Internet of Things - Case Study Example

Managing the Internet of Things: Is it a Strategic Tool? s 23 February Managing the Internet of Things: Is it a Strategic Tool? Conceptually, Internet of Things (IoT) is defined as a global network infrastructure, which has self-configuring capabilities that is based on standard, as well as interoperable communication protocols. Internet of Things is a dynamic field and involves both physical and virtual “things” that are considered to have physical attributes, identities, and virtual personalities. These “things” use intelligent interfaces and are also integrated into an information network (Vermesan et al. 2011). On the Internet of Things, these “things” are expected to be utilized in business, social and informational processes and in this fields, they are utilized in enabling an interaction and consequently help to communicate between themselves and also with their environment (Haller 2010). The Internet of Things enables efficient exchange of information from the environment while also capable of reacting autonomously to the actual events taking place in the environment and the world at large (Ihriq & MacMillan 2015). These smart “things” are then capable of interacting with all elements involved such as services using a standard interface that links everything through the internet. However, this processes have to take into account the issues of data privacy and security since the internet is considered to be a delicate medium of data transfer. It is through these concerns that The Internet of Things is continuously receiving queries from all perspectives as to whether it is viable to serve as a strategic tool in the future (Harvard Business Review 2014). The paper will discuss several aspects and perspectives of The Internet of Things including how the concept has been put in operation to date. The discussion will also focus on the prospects of The Internet of Things and its room for growth expected in the future. The discussion will finalize by outlining the areas of weakness of this concept before providing the necessary recommendations that warrants it to serve as a strategic tool usable in the future. Application of The Internet of Things The Internet of Things has its major objectives as the creation of smart environments and self-aware things such as energy and health, which can be applied to fields such as food, climate and health fields. The Internet of Things enables development of these smart entities which act as a source of trigger to the development of novel technologies that are most needed in addressing the common challenges emerging in areas of public health, environmental protection/climate change, energy conservation, enhancement of security and enhancement of economic growth among others. In business related fields, The Internet of Things has been phenomenal in transforming various aspects especially the business models and practices as adopted by General Electric (GE) in 2011. After realizing that it was losing its customers to its non-traditional competitors such as IBM, GE formulated a new strategy in 2011 as a response to this. These competitors had shifted to using advanced forms of analytics and algorithms that had been generated by their products and thus enhancing their capability to derive new efficiencies and other economic benefits. In response, GE formulated an initiative that served as a strategy to counter its failing favor amongst its customer base. Through the concept of The Internet of Things, the company came up with the idea of adding digital sensors to its machines. Consequently, GE connected all the new machines to a common platform that is cloud based. It then invested in modern software development capabilities, embraced crowd-sourced product development system and focused on building advanced analytic capabilities. This has led to a big and remarkable improvement in the GE’s machines sales and an overall improvement in its performance in the market. This is the same strategy that other companies and organizations have slowly been adopting especially with an increasing investment in infrastructure that facilitates cloud software and analytics. The concept of The Internet of Things largely focuses on switching from product to a more service-oriented revenue generation strategy. Additionally, the concept encourages trying out outcomes-based business models where revenue collected depends on efficiencies delivered by an enterprise application. It is, therefore, easy to see that adopting the digital connectivity in business operations is an essential part in enhancing competitiveness of an enterprise in the business world today (Gubbi et al. 2013). Is there room for the use of The Internet of Things in the future? There are several factors that have made the use of The Internet of Things very influential in transforming the business world today; Digital signals and communication are easily transmitted across networks which make it quite superior to the traditional analogue signals that have been in use for a long time. If executed properly, digital signals are capable of transmitting information perfectly which is not always the case if analogue signals are used. Digital signals are easily replicated indefinitely, and this happens without necessarily suffering any form of degradation. Digital signals in The Internet of Things concept is collectively cheaper than analogue signals with only the initial cost of infrastructure being the main expense incurred in the process of switching to The Internet of Things operations. Thereafter, digital operations and tasks can be performed at virtually no costs which makes it a worth investment (Iansiti & Karim 2014). While at it, the use of The Internet of Things still has not been fully exploited and thus much of it is expected to be seen in the future. For example, it is expected that various changes will be seen in the next few years in virtually all sectors and businesses alike. This is especially through the continuous growth of the use of internet being seen today especially among the general population. This has continuously triggered special focus of this new segment by organizations thereby leading to their communication and other operations being ran on these platforms. The smart “things” and products being produced by a business are slowly being used in various organizational operations such as marketing, human resource management, and security among others. Through The Internet of Things concept, for example, the smart products that result allow the organizations to communicate efficiently with their customers which help them to create new and better relationships. Additionally, the companies are also capable of accumulating data on how their products are used and consequently analyzing these data for better insights that allows the organization to position itself better in the market. Also, creation of these smart products demands new human resource requirements and consequently challenges. This includes additional staffing with added human resources comprising of systems engineers, software developers and data analysts among others. On another important area of consideration in the management of The Internet of Things concept, there is a dire need for a robust security management systems with an introduction of these smart, connected products. This is especially imperative for the protection of data that flows in the systems involved in the product development systems that seeks to inhibit unauthorized use of this information (Porter & Heppelmann 2014). Weaknesses of The Internet of Things as a strategic tool- recommendations for efficiency in its use in businesses Having looked at the application of The Internet of Things systems in today’s world and the prospects that this field holds for the future, it is important to consider the weaknesses that have since been observed in its operations. Dependability The Internet of Things systems needs to provide utmost guarantee and dependability for them to gain the necessary credibility that they deserve. This includes the credibility that comes with the systems’ ability to guarantee data protection and privacy management due to the delicate nature that come with it (Solima et al. 2015). Resource constrains The Internet of Things systems have already shown promises in transforming the business field although it is still considered a new venture yet. It is, however, the resources limitations that need to be considered if the systems are to live up to their potential in the future. Modelling and design Large-scale IoT systems can be quite difficult to model and design largely due to the large number of heterogeneous components involved in the process. The complexity of iterations among devices that are introduced by both the cooperative and distributed approaches used is another factor why the modeling and designing of these systems can be difficult (Vermesan et al. 2011; Roman et al. 2013). Recommendations for these challenges There is a need for further additional research into the areas of development, interoperability and convergence of technologies that are used for identification and authentication on a global scale. This is necessary for consistent and reliable encoding and decoding processes of identifiers involved in IoT systems. The Internet of Things also require to have a more open architecture that will enable maximum interoperability among heterogeneous systems and also the distributed resources that includes the consumers and providers of this information and services (Bi et al. 2014). Bibliography Bi, Z., Da, L., & Wang, C. 2014. Internet of Things for enterprise systems of modern manufacturing. Industrial Informatics, IEEE Transactions. Vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 1537-1546. Gubbi, J., Buyya, R., Marusic, S., & Palaniswami, M. 2013. 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Solima, L., Della Peruta, M. R., & Del Giudice, M. 2015. Object-Generated Content and Knowledge Sharing: the Forthcoming Impact of the Internet of Things. Journal of the Knowledge Economy, p. 1-15. Vermesan, O., Friess, P., Guillemin, P., Gusmeroli, S., Sundmaeker, H., Bassi, A.,& Doody, P. 2011. Internet of things strategic research roadmap.O. Vermesan, P. Friess, P. Guillemin, S. Gusmeroli, H. Sundmaeker, A. Bassi, et al., Internet of Things: Global Technological and Societal Trends, vol. 1, pp. 9-52. Read More