Is your digital transformation strategy prepared for IoT?
Digital transformation (DX) is a trend that continues to sweep across industry sectors, supporting the shift from physical to digital assets and the adoption of new data-driven business models. Countless internet brands — including Amazon, Netflix, Airbnb and Uber — have already redefined business models in their respective industries, and organizations around the globe are moving towards new approaches to compete with these agile market entrants in order to meet the evolving needs of their customers.
Alongside this transformation has been the rapid proliferation of connected devices, with IDC predicting there will be a staggering 30 billion connected “things” in use by 2020. From consumer gadgets and wearables to connected cars and smart homes, awareness, understanding and adoption of IoT is growing quickly. IoT is also beginning to touch all aspects of the enterprise, and adoption will only increase with fields as diverse as healthcare and manufacturing becoming more dependent on IoT communications to drive business processes and mission-critical systems.
Although the benefits of IoT are attractive, this transformation is creating additional complexity and it’s important for the CIO to take on a guiding role through the transition as measuring the impact of DX is crucial. The success of IoT implementations will be measured by key performance indicators such as productivity, cost savings and improved customer service, as well as opportunities to introduce and monetize new digital services. It is only through close monitoring and management of the transformation that these benefits will be realized and the foundations of a successful business, driven by IoT, can be developed. Enterprises need to be aware that as IoT supporting infrastructure is relying more on hybrid, on-premises and cloud environments, every system upgrade, new connection or third-party application added to this existing infrastructure increases service delivery complexity, infrastructure scale and adds to corporate risk.
