Internet of Things interventions to enable business in the near, intermediate and

longer term

  Necessary for essential Sufficient for full-range Transformation to purpose-

work functionality driven, resilient, adaptable
(1-2 months)   (3-6 months) business
(6-12 months)
Workforce  Monitoring social  Facility monitoring;  Collaborative robots
safety & distancing between implementing safety (“cobots”) work
enablement workers; precautions, air quality, alongside employees
alarms/notifications for etc. to perform the more
violations  Image analytics to “dirty, dull, difficult and
 Real-time automated ensure safety dangerous” work
CCTV screening to compliance and to
ensure proper use of avoid accidents
personal protective  Contactless shift
equipment (PPE) turnovers: exchange of
 AR/VR-based updates, alerts and
immersive, guided recommendations
workforce training (self- across shifts by remote
training or instructor- monitoring and online
led) logging
Continuity in  Remote data  Smart factory  Prescriptive
operations acquisition from readily enablement for end-to- maintenance,
available edge end visibility of plant remaining useful life
computing components operations through and inventory
 Remote monitoring of horizontal integrations optimization enabled
operations and assets,  Operational faults and through digital control
via the cloud, with asset anomalies tower and decision
advanced diagnosed with support analytics
visualizations, alerts analytical models and  Automation of repetitive
and alarms machine learning tasks through industrial
 Strengthened IT-OT algorithms robotics
layer to mitigate  Monitoring real-time
cybersecurity risks  plant conditions and
guideline adherence
Resilient supply  Unified visibility of  AI-enabled supply  Regular evolution of AI-
chain integrated supply chain chain operations based driven forecasting with
via information hub on past data, on-time increasing accuracy
updated with real-time delivery, ratings and and system
events data other supply chain collaboration to remove
 Integration of data from constraints buffers across the
ERP, CRM, logistics  Dynamic forecasting, value chain
and real-time events scheduling, resource
and route planning

 
FUTURE POSSIBILITIES
How the pandemic highlighted the need for IoT systems
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing economic crisis, many industries and
service categories around the world immediately needed to find new ways to function to
continue providing goods and services in a very different world. For example, IoT systems
supported a wide range of health-related services at a moment of surging need, including:

Telehealth consultations. The Stanford Children’s Health Hospital quickly increased its
capacity to perform about 620 digital visits per day and the insurance industry increasingly is
reimbursing and even encouraging such remote consultations.

Diagnostics. Connected digital devices can help determine early warning signs of disease
symptoms. Kinsa, for example, a digital thermometer that connects to a smart phone app
enabling the storage and sharing of health data, saw a spike in usage as the pandemic spread
in the U.S.

Remote patient monitoring. With the increased risk to healthcare workers, the U.S. Food and
Drug Administration issued new guidance for manufacturers of vital sign-measuring devices
to expand their use to include the remote monitoring of patients.15

Cleaning robots. Particularly in China, robots have been used to disinfect and clean hospitals
and perform medicine delivery.16

IoT applications related to the pandemic were hardly confined to healthcare, however. Across
industries and in a variety of business scenarios, our experience shows three immediate
priorities requiring solutions involving IoT initiatives — workforce safety and enablement,
operational continuity, and supply chain resilience — each with further implications for
reimagining how business could be run more efficiently and more profitably, pandemics or
no.
IoT possibilities await your business
The descriptions of IoT systems in action presented in this article are, of course, incomplete.
The promise of IoT systems – the possibilities presented when sensor data, analytics, AI, and
the prodigious computing power of the cloud are combined – is limited only by resource
constraints and imagination. Everywhere a sensor can go, everywhere it can collect data,
represents another set of opportunities and new sources of value – to improve operations,
create new digital business models, to discover new ways to turn products into services.
As we have seen, the Internet of Things can answer many of the questions posed by urgent
situations like a public health crisis. But even as each crisis passes, like an ocean wave it
leaves a reshaped shore after it recedes. Those enterprises that understand that their business
and competitive environment have been unalterably changed — and have had the foresight to
examine their operations for the reasons and ways to bring life to things — will be far better
equipped to thrive in that reshaped world. The COVID-19 pandemic shifted the economic
and commercial landscape, often requiring IoT solutions merely to continue the most basic
operations to stay in business at any scale. Yet those companies that have ramped up their
IoT activities will be positioned to gain an immediate and perhaps enduring competitive
advantage.  Consider:

 The rising demand for home deliveries. When the world needs goods and services
delivered to customers’ homes, the IoT can enable companies to track them, often
through channel partners, thereby improving the performance of distribution
channels.

 The surging need to check the operating state of equipment in homes, offices, cars,
plants, aircraft, construction equipment and more without having to dispatch field
service technicians. IoT is essential to remote product monitoring and remote service.

 The ability to serve people who can’t meet in person. When people are reluctant (or
forbidden) to gather, IoT-related technologies, for example, can allow medical
professionals to remotely monitor patients’ health, and provide counselling and other
services. Such remote connections are applicable to other fields, including education
(inexorably moving to a post-pandemic online model) and customer service
departments in retail and other industries.
 A louder call for automation. During a pandemic, factories and distribution centers
need to continue operations with fewer people to permit social distancing. This
applies especially to businesses in areas where a return to full operations must of
necessity be gradual, or when there’s a need to adjust rapidly should a new outbreak
occur. IoT-enabled systems enable employees to distance without compromising
efficiency or quality. In an IoT-enabled environment, single-shift enterprises can
become double- or triple-shift operations, maintaining (or even increasing)
throughput and output levels.

These new conditions call for enterprises to ratchet up their IoT capabilities as their
individual circumstances permit. But many companies have been moving too slowly to
leverage IoT for a post-pandemic world. In our work with clients before the COVID-19 crisis
emerged, we witnessed many firms engaging in proof-of-concept projects and programs
aimed at making incremental improvements. Efforts like these are not suited to this moment
in time. And those companies that are simply picking up where they left off before the
pandemic will find themselves left behind. 

However, there are proven ways to pursue aggressive IoT goals while mitigating the risk of
failure. Lean and agile approaches allow companies to adjust and refine projects as they go,
incorporating a feedback loop of learning, sharpening their execution. 

This is the process that will allow companies to think big – which is what the post-pandemic
world requires.  
Device management: The number of sensors, gateways and devices will be extremely large
and they are going to be spread over large geographical areas – often in remote, inaccessible
and or private locations. Ensuring that devices are completely automated and remotely
manageable is a challenge. Device diversity and interoperability: Take the example of a
power network in a city, which is sensor enabled and needs to be monitored continuously in
near real-time. The generation, transmission, and distribution functions in such a complex
network require different types of sensor devices from different vendors. As many vendors do
not support any standards in their products, there are sure to be interoperability issues.
Integration of data from multiple sources: As you deploy an IoT application, you will get
streams of data from different sources such as sensors, contextual data from mobile device
information, and social network feeds and other web resources. It is important to note that the
semantics of the data must be part of the data itself and not locked up within the application
logic in different application silos.

Scale, data volume, and performance: Prepare your business to manage the scale, data
volume, and velocity of IoT applications. As the number of users and devices scale, so will
the amount of data that needs to be ingested, stored, and analyzed. You will have a Big Data
problem on your hands, and standard architectures and platforms may be inadequate. Also,
where stringent real-time performance is required, network and application level latencies
may be a problem.

Flexibility and evolution of applications: You will witness sensors and devices evolving with
new and improved capabilities. This will result in creation of new analytics techniques and
algorithms, and new use cases and business models. You will need to quickly develop apps
with minimal effort. You will need ecosystems and platforms that enable and sustain this.

Data privacy: A good bit of data collected from devices will be sensitive personal data that
must be protected from unauthorized access and used only for the specific purpose for which
the user has allowed that data to be collected. Users have to be provided with necessary tools
that enable them to define the policies for sharing their personal data with authorized persons
and applications.
 CONCLUSION

Just as the internet has transformed businesses and lifestyles in the last twenty years, IoT will
disrupt the organization’s relationship with its stakeholders. While it is complex, and poses
some risks and is still evolving, many pioneers have started adopting this technology. A
technology agnostic platform that enables device management, application management, and
sensor data management with analytics will jumpstart your engagement with cyberphysical
systems. This can help you innovate new processes and initiatives to increase your
organization’s business performance, and create customer delight with new products and
services. Suggestions would be:
1) Invest in a common operating platform built with security in mind- It is worth thinking
about this and making the right choices upfront as to make sure all your future devices
support the operating environment. A single OS provides a consistent user experience across
your devices and you will profit from scaling updates, changes, and improvements on all your
devices, limiting the duplication and porting efforts of security updates and new features
2) Enforce strong passwords but do not require them to be extremely difficult to prevent users
from having to write down their passwords- Those who want to use extreme passwords can
do so and some might do it through password management tools, so allow them but do not
enforce them. Use common password checks based on publicly available password
dictionaries to prevent users from exposing themselves to brute-force attacks.
3) Invest time in a robust and user-friendly OTA (over-the-air) update procedure- Ideally
updates should be seamless and automatic. Alternatively, give the user the ability to
download and update his or her device through a simple click on a button in the admin GUI.
4) Create a vulnerability disclosure and handling program and provide clear instructions and
points of contact for security researchers- Consider a bounty program to attract security
researchers. Take every reported vulnerability seriously and follow up closely with the
researcher. Give the researcher credit and let them publish their findings after you fixed the
vulnerability.
5) Try to limit the personal data that needs to be stored on the devices themselves – the more
information gets stored, the more can be stolen- The security challenge is enormous because
there is currently no standard and, worse, no consensus on how to implement security when it
comes to IoT on devices. But like all providers, you have to assume responsibility. To not
wait for regulations to start considering the security of your products.