In his introduction to the afternoon session of the Sigfox 2017 conference, John Gole, Research Director of Telecoms, mobility and IoT at analyst firm IDC, talked about how IoT will impact businesses and why organizations need to take it seriously.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- IoT is happening now because all of the pieces are finally falling into place. Network design and capabilities, hardware costs, service providers, cognitive technologies are all improving to promote the rise of IoT.
- We’re seeing an ecosystem take shape where these components are being integrated and developed together by service providers delivering end-to-end solutions.
- A survey showed 52% of respondents thought the IoT is going to be strategically important. 20% thought it would be transformational to their industry. Only 6% thought it would have no impact or was only for consideration.
- Companies must realize and understand the power and impact of IoT and act accordingly.
IN HIS OWN WORDS
- On the rise of data: “IDC is collecting immense amounts of new data and is starting to better understand how to use that data. Analytics is improving so it is learning more from the data that can be collected easily.”
- On IoT implementation in companies: “What IDC found in its research, was that most companies implement loT in an ad hoc manner or an opportunistic manner. There are many companies moving toward repeatable implementations but it is still very early. IDC believes this is a progression that companies need to take. They need to think about how to manage complex groups of IoT solutions and integrate them and use them to transform.”
- On what companies need to do: “Companies need to be looking very far ahead and thinking in big terms about what is happening to their industry. They need to take it seriously and imagine where the IoT can take them.”
SIGFOX CONNECT
After a great success in 2017 with more than 1200 attendees and 120 booths, the Sigfox World IoT Expo is back in 2018 and becomes Sigfox Connect. Attendance is also open to the general public during the second day.
