IoT technology can help you gather vast amounts of data, but what is important is what you do with those data. Steve Rogerson explains.

The act of gathering data is not useful. That may come as a bit of a surprise given the volumes written about doing just that, whether it is about the type or deployment of the sensors, the way they communicate with each other or the infrastructure, and where the data from the sensors are processed.

That last bit should give you a little bit of a clue as to what I meant by the opening sentence, that the act of gathering data is not useful. What is useful is that you use the data gathered and not just store them away until they are out of date.

That was the message from Syed Zaeem Hosain, chief technology officer at Aeris Communications, in his keynote opening of the first day of this month’s IoT Days Summer online conference organised by the IoT M2M Council (IMC).

He focused on how an organisation can create a business case for IoT deployments. Basically, he talked about how to monetise the IoT; after all, if it doesn’t somehow make or save money for your business, why do it?

The hope of the industry is that people will do it, because otherwise the forecast from the GSMA of the number of connected devices rising from 12 billion in 2019 to nearly 25 billion by 2025 stands no chance of being met. That is why it is important to show how the IoT can make money for a business.

So will we get there? Hosain said yes if it was economically justifiable to deploy an application. “The impact of IoT is absolutely enormous,” he said. “IoT has impacted a large number of markets. There are public and private deployments in the consumer and enterprise space, and that is going to continue to grow.”

This, he said, was because the reason to deploy an IoT application was quite simple – businesses want to increase revenue or reduce costs. IoT can impact both of those.

So, to create a business case you need to determine how to monetise the IoT. As well as this desire to make money, there may be government or legal pressure that all make the technology attractive. Hosain gave, as an example, lorry drivers in the USA where there must be a daily report of tyre pressures on all the commercial trucks on the highways. That drives the need for an automated tyre-pressure monitoring system. That is much more efficient than relying on a driver each day to take manual tyre pressure readings on up to 18 wheels.

Another factor is normal business competitiveness. If one business is using the IoT to become more efficient or offer a better service, then it will gain market share unless its competitors do the same.

A key point, which brings us back to the opening of this piece, is never to underestimate the value of data. Getting those data analysed and processed is where the insights come from and where the resulting actions can be made to happen. This is where the monetary value really comes from.

Gathering data and sticking them away are not useful. Just stockpiling data in what can be termed a data museum provides no benefit. You need to use those data, analyse them, understand what insights you can gain. Otherwise, you are just going to have a place where you have stuck those data away until they are no longer relevant.

Also, you should look at combining data from different sources as that can sometimes give new insights. This can be from different departments within a company or even looking at data from external sources and marrying them with the data produced within your own company.

Finally, Hosain stressed the importance of picking the right partner to take you on your IoT journey. At large scale, the IoT can produce great value, but don’t go it alone.

The next sessions in the IMC’s IoT Days Summer conference will take place on 24 June when sessions will look at licensed versus unlicensed connectivity and how design impacts power consumption at the edge. To find out more and to register for these free conferences, go here.