New-Tech Magazine Europe | Dec 2015 Digital edition

Why IoT? Three Big Reasons Emerge from Customer Interviews Jerry Lee, Microsoft

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ou may have read how Microsoft customers such as

number one answer customers gave to the question of what they think they can gain from IoT in our recent study by Keystone Strategy*. For companies struggling to streamline their vision for IoT and focus on the fastest time to value, reducing costs provides the shortest path to success. With ROI realizable within the first year, cost reduction is also one of the most influential ways for business group leaders to drive alignment when board approval is required for their IoT investment. While nearly every company could benefit by automating data collection for analysis, other common IoT scenarios for increasing efficiency and reducing costs include real-time inventory tracking to reduce the time wasted searching for parts and ensure the right ones are always on hand. IoT is also being used to create some of the world’s most reliable factory lines. In healthcare, IoT can be used to vastly improve patient care, by automating medication systems. And in some cities, IoT is transforming life in urban areas by creatingsmarter traffic solutions. The

reality is, scenarios to reduce costs are as many and varied as companies and industries themselves. No. 2: Increase revenue Increasing revenue is another big reason companies are looking to the Internet of Things today, but because it often involves building out the organization to accommodate the new business, it generally takes longer to realize ROI from the effort. The rewards, however, can be substantial, and we’ve seen several customers leverage their initial IoT work into new services that can be added on top of products to generate post-sale revenue streams. Remote monitoring and predictive maintenance scenarios are a prime example. We’ve seen how both Rockwell and TKE have expanded their business to become service and software providers as much as they are equipment manufacturers. Rockwell uses their solution to monitor petroleum equipment in remote locations, with a team of support engineers at Rockwell headquarters keeping tabs on the health of their

ThyssenKrupp Elevator and Rockwell Automation are applying Internet of Things (IoT) concepts to transform their business. Their deployments reflect the bottom-line impact that is possible with advanced IoT initiatives. For instance, ThyssenKrupp’s preventative maintenance for elevator uptime paved the way for reduced costs and a major competitive advantage. And while there’s much to be learned from advanced players in IoT with complex concepts and solutions, there is also plenty of opportunity for companies that are just starting out with IoT. When you look at new IoT deployments in this emerging technology landscape, there are three key business fundamentals where companies of any size can gain. No. 1: Reduce costs In most industries, it’s easier to save on expenditures than to build revenue, and the same principle holds true when it comes to building value with IoT. So it shouldn’t be too surprising that creating efficiency and reducing the costs of doing business was the

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