Everything You Need to Know About Smart Home

At the 2017 Target Components Annual Trade Show we showcased Smart Home products and services. And since then we've had that much interest from small IT businesses and retailers we've started a blog. And it's no wonder, it's set to be a fabulous business opportunity. See "Smart Home: A New Revenue Opportunity" and "The Market for Smart Home and Other Stuff" for much more.

The possibilities Smart products and services present are huge. They extend well beyond switching lights and plugs on and off with a mobile. But the ways they can be applied and how to do it can be complex.

In my coming blog series "Smart Home, Office and Workplace" I'm going to help you - small IT businesses and retailers - understand things better. In this post I'll be setting out what's in the series. Plus I'll hint at some of the cute ways Smart can help you, your business and customers.

Cramming Smart Home

The trick to making Smart products and services irresistible is in clever ways to use them. Ways that do things cuter, smarter and plain better than you do them now. But that's easier said than done – not that it's difficult, you just need to know how. Which is why my coming series "Smart Home, Office and Workplace" will roll-out in 8 Steps.

As it does I'll be bringing it to life with some useful examples. If you'd like to find out how to set-up a retail footfall counter or journey tracker for site visits stick around. The blogs in this series will be about more than the technicalities. They'll be about useful, practical ways to use Smart products, services and devices.

Step One to Smart Home

Last week I blogged about a couple of things. If you're new to the world of Smart products and services it can seem bewildering. What Smart products are there? What are Smart services and what can they do? And how do you make them all work together?

Getting educated matters. The question is how? Easy – read last week's blog "Step One to Smart Home". Plus take a look at our dedicated website "What can a Smart Home Do?"

Smart Home Step Two: An Easy Way to Improve Security

If you're impatient to get fancy with Smart OK. If that's you jump to the relevant blog – though you'll have to wait ‘till they're published.

But I'd suggest there are some basics to learn first. They may be elementary but they're far from useless. In learning to set up the most simple of Smart products – a plug – you can achieve amazing things. Like improve the security of your home, office and workplace. Find that hard to believe? See the blog for more.

Home Automation: Smart Home Step 3

It's one thing to remote control Smart products: it's another to automate them so they don't rely on you. There are Smart products - and Smart services – that make this possible. Things like motion sensors and timers open up a whole new way to use things.

Would you'd like to learn how to make the lights in your shop windows change colour when customers walk by? Or get daily reminders telling you "Complete your Target basket"? Just a couple of examples of what automation can do. Interested? My blog on Home Automation's for you.

Using Smart Home Devices to Create Data: Step 4 

So far the way we've applied Smart either relies on products own software or on the web service IFTTT separately. In "One Potato..." we bring the two together.

IFTTT makes a huge number of things possible. One that's useful is logging the time things happen. This can be especially helpful both at home and in business. Logging the time the kids get home from school. Logging when fire safety doors get opened. Whether it's for your peace of mind or safety records both these are useful.

Another clever use of logging is knowing the pattern of footfall into your shop or business. With a Smart sensor and the right IFTTT Applet you can make this happen easily. Read this blog and find out how.

Smart Home Step 5: "Anyone Home?"

Using Smart products starts getting cool when you combine them with Voice Assistants. Google's Home or Amazon's Alexa free-up Smart products from the need to press buttons. But as desirable as this is, using Voice Assistants is a sophisticated step.

Different Assistants go about things in different ways. Plus they come with built-in services, services you can download and you can link them with IFTTT. In this blog I start explaining some of the things possible with Voice Assistants. For example how to use a built in function to compile spares lists while you work. So you can note what you need to buy without stopping work. Useful? Then read this blog.

"What's on My Shopping List": Step 6 

This blog extends the use of Voice Assistants into what they can do when linked to IFTTT. Why would you want to do that? Well, ask Alexa "what's on my shopping list" and she'll tell you. She'll recite all the spares you've been asking her to note all day (see the previous blog). The problem is you'd better have a pen, be able to write fast and have the time to do it.

With IFTTT you can use the phrase to trigger an email at the same time. So the list is sent to you written out and ready to print. Useful no? Another use? What about being able to shut-shop/office with one command? Yep, you can do this. If you're interested this blog's for you.

Where is Your Smart Home? Step 7

A daft question but it hints at something clever Smart products and services can do. Location services make possible a whole new dimension for their use.

Location services make it possible to trigger things based on where you are. I'm not talking about movement sensors in your home. I'm talking making things in your home, office, workplace or anywhere you choose happen when you arrive or leave. Like logging when you and your staff come and go from work. Setting a security alert should your phone get stolen. Or tracking where and when you made site visits. Some really cute stuff. That's what this blog is about.

Step 8: Making Smart Really Clever 

By the time we reach this blog we'll have covered a lot of ground. We'll have covered all sorts of things about Smart products, services and devices. To make sure it all makes sense this blog will look back and consolidate everything we've gone through. I want to make sure everything's clear and you're ready to go.

Meantime, why not learn more about Smart Home, Office and Workplace? Take a look at my blog "Smart Home: Are You Ready?" and our dedicated Smart Demo Website for more. Go all out with Smart products and services. Immerse yourself in them. Make yourself the go-to person for advice and tips. This is a business opportunity that's breaking as we speak. Don't lose out.