The first time the phrase – the Internet of Things, was used was in 1999. It was coined by Kevin Ashton (DataFloq, Mark van Rijmenam). In very simple words, he and his coworkers managed to connect devices to the Internet and manage them in that way. However, today, the IoT enters all spheres of our lives, more precisely, it affects business. Once a big discovery or change like this happens, it is important to keep up, because the competition most certainly will. It stops being a matter of prestige and becomes the necessity. Therefore, learn the 5 most important ways the IoT affects business today.
Money Saving
One of the first benefits that you can think of when it comes to IoT is saving money. The fact that you can monitor devices and turn them on and off only when they are needed saves a lot of energy and money. Moreover, planned maintenance also prevents the devices of breaking down and it saves money on new office equipment.
Time Saving
It is not needed to run from one office to another and search for a printer that is available. You can check them all on your own device and use the one that is available. Moreover, it is very annoying when you send a print command and it ends up unexecuted because the printer lacks ink or paper. A joint database allows you to know the state of your devices in advance before you hit ‘print’.
Getting Serious About the Cloud
The Internet of Things means that there should be some sort of virtual storage place where all that data can be kept. Cloud and the IoT are inseparable. This is just one of the reasons why your company needs to have a good and reliable cloud plan.
Changes in the Job Market
There are a lot of jobs within companies that are pretty much routines. Since the IoT changes a lot of aspects of business processes, it means that all the processes that can be automated – will be. There are a lot of work positions that include some of these automated processes in their job descriptions. With the rise of IoT, those jobs will either disappear, or their descriptions will be changed significantly.
Easier Maintenance
Once all of your devices are included in a unified system – the Internet of Things, you will be able to predict the malfunctions and the wearing down of certain devices. This means that the maintenance can be planned and predicted. Businesses can implement smart metering. It saves money and energy and it makes maintenance well-planned. Let us say you have Sharp printers in two offices and HP printers in others. Make sure that you keep your Sharp toner cartridges near your Sharp printer for the best performance. The IoT will allow you to know which toner is running low, so you can replace it in time.
Data Analysis Will Become More Precise
With all the devices and machines in your company being connected, you will have a regular and constant flow of information about their work and their efficiency. All that data can be analyzed. Since the amount of the gathered data can be very extensive, the analysis will become more reliable and more precise.
You need to ask yourself if your business is ready to implement IoT in its processes. Everything from everyday communication between the workers, job vacancies and job descriptions, as well as the maintenance of your office supplies can be enhanced by the IoT. Make the most of it and stay competitive on the future market.
