I always feel fortunate to be part of an industry that has been delivering unprecedented global transformation decade after decade. From the personal computer revolution in the 80s and 90s, internet computing in the 2000s and mobile computing in the current decade, our industry drives great innovations that have changed the way we live, work and play. Each computing revolution has built on the strengths of the other and we are rapidly advancing to the next revolution.
The pace of change has never been greater than it is today and I believe we are in an era of extreme disruption due to the rapid and unprecedented change we are experiencing. The proliferation of technology into all man-made objects (machines), connecting humans and machines and predictive insights harnessed from data, form the pillars of the next era of computing. This week I attended the Google Horizon event in San Francisco, where they reported the significant impact that artificial intelligence will have on advancing GDP and employee productivity.
The industry is abuzz about the vast opportunities unlocked by this fully connected new world. CrunchBase lists over 1600 startups in the IoT space. Transitioning to this new world will preoccupy enterprises in the decades to come. I am fully convinced that a vast number of traditional businesses will not exist if they fail to adapt to this disruption. In a word, they will get “uberized.” As I wonder about the characteristics of winners and losers in this emerging space, a few traits will separate players who harness the potential of IoT and those who will simply be left behind. These traits span business and technology capabilities:
- Customer Experience: Companies that anticipate and understand the power of new consumer and the importance of their experience will win. Technology is shifting power from business to consumer in an incredibly fast and impactful way. Watching new competitors and transforming existing businesses with new approaches to make the customer experience easy, better and beautiful will make these enterprises embark on new marketplace moves that increase their relevance.
- Data & Action: IoT at its heart is about data. IoT without business intelligence may be fun, but not interesting and not transformative from a business standpoint. Firms that realize that the true purpose of IoT is to drive action based on data insights will be differentially positioned to thrive. These firms will make IoT a key aspect of their future product strategy and develop tactics to embed smarts into their products. Gathering data to understand the products’ usage, customer preferences, and new innovation paths will be a key activity and become the basis for decision making. Their approach to data will pervade every aspect of the business and has high executive involvement.
- Business Models: Different times require different business models. Focusing on core competencies is key. Enterprises that value scalability and flexibility will be in a better position to adapt. These firms will truly embrace the Anything-As-A-Service (XaaS) paradigm and seek cloud partners and outsourced business models to shift their focus on the areas key to their business and that dramatically shorten time-to-market. Further, these firms will not hesitate to redesign their operations and supply chains to alter their go-to-market efforts. A key aspect of a successful business will be viewing integration as differentiation. Connecting different parts of the buying process to facilitate a seamless customer experience will differentiate the winners. Similarly, partnering with the right ecosystem providers to embed the latest and cost effective technologies into product designs will separate the leaders from the herd.
All the above can be daunting and often require the right industry partnerships. From designing new products, operating in the cloud, XaaS paradigms and harnessing data insights, each aspect requires accessing skills and resources that are mostly difficult to find in-house and costly to acquire at scale. This is where Arrow can be helpful to organizations.
Arrow has a one-stop technology stack for IoT implementations. From hardware and design resources for sensor end-points to infrastructure requirement such as cloud to middleware and application support, Arrow has the technology and the resources to empower companies making the shift. Arrow has also built tools – Arrow Connect and Arrow Insight – to securely bridge any device and any platform to the cloud and provide a management portal for people to communicate with and optimize their connected technologies.
Winning in the IoT marketplace will be crucial for the future of any business. I would love to hear your perspectives.
