The Internet of Things (IoT)

The Internet of Things (IoT) describes the network of physical objects—“things”—that are
embedded with sensors, software, and other technologies for the purpose of connecting and
exchanging data with other devices and systems over the internet.
These devices range from ordinary household objects to sophisticated industrial tools. With
more than 7 billion connected IoT devices today, experts are expecting this number to grow to
10 billion by 2020 and 22 billion by 2025. Oracle has a network of device partners.

What technologies have made IoT possible?

While the idea of IoT has been in existence for a long time, a collection of recent advances in a
number of different technologies has made it practical.

1. Access to low-cost, low-power sensor technology. Affordable and reliable sensors are making
IoT technology possible for more manufacturers.
2. Connectivity. A host of network protocols for the internet has made it easy to connect
sensors to the cloud and to other “things” for efficient data transfer.
3. Cloud computing platforms. The increase in the availability of cloud platforms enables both
businesses and consumers to access the infrastructure they need to scale up without actually
having to manage it all.
4. Machine learning and analytics. With advances in machine learning and analytics, along with
access to varied and vast amounts of data stored in the cloud, businesses can gather insights
faster and more easily. The emergence of these allied technologies continues to push the
boundaries of IoT and the data produced by IoT also feeds these technologies.
5. Conversational artificial intelligence (AI). Advances in neural networks have brought natural-
language processing (NLP) to IoT devices (such as digital personal assistants Alexa, Cortana, and
Siri) and made them appealing, affordable, and viable for home use.
6. Automation. The creation and application of technology to monitor and control the
production and delivery of products and services.

Why is Internet of Things (IoT) so important?

Over the past few years, IoT has become one of the most important technologies of the 21st
century. Now that we can connect everyday objects—kitchen appliances, cars, thermostats,
baby monitors—to the internet via embedded devices, seamless communication is possible
between people, processes, and things. By means of low-cost computing, the cloud, big data,
analytics, and mobile technologies, physical things can share and collect data with minimal
human intervention. In this hyperconnected world, digital systems can record, monitor, and
adjust each interaction between connected things. The physical world meets the digital world—
and they cooperate.

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What is Automation?

The dictionary defines automation as:

“the technique of making an apparatus, a process, or a system operate automatically.”
"the creation and application of technology to monitor and control the production and delivery
of products and services.”

Using our definition, the automation profession includes “everyone involved in the creation and
application of technology to monitor and control the production and delivery of products and
services”; and the automation professional is “any individual involved in the creation and
application of technology to monitor and control the production and delivery of products and
services.”

Uses of Automation
Automation encompasses many vital elements, systems, and job functions. It crosses all
functions within industry from installation, integration, and maintenance to design,
procurement, and management.
Automation even reaches into the marketing and sales functions of these industries.
Automation involves a very broad range of technologies including robotics and expert systems,
communications, electro-optics, Cybersecurity, process measurement and control, sensors,
wireless applications, systems integration, test measurement, and many, many more.
Automation provides benefits to virtually all of industry. Here are some examples:

1. Manufacturing, including food and pharmaceutical, chemical and petroleum, pulp and paper
2. Transportation, including automotive, aerospace, and rail
3.Utilities, including water and wastewater, oil and gas, electric power, and
telecommunications
4.Facility operations, including security, environmental control, energy management, safety,
and other building automation
5. Business Automation
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The Basics of Business Automation

Why is business automation important?

Whether you’re running a small business or a large enterprise, automation is an excellent way
to streamline operations and drive business growth. Automation tools are designed to replace
human labor with machine labor so you can put those human resources to work elsewhere in
the business.

To realize the full potential of automation, businesses need to consistently utilize proven
automation software and best practices across all workflows — from creating faster, digital
customer experiences to simplifying internal processes. However, not all solutions contain the
full range of technology needed to automate end-to-end operations. This can lead to many
point solutions, higher costs and an inability to scale.

Explore what business automation is, why it matters and how you can put it to work in your
organization.
Over the decades, automation has touched almost every industry —from ATMs to assembly
lines to healthcare systems. But artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning are taking
automation to a whole new level. This so-called “intelligent automation” is changing the way
humans and machines interact, so businesses can increase efficiency, drive revenue and thrive
in challenging markets. In fact, research shows tremendous bottom-line benefits from
automation. The IBM Institute for Business Value estimates that automation supported by AI
will generate billions of dollars in labor value in 2022 alone.

What is business automation?

Business automation is a term for the use of technology applications that perform repetitive
tasks, freeing up employees for higher value work. This includes business process automation
(BPA), robotic process automation (RPA) and AI-powered automation.
Years ago, automation required massive mainframes and a team of experts to maintain them.
Today, cloud-based automation platforms put the functionality within reach of companies of all
sizes.

Some types of business automation include the following:

Basic automation: Basic automation takes simple, rudimentary tasks and automates them.
Using little to no coding, basic automation tools digitize repetitive tasks — helping to eliminate
errors and accelerate the pace of transactional work. Business process management (BPM) and
RPA are examples of basic automation.
Process automation: Process automation manages business processes for uniformity and
transparency. Often handled by dedicated software, process automation can increase
productivity and efficiency — while also delivering valuable business insights. Process mining
and workflow automation are examples of process automation.
Advanced automation: Advanced automation brings together humans and machines to
integrate multiple systems across the organization. Supporting more complex processes,
advanced automation relies on unstructured data coupled with machine learning, natural
language processing and analysis. It promotes knowledge management and decision support
for specialized work.
Intelligent automation: Driven by AI, intelligent automation means that machines can “learn”
and make decisions based on situations they have encountered and analyzed. For example, in
customer service, virtual assistants powered by AI can reduce costs while enabling smarter
interactions between customers and human agents. The result is a better customer service
experience.
Benefits of business automation
Business automation is critical for a rapidly changing world. For example, predicting which
customer behaviors will persist post-pandemic — from wildly fluctuating demand to heightened
health and safety precautions — can be tricky. But one area you can control is how you manage
the experiences you create for your customers. Automation, especially automation combined
with AI, can help you fix or refine these experiences, resulting in higher sales, better use of
resources and greater customer satisfaction.

One of the best ways to do this is through an automation platform that helps you do the
following:

Discover processes: Pinpoint inefficiencies or hotspots in your operations to help determine

where automated processes can provide the greatest impact. This involves process mining and
modeling.
Apply intelligence: Use the data from automating your operations with machine learning and AI
to recommend actions and free up people for more strategic tasks.
Augment your workforce: Build RPA tools and deploy digital workers to collaborate with
humans wherever a higher level of productivity can be achieved or when backup is needed.
Automate core operations: Apply core automation capabilities — document processing,
workflow orchestration, decision management and content services — to key operational areas
to meet business needs.

Common uses of business automation:

Business automation is well-suited for streamlining processes across just about every area of an
organization:
1. Marketing activities: With email marketing automation, companies can use software to send
out emails to a client distribution list on a predefined schedule, reducing the costs of running
the campaigns manually. Marketing efforts can be tied into a customer relationship
management (CRM) system and even do things like target customers with automated messages
via social media.
2. Human resources: Human resource management systems can automate a wide range of HR
tasks, including job application processing, interview scheduling, employment offers,
onboarding, payroll management and benefits administration. Using analytics, these systems
can also provide insights into workforce productivity.
3. Sales processes: Sales automation tools like Salesforce and other Software-as-a-Service
(SaaS) tools enable sales teams to spend less time logging their deal-related activity and more
time making the phone calls that close deals. The tools can automate repetitive tasks
throughout the sales process, whether it’s qualifying leads based on their buyer journey,
assigning prospects to the right rep or creating data-backed sales forecasts.
4. Finance and accounting: By automating financial planning and accounting functions,
companies can free up time for important tasks like analysis, strategy and collaboration with
stakeholders. In accounts payable (AP) management, for example, data capture is automated,
invoices are automatically matched to documents and approvals are automatically routed. This
reduces data errors and helps prevent fraud through background controls.
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Credit and Collection Management (CCM)
In the current economic and business environment: making sales is important, but collecting on
those sales is critical. A recent survey by the Credit Research Foundation showed that 93% of
respondents believed that their customers were relying on suppliers for working capital.
Working Capital
Working Capital = Current Assets - Current Liabilities
Examples of Current Assets:

 cash,
 cash equivalents,
 short-term investments,
 accounts receivable,
 inventory,
 supplies, and
 prepaid expenses or advance payments
Examples of Current Liabilities:

 Accounts payable, i.e. payments you owe your suppliers.

 Principal and interest on a bank loan that is due within the next year.
 Salaries and wages payable in the next year.
 Notes payable that are due within one year.
 Mortgages payable (the liability of a property owner to pay a loan. type of loan used to
purchase or maintain a home, land, or other types of real estate.)
 Payroll taxes (taxes employees and employers pay on wages, tips, and salaries. )
For example, say a company has $100,000 of current assets and $30,000 of current liabilities.
The company is therefore said to have $70,000 of working capital.
Working capital
-is used to fund operations and meet short-term obligations. If a company has enough working
capital, it can continue to pay its employees and suppliers and meet other obligations, such as
interest payments and taxes, even if it runs into cash flow challenges.
-is the capital of a business which is used in its day-to-day trading operations, calculated as the
current assets minus the current liabilities.

Value of a Credit and Collections Policy

If you don’t have a credit and collections policy, or if you haven’t reviewed your policy in a
while, it’s time to get started.
Effectively managing accounts receivable is about ensuring consistency in your credit and
collection processes. The secret to this consistency is designing and actively implementing a
credit and collection policy. Properly constructed and applied, this policy has the power to
breathe new life into your entire credit-to-cash process. An old policy, however, that hasn’t
been reviewed under the current conditions may be doing your company more harm than
good.

Use the ‘5 C’s of Credit’ to help measure against your organization’s goals:

 Character – Willingness to pay

 Capacity – Will they keep it
 Capital – Do they have it
 Collateral – What backs it up
 Conditions – Status of the current economy

Credit and Collection Departments are generally composed of:

1. Corporate Credit Manager - Credit managers are responsible for overseeing the credit
granting process for a company. Their job is to optimize company sales and reduce bad debt
losses by maintaining the credit policy. They do this by assessing the creditworthiness of
potential customers and conducting periodic reviews of existing customers.
2. Regional credit managers are responsible for managing the relationships between their
company and its regional branches. They ensure that all branches are following the same
policies when it comes to extending credit to customers.

3. Collections Specialists are generally responsible for managing and collection all the
outstanding accounts receivables form clients and customers.
Other Jobs of Collection Specialist but not limited to:
-Monitor accounts to identify outstanding debts.
-Investigate historical data for each debt or bill.
-Find and contact clients to ask about their overdue payments.
-Take actions to encourage timely debt payments.
-Process payments and refunds.
-Resolve billing and customer credit issues.

4.Credit Investigator and/or Credit analyst - Credit investigators are responsible for performing
credit analysis of clients to decipher their financial status as well as their ability to make
complete and regular repayment of loans before extending finance to them.
They work for banks, credit management companies, trading organizations granting credit
sales/payment terms, and lending institutions.
Their job description entails performing credit checks on each loan applicants to determine the
customer’s credit worthiness, as well as mitigating the risk that the organization will undertake
by granting the loan.

5. A credit clerk provides administrative and financial research support for a business. As a
credit clerk, your job duties include reviewing documentation and filings, assessing credit
histories and reports, collecting and processing data on existing customers, and preparing
documents, such as contracts and liens. A lien refers to a legal claim against property that can
be used as collateral to repay a debt. Depending on the type of debt owed, liens can be
attached to real property, such as a home, or personal property, such as a car or furniture.