what brought them there. Say you’re a digital display company, and your blog post explains the differences in resolution and what they mean. It would be almost impossible to look at the user on your site, in the moment, and discern that they’ve visited multiple consumer electronic websites, they like several consumer display companies on Facebook, and they’ve clicked on advertisements for LG, Samsung, Sharp and other displays an inordinate amount in the past month. This person is looking for a TV in their home, and now your software can put a link to your consumer line of displays at the bottom of the page for the user to find as soon as they finish the article. Might help with sales, no?

Let’s bring that same idea into the real world. I’m walking around the mall with my futuristic smartphone (or whatever the equivalent is at that time) that has a ton of information about me stored on it. I’m not too worried about privacy so I’ve already connected to the mall’s WiFi under the condition that mall outlets are allowed to pair with my phone to learn some information about me. And my phone has a lot of information about me on it because it’s already paired with a lot of my other smart devices.

Well, it’s noon and I’m hungry. My phone knows that because this is usually when I eat. And my phone also knows the type of food that I like because I order take out and groceries through online services. And now, the restaurants throughout the mall also know what kind of food I like because I gave them permission to interact with (certain aspects of) my phone’s information. So when I walk by the nearest food establishment, the digital signage sense my proximity and brings up photos of the chicken sandwich. It knows I don’t like pork and it knows I’m allergic to the some of the ingredients that season the steak. But I love chicken, and I’m starving, Marvin, so I step in and order a sandwich and French fries. Simple as that.

You’ve already seen the smart lighting controls and smart thermostats that have entered households. These are like the single-celled organisms that will one day grow into complex Internet of Things organisms of the future. Once Internet of Things is in full effect, IoT thermostats will make smart thermostats look like thermosimpletons.

Think complete and total temperature control. Think of the device knowing the weather forecast for the week. Think of it pairing with the access control system to turn off as soon as the last person leaves the building. Think of it pairing with wayfinding software to know which rooms are being used and only heat or cool those ones. Think of it pairing with room scheduling systems to pre-heat a conference room before you use it and shut off when you’re done. And think of the lighting and videoconferencing systems doing the same thing. You might say there’s already control and automation that does that, but by and large you need to at the very least flip a switch to turn a system on and off. With IoT you won’t even think about it. You walk into a room – it turns on. You walk out – it turns off.

Imagine the money you’ll save on utility costs. It will only be rivaled by the amount of energy that will no longer be wasted (assuming we haven’t figured out that pesky renewable, sustainable energy problem by then).

This one is already happening in many ways as well.

A lot of companies are installing digital signage systems, video conferencing systems, collaboration systems, and other technology to help employees work. But with the costs of such systems, the ROI needs to be apparent. There are already management systems that will monitor how often these systems are being used, but it’s up to employees to analyze that data to determine which systems are better than others.

With IoT, the system will monitor itself. It will tell you how much it is being used, who is using it, what it’s being used for, and more. This way you can keep yourself from buying systems that are underutilized and buy more of the technology that employees are actually using. Do away with fruitless spending with the help of IoT.

Don’t you hate running out of ink cartridges? It’s not something you ever think of until it’s already too late.

Well, don’t sweat it with Internet of Things. Your printer is going to be monitoring it’s own ink reserves. It will also communicate with your stock room (which will know exactly what it has in stock) to let it know that ink is low. If the stock room is low on ink as well, it will do one of two things: either you told it to inform your office administrator to buy more ink, or you connected it to your corporate account and it will just order more ink online, automatically. Ditto for paper, paperclips, staplers, pens, notebooks, calendars, eraser, door stops, nails, scissors, folders, envelopes, scotch tape, duct tape, electrical tape… should I go on?

This one is already kind of possible, but it will be streamlined even further with IoT.

Today, you can use a PSIM system to monitor when access control systems are used for each employee. For hourly employees, that in turn will tell your company how many hours that employee worked during the week. With IoT, your payroll will simply collect that information and send out paychecks without anyone having to lift a finger.