Internet of Things...to Consider

During the past 6 years I have been a part of the entire life cycle of bringing an IoT (Internet of Things) product to market, selling, and deploying it. Through this experience I have gained a number of useful insights. An insight gained is only as useful as its capacity to be shared and multiplied through the experience of others. Thus, I thought I would line out some of these nuggets as an open invitation for innovative discourse. Let's start at product inception and move along the experience curve to implementation, deployment, and lessons learned.

Internet cycle times, meet the rest of the world.

In many cases the IoT products being presented are solutions that no one has seen before. In speaking with someone today, I was intrigued to hear that "in the past 5 years this industry has seen 10 times the change it had seen in the previous 20 years." The rate of change and technological innovation in select markets moves at a different pace than is seen in the typical innovation cycles for computers and software. I have seen that simply churning out more features and functions to the cloud doth not more sales make. Looking at things from the perspective of the market you are addressing and asking the questions: "What was the last earth changing innovation that took place in this industry?" "How long did it take to move from early adoption to the meaty part of the bell curve?" might be helpful exercises. [Innovators Dilemma is great to help in that area] 

IoT as a change agent

Certainly in the mature markets, in which I am focused, I have found that there is apprehension in adopting new technology. Before selling, education needs to be tailored and delivered. Some of the new capabilities gained from IoT, although interesting, can be scary to the uninitiated. I have heard this trepidation manifested in stressed expressions from users spanning the familiar worried mantras of "this is going to put me out of a job" to "this is going to give me an extra job to do." Sure, I also hear echoes of "the 'user' is not the check writer." However, I will tell you I have found that the users are essential to your success. 

Nice to have or Have to have?

Before launching the next new sensor or wireless controller into the world, I highly suggest a good amount of Lean Design and market validation take place to answer the essential question: "Is this a solution looking for a problem, or the other way around?"

What else have I found that can stall the rate of adoption? Too many options = no decisions. There are so many ways to get the word out and market the latest solutions; in the B2B world overwhelmed stagnation can be an unintended consequence. From my experience, unless there is a clear line that ties your solution to dollars saved, or generation that can be validated, it is just noise.

Jeff Smith is a strategic member of Parker’s Central IoT team, responsible for business development in its purist sense. The Central IoT team delivers strategy, products, and services across all 7 groups and 142 divisions worldwide. He was previously the Senior Director and a founding member of Incenergy; a company built in 2010 to deliver IoT/M2M energy saving and monitoring solutions through the cloud for industrial and commercial environments. During this time Jeff has program managed and deployed projects for U.S. Department of Energy funded projects and Fortune 500 clients across 4 continents.