IoT is a Lot Like The Meaning of Life

IoT is a lot like The Meaning of Life in one way, if you ask 100 people to define it you will get 100 different answers.

I had the privilege of attending an event yesterday titled 'Internet of Things - Beyond the Business Case'. It was a wonderful event with Vernon Turner as the keynote and also the panel moderator. Vernon is an SVP with IDC as well as their in house IoT guru. The panel consisted of some brilliant entrepreneurs all working in the IoT space from companies in Northeast Ohio and across the country.

What was particularly interesting about this event is that it focused heavily on IoT from the IT perspective, both in the data that was presented but also when discussing the application of IoT. That's not a bad thing but it did stress a point Vernon made during his keynote - THERE MUST BE A BRIDGE BETWEEN THE CIO and THE LINE OF BUSINESS AROUND THE IoT STRATEGY. My experience in dealing with clients thus far is that this bridge typically does not exist. IoT strategies are being created in silos, or vacuums, many times with expensive duplicate effort going on.

Some other insights, or quotes that came out of the event worth mentioning:

• "Create a small IoT proof case, do not try to boil the ocean." I talked with various audience members who tried to come up with examples of similar technology revolutions in history and they couldn't. The best example may go back to the invention of the computer itself. Meaning, the opportunities for IoT are endless, almost overwhelming. Use caution not to be overly ambitious, setting your company up for failure.
• "IoT is not about a product, it's about an ecosystem." We all agreed that companies need to think bigger, much bigger! There is far too much discussion around technology and appliances rather than about data and business objectives. IoT is definitely something that requires working backwards from objectives to strategy to tactic or technology.
• "IoT is about predictability." In many cases yes, IoT is about predictability, but so much of it is also about learning and insight. In some cases that leads to improved predictability, in many other cases it leads to new product development, to change in process and to things we maybe didn't even know were possible.
• "Firmware is where the rubber meets the road and IoT development is limited due to the talent shortage." Yes, it is, very much so. This is the bullet point I live in every day, helping companies build outstanding technology teams. One very cool insight that came out of the discussion around this topic was basically that IoT itself will help to lessen the talent bottleneck. The capabilities of IoT will inherently allow us to do far more IoT development with less IoT resources.
• Lastly and this may have been most valuable to me and our manufacturing clients is "the lowest hanging IoT fruit is taking legacy devices and manufacturing machinery along with the data it is already recording, data that was historically pulled through a serial port, and enabling those devices and equipment to communicate over a network." This was my 'a ha' moment for the day.

So, in a nutshell, yesterday's event didn't answer all of the world's IoT questions (we're a long long way from that) or add consistency to the definition but it added significant perspective to my growing IoT knowledge base.

The above said, there is one area of IoT that I am extremely confident around and that is talent. As stated in the fourth bullet there is definitely a shortage however, my team at Experis has very successfully helped a number of clients add top IoT talent in recent months. We have a pipeline of ThingWorx Developers along with Firmware Engineers, a pipeline we've worked hard to build and nurture. If you're struggling to add resources in either area, shoot me a message and let's talk.

Until then, let the IoT learning continue...