i3 - September/October 2017 - 48

Business

By Scott Steinberg

4. Greater Response Times

FO RWA R D ST R AT EG I E S

aven't yet embraced the Internet of Things (IoT),
which promises to bring connectivity to seemingly endless consumer products and appliances? Wake up and
smell the silicon: A staggering 6.4 billion electronic devices will
offer the ability to connect online this year alone - 5.5 million
will arrive each day. This push towards the cloud promises myriad
benefits for businesses. If you haven't yet considered bringing
IoT solutions to bear, here are five ways these new advancements
can help take your enterprise to the next level.

IoT solutions can help companies rapidly
respond to emerging trends. Many big
data tools, technologies and services allow
you to capture thousands of data points
and scan for signals that shifts in the market
or consumer demand may be pending.
They also provide platforms to help employees more effectively connect and collaborate to quickly bring new solutions for
addressing these changes to bear. These
solutions make it possible for intrapreneurs
- entrepreneurial thinkers inside the organization - to more quickly and cost-effectively
run business prototypes and take concepts
to market. Wielded effectively, they can help
your business respond to market changes
more rapidly and leverage insights and intelligence gained from engaging in various
ventures to improve strategies.

1. Better Business Intelligence

5. Superior Performance

IoT and Big Data Can
Benefit Your Business

2. Enhanced Security
and IT Capabilities

Security-related incidents are skyrocketing in
volume. IoT solutions and big data tools can
help guard more effectively against breaches,
and spot and eliminate possible weak links in
security systems and network operations
before they're exploited. Using big data tools,
business leaders can quickly test for loopholes,
glitches, and technical errors and create more
effective backup plans and measures to prevent or recover from them. In addition to
monitoring and detection capabilities, these
high-tech troubleshooting systems can provide vital insights to improve network stability
and boost uptime. If leveraged effectively,
they can boost organizational performance,
IT operations efficiency and security levels.

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017

3. Improved Ability to Innovate

CE industry leaders can safeguard against
changing market forces by wielding IoT
tools to better listen to customers, whom
studies show are the number one most
reliable source of innovative ideas. These
tools can also give your workforce more
opportunities to speak up, share insights into
emerging opportunities, and quickly adapt
business strategies based on rising changes
in the market. IoT solutions can help your
organization prepare for unforeseen disruptions, create added avenues for growth, and
increase overall flexibility - crucial ingredients for operating a future-proof enterprise.

Many enterprises have become mobile,
virtualized and global in nature. The more
you employ IoT devices and solutions to
keep tabs on what's going on in the field,
the more effectively you can manage
operations. These tools are capable of
collecting data on various business functions from supply chain management to
sales and CRM operations and can help
improve workforce productivity, optimize
processes and procedures, identify potential problem areas and enjoy significant
cost-savings. IoT and big data solutions
can assist with tasks such as accounting,
data processing and regulatory
compliance. The more you
integrate them into your business, the greater the ability
you'll have to cut costs, improve
productivity and improve dayto-day operations.

IoT-friendly
tools, like
analytics software packages,
allow leaders to
mine data to
spot emerging
trends and
predict market
shifts.

Atomic Imagery/Getty Images

Competitive landscapes, consumer trends
and buying habits can change virtually anytime. IoT-friendly tools, like analytics software
packages, allow leaders to mine data to spot
emerging trends and predict market shifts.
Using these tools, it's possible to track users'
behavior, purchasing patterns, and how they
interact with devices and technologies to
determine which pricing programs, features,
and functions most resonate with audiences.
Business leaders can more effectively improve
hardware or software solutions, better streamline processes and workflows, and anticipate
audiences' changing needs in order to fuel
growth and innovation and more effectively
build competitive advantage.

I T I S I N N O VAT I O N

i3 - September/October 2017

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of i3 - September/October 2017