How the Internet of Things will make the world a better place

With the advent of more, and more, connected devices coming online and working symbiotically with us, our lives are now changing for the better. Companies and organisations are looking for differentiation and future financial stability, so they are investing into products and services that previously have been the stuff of science fiction.

In no particular order, here is a short list of eight things that the Internet of Things will fix for us...

• Speed bumps – I hate them. Even the guy who invented them said he was sorry for inventing them. With the future of road travel now looking like we’ll never drive, or even own a car in the future, we can say goodbye and good riddance to speed bumps.
• Bad road crossings for visually impaired – I work closely with a company who has a just launched an IoT walking stick that warns the user of upcoming hazards whilst having the option to keep carers and family aware of their location.
• Retailer food wastage – We live in an age where we should not have food wastage at the same time where food banks are coming under pressure. The automatic ordering of goods from an intelligent shelf that is tracking the availability of goods is a technology that is easily available. The digital transformation starts once a retailer connects this to electronic shelf labeling that reprices available stock to make sure all goods are purchased before any expiry date. There’s a lot more that can be done here in the digital transformation, but best I keep that to another post.
• Car park charges – Another self-driving car benefit, but do you won't need to use a car park when your vehicle can drive itself home and return to collect you once you are ready.
• Fake goods – Connected tamper proof stickers that have Near Field Communication (NFC) will allow buyers to authenticate the product with their smartphone, whilst allowing the manufacturer and supplier to understand their customers. Similar to my retailer food wastage example, there is a whole digital transformation journey available to companies who have the appetite to reinvent their end-to-end operating model for the better.
• Uninsured drivers – I promise this is the last example on self-driving cars I will mention in this post, but the day is coming when unfair insurance premium levies are added to honest driver premiums.
• Lost/ Missing children – Self-contained and easily worn wearable's are connected to mum's and dad’s smart phone. The children are more easily traced, with parents alerted even if the child goes outside set boundary area (for example if they leave the garden). Did I say that the wearable that is connected will even include the child’s clothes?!
• Little/ No need for customer service – The moment a connected device starts to fail, a thing called 'predictive maintenance and support' will automatically start. The product will recognise that it’s got an issue and it takes prompt action. This might be because, for example, a television is overheating or its LCD is becoming faulty. By taking action itself, and generally without your knowledge, you will not have to inform, chase, complain and wait for customer service. You will get a telephone call from an engineer, or even a message from the device asking you what to do.

I believe good business reinvention is about making things effortless for staff, suppliers and customers. As the above examples are real / technically feasible today, I hope you can see why I have a passion for working in digital transformation. Just because the world is speeding up at a tremendous pace, does not mean your life will become more complicated. Quite the opposite in fact.