How the Internet of Things is Becoming a Vital Tool for Business

Businesses are waking up to the possibilities of the Internet of Things, as the technology stands to significantly boost productivity in every single industry…

The Internet of Things is hard at work at Daimler, the automotive company. The futuristic technology, which may soon enable us to communicate with all the items around us, has already been installed in long-distance transport vehicles. Software and sensors pick up when something is wrong, directing the driver to the nearest repair shop. The mechanic at this site is also alerted, and has the diagnostics information ready before the lorry pulls up.

Two years in, Daimler Trucks North America has found the Internet of Things (IoT) technology useful to keep its fleet on the road as much as possible, ensuring delivery deadlines are met. Daimler is now working on making the technology predictive, so issues can be anticipated before they become a problem on the road.

It is early days for the IoT, but we’re increasingly seeing the IoT being put to use. Earlier this year, Google paid $3.2 billion for Nest – seemingly a lot of money for a company whose business is “smart” thermostats and smoke detectors. But the indication is clear – Google is going after the connected home, where the refrigerator tells you how long those eggs have been sitting there, and the printer places orders for ink on its own.

Other technology giants such as Apple, Samsung and Cisco are all mulling over the possibilities in IoT, as innovation is increasingly moving from their core products towards interactive appliances. In May, Apple bought the Beats headphone company for $3 billion, around the same time as details surfaced of a project where iPhones may be turned into remote control devices for the home.

The IoT will be relevant to up to 100% of manufacturers in the near future, according to research from McKinsey Global Institute. Their findings suggested the Internet of Things could have an economic impact of between $2.7 and $6.2 trillion every year by 2025 – a staggering figure, mainly from productivity gains. And the transformation has already started to happen. ThingWorx makes agriculture applications for monitoring things like soil moisture and pesticide usage, and earlier this year technology group PTC acquired the company for $112 million.

An early glimpse of what the IoT may look like on a large scale is already taking place in Milton Keynes, where BT and Cambridge startup Neul have launched a major trial. Features of the connected town include bins that alert when they are full, rodent traps that declare when they need attention, and parking spaces that signal when they are free.

The IoT will go hand in hand with cloud computing, too. Features of the cloud, like the auto-scaling offered by VPS, will become more and more crucial to the ability of companies to adopt IoT technology. As this also develops, the list of IoT technology present in the world will only get longer.

Is your business using the IoT technology yet? Tell us what you’re working on below…