The Internet of Things (IoT) offers businesses new ways to expand relationships with customers and to improve operational efficiency. For instance, Samsung has introduced a smart refrigerator that takes a picture of the contents each time the door closes. The image can be sent to a homeowner’s smartphone to remind them when items need to be replaced.

But for all the promise that the world of interconnectivity offers to businesses and consumers, the prospects for IoT continue to be clouded by skepticism about privacy and interoperability concerns. A study by Altimeter Group finds that roughly half of consumers are “highly uncomfortable” with companies using and selling their data in physical places.

While many business leaders are reluctant to move forward with IoT use cases until they’re comfortable that interoperability and privacy concerns have been addressed, opportunities continue to abound for the CIO and line-of-business leaders to act on IoT opportunities that can be tackled today.

Here are a few examples of the types of applications for IoT that organizations are taking advantage of today:

  • L’Oreal has partnered with sensor maker MC10 and design firm PCH to create a wearable called My UV Patch which attaches directly to a consumer’s skin and measures a person’s UV exposure, transmitting the information back to an app.
  • DTE Energy has provided more than 25,000 customers access to a device and app called PowerScan, developed by Vectorform, which allows people to measure the energy consumption of individual household appliances by holding the app up to a power cord. The app measures electromagnetic fields generated by appliances to calculate wattage usage and power consumption.
  • Through the use of IoT sensors and advanced water leakage and repair policies, the city of Tokyo has been able to reduce its city-wide water leakage rate from 20% to 3.6%.

McKinsey & Company estimates that IoT applications in use today or those that could be in widespread use over the next 10 years could deliver a total economic impact of $3.9 trillion to $11.1 trillion per year in 2025. There’s a tremendous amount of value for CIOs to capture for their organizations through innovative uses of IoT that neither compromise customer privacy nor require convoluted network configurations.

One of the ways that CIOs can help the enterprise to act on IoT opportunities is through their comprehensive view of the enterprise. This includes their perspective as to how different business and functional units are interconnected to one another, enables them to identify different ways that IoT capabilities and applications can be applied across the enterprise.

For instance, multinational companies can use IoT sensors across their offices to identify where electricity usage can be curtailed during off-hours. From a commercial revenue standpoint, medical device manufacturers are launching new healthcare services through connected products.

As companies become more customer-focused, the CIO also needs to keep a close eye on consumer trends, not only within the company’s industry but also across other industries to pick up ideas that can be adopted by the enterprise. For example, fashion label Chromat has teamed with Intel to design a bra that opens vents to cool down the body when it senses heat and sweat.

“Innovation goes hand-in-hand with disruption,” says Mike Dauber, General Partner at Amplify Partners in an HMG Strategy video. “If you were Blockbuster 15 years ago, did you look at Netflix and think that this is a company that’s going to put you out of business which obviously it did. Today, if you’re a CIO or a company and you’re not worried about technical disruption, then you’re not paying attention.”

Key Takeaways

  • Though many business leaders are reluctant to move forward with IoT use cases until they’re comfortable that interoperability and privacy concerns have been adequately addressed, opportunities continue to abound for the CIO and line-of-business leaders to act on IoT opportunities that can be acted on now.
  • One of the ways that CIOs can help the enterprise to act on IoT opportunities is through their comprehensive view of the enterprise. This includes different ways that IoT capabilities and applications can be applied across the enterprise.
  • As companies become more customer-focused, the CIO also needs to keep a close eye on consumer trends, not only within the company’s industry but also across other industries to pick up ideas that can be adopted by the enterprise.