Ever wondered how life would be wakening up to a near perfect morning and predictably every morning. Well that day is not far behind for people at large.
A fortunate few are already living these predictable perfect mornings, in some shape and form.
They are woken up by their smart alarm clock in the morning, which in turn switches on their room lights, prepares their coffee and plays their favourite music channel. Sensing the time of the day, the temperature in the house drops to their comfort level. Their smart refrigerator informs them on the groceries to be replenished for the day.
Once they have left home, the temperature at their house drops to an energy saving mode, the dishwasher and washing machine, which are connected to smart meters and smart grids, switch on during the low power consumption period. While heading to work in their smart cars, their schedule for the day is read to them while guiding them to take the shortest route, with the least traffic, to their next destination.
Throughout the day their smart shoes have been tracking their sugar levels, pressure levels and heart beats and while their smart wrist band have been tracking their steps, calories, sleep time besides a whole host of other health parameters.
When they return home, the temperature is reset to their preference, by a smart thermostat. As they walk in, the motion sensor tracks their movement and switches on the lights in the room. The grocery store delivers their groceries (just in time), what the smart refrigerator communicated earlier, and was ordered online.
This automated and possibly robotic lifestyle has permeated across industries, driven by continuous innovation, where affordability has been key to adoption. I recently attended my college reunion (Manipal Institute of Technology) and had an opportunity to visit the its innovation centre in Manipal. It was interesting to note that while they were driving innovation, their objective was on breaking the affordability and adoption barrier. They were researching innovative ways to design and build a diabetic sensor, which would comfortably fit into a shoe insole, for less than Rs5,000 (Dh280).
A wide range of sensors are available depending on their purpose and usage. Sensors have been around for decades and are used across industries viz. defence, aeronautical, oil & gas, health care, automotive, etc. Their disruptive factor, in recent times, has been driven by the consumerisation of sensors in our everyday lives, which has served as a digitalisation catalyst. This has further fuelled the adoption of sensors across other industries viz, retail, airlines, airports, health care, banking, consumer electronics, government, education, etc.
The fast rate of adoption in sensors across various facets of our lives is fuelling the IoT (internet of Things) revolution. Further fuelling this IoT revolution is the phenomenal growth in unstructured data, driven more from Machine to Machine (M2M) interactions, rather than Human to Machine (H2M) interactions.
So how do organisations get Smarter by capitalising on Sensor Technology, powered by Digitalisation?
Organisations need to ride the digital wave and monetise the data that is being captured by sensors. The data in its unstructured form is equivalent to proven gold reserves, yet to be mined. They need to make sense of the data being generated, by using sophisticated Algorithms, and finding patterns within the data. Capturing these patterns will enable organisations to build a layer of Artificial Intelligence (AI), thereby “predicting” the future purchases and usage of their products and services. With an increased rate of adoption and usage, they will be able to create higher levels of personalisation with seamless predictability and consistency, and as a result, driving increased Automation.
Smarter organisations have moved swiftly in their adoption cycle. They have identified their IoT readiness by conducting an IoT maturity assessment; they have identified the high impact areas to their business along with its business benefits; they have updated their strategic business and technology road maps; conducted prototypes for their shortlisted initiatives, in the pursuit of adopting the proven ones; they have deliberated and formed teams that have been staffed from within the organisation, laterally from the market and in partnership with vendors; they have fallen small, fallen fast and risen fast in an iterative manner, thereby shortening their adoption cycle with a low impact to business, and in the process are gaining an unprecedented competitive edge.
Smart organisations have creative significant business value and are future proofing themselves from getting disrupted by their competitors, while making the lives of their stake holders smarter.
The writer is the Executive Vice-President of Dubai-based TransSys Solutions. He can be contacted via Twitter @Stephen_Fdes
