IoT – How to Utilize it for Successful Business Operations?

IoT becomes compatible when it is broken down in three different business scenarios – claims Forrester

According to the updated IoT framework by Forrester, businesses and technology leaders can categorize IoT into three fundamental structures –driven by three subsets of stakeholders. They are product IoT, operations IoT, and ecosystem IoT. The concept of IoT deals with various business use cases, a range of technology sizes and complexities, and different stakeholders. It is easy to implement with remote sensing, digital identity, and automated control. However, for many businesses, it can be challenging to understand where or how to begin with it.

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Business leaders and entrepreneurs always need to have more information about their business operations and related customer interactions – compared to the current scenario. The technological advances of the internet of things (IoT) offer sensing and remote control of physical attributes for a business – like products and equipment. However, the complexities and diversities of such technologies, use cases, and solutions can impact even technology and marketing leaders.

Hence, Forrester has restructured its IoT operations framework to exhibit to enterprises how to break down IoT’s business focuses on simpler modules. The three new business outlines revolve around real business objectives, but are dependent on the stakeholder creating, observing, or using the internet-connected resource. Basically, internet-connected things are standard, regular products, and assets. They are not personal systems like smartphones, tablets, or laptops – which people use for connecting with services and apps.

Frank Gillett, VP, Principal Analyst at Forrester has come up with the following recommendations regarding the IoT and business functionalities –

• Scenario 1:Creators power the product IoT – Creators formulate the connected vision for a thing; for instance, a building. The product designers and project managers then choose the experiences they want to activate – by incorporating the connected sensors and remote control. This is to enable relevant experiences forB2B customers, overall consumers, and employees.
• Scenario 2: The users boost operations IoT – As mentioned by Frank Gillett, “Consumers, employees, or operations managers work with connected things, such as a coffee maker or a forklift, that have IoT-connected capabilities. Users are doing the best they can to get through their daily tasks and workflow, using whatever useful features help them work faster, better, and more efficiently.”
• Scenario 3:The observers utilize the ecosystem IoT – For any business or stakeholder that wants to understand more about the physical world outside of their own domain, will need to look out and enter the published sources of data.

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The scenarios will vary for different business operations, products, and business ecosystems. Forrester believes that the CTOs, CMOs, and CIOs who need to understand more about transforming customer experience, enhancing the employee experience, and strengthening operational processes – would benefit from this plan.