Internet of Things: Unlocking True Digital Business Potential

Gartner defines the Internet of Things (IoT) as a network of physical objects that contain embedded technology to communicate and sense or interact with their internal states or the external environment. The Internet of Things exploits a wide range of technologies that enable refinements to current business models and open up entirely new business opportunities.

The impact of the IoT is pervasive within and outside the organization. IoT is bound to substantially impact companies worldwide, particularly as a technology enabler for digital business. A growing portfolio of IoT device data, its analysis and integration with back-end systems, and the subsequent IoT feedback and control will produce a seamless end-to-end IT choreography of intelligent operations and improved business outcomes.  Despite its complexity and constant evolution, IoT will open doors to multiple business opportunities. 

• Focus on understanding the business benefits that can be realized through IoT. A lack of this understanding is normally the main reason for no coordinated action on IoT across the organization.
• Explore the internal efficiency benefits initially, as these are easier to identify — particularly if you operate in an asset-intensive industry.
• Research the sourcing of an IoT platform that will serve the needs of the enterprise as a whole.
• Take extreme care over security and privacy issues as you build the solution. The risks are considerable, and you must consider both digital and physical security in your solution.
• Consider carefully which system integrators or consulting firms you look to partner with if you need assistance. Remember that decisions made at this stage will have a long-term impact on the business.

A typical IoT solution contains three main parts:

The edge is where data is sampled and collected from the environment by instrumented things or devices. These devices may include — but certainly are not limited to — consumer devices (such as thermostats or wrist watches), appliances or industrial systems (such as central air conditioning) that contain sensors to collect data and/or configurable parts (such as actuators) to alter the operation of the device.

The IoT platform ingests, stores and performs analytics on the data, and based on the intelligence gleaned from that analyses, it will orchestrate tasks or invoke enterprise applications. The IoT platform also contains some device and platform management functionality. The platform can be hosted in different locations (for example, in the cloud or on-premises) and may be a single monolithic platform or a composite of complementary capabilities from one or more providers.

The enterprise represents the set of applications, processes and services — or devices themselves — that can be called by the IoT platform to accomplish the business objective.

There are many ways to define a strategy, but from the perspective of an IT organization, a useful approach is to structure it in five sections, each of which answers a key question:

Scope: What part of the organization does the strategy apply to? Any strategy should be clearly scoped in terms of time frame and organizational coverage.

Demand: What is the strategy required to deliver, and how will its success be measured? This section will discuss both technology and business demand issues.

Supply: Which tools, technologies, capabilities, architectures, standards, processes and sourcing partners will the IT organization need to deliver against the demand? Where are the gaps based on current capabilities? What resources (at a high level) will be required to implement the strategy?

Governance: Who owns the strategy, directs it, funds it and so on? What is the process for updating the strategy? What new organizational structures will be required to implement the strategy? For example, will it be a steering committee or an IoT center of excellence (COE)?

Risk management: What are the high-level risks and issues that apply to this strategy, in which consistent policies or technologies crossing multiple projects are needed? In an IoT context, safety, security, regulatory intervention and privacy might be topics addressed in this section of the strategy.

Gartner defines digital twins as a virtual representation of a thing, person or process. As digital twin adoption accelerates, applications and software engineering leaders should focus on these recommendations to support an incremental approach to the development of a digital twin portfolio that delivers near-term commercial value while ensuring long-term investment protection

Adopt a minimum viable product approach — Prioritize “quick wins” and incrementally enhance your digital twins investments over time.

Address your IT competency gaps — Expand your existing IT competencies (e.g., information management) to address new digital twin needs (e.g., Internet of Things [IoT] time-series data).

Plan for end-to-end system integration — To fully capitalize on your digital twin investments, integrate them with business applications to enhance business process automation.

Incorporate governance from the beginning — Adopt sustainable digital twin governance models to address software configuration changes, security and full life cycle management.