Enterprise Mobility and the Internet of Things

This is the first in a series of blogs on Enterprise Mobility and the Internet of Things where we aim to describe what it is where it came from and how it will impact and be molded by mobility.

The phrase “Internet of Things” has been around for a while and was pioneered by Kevin Ashton at the Auto-ID Centre at MIT. The premise was that embedding tiny transmitters and sensors could revolutionise the interaction of people and objects. The concept leaned heavily on tagging using such technologies as RFID NFC and QR codes.

Latterly the scope has become wider to include sensors and other devices such as GPS. Industry body the IoT Consortium describes it:

“internet enabled devices and related software services that directly touch consumers in the form of home automation, entertainment, and productivity”

IDC believe the IoT will have an installed base of 212 billion “things” globally by the end of 2020

Kevin Morley describes IoT having a huge impact particularity around:

• Ongoing development of smart cities cars and houses.
• Enhanced IT connectivity infrastructure.
• An increasingly connected culture where everyone wants to be connected to the internet at home, at work or in the car

Commentators agree that a smart phone/tablet/device will become the centre of this whole area and provide real-time access to all sorts of information including places people content and access to connected devices.  In terms of enterprise mobility this is an important development especially in the supply chain and field service sectors revolutionising the areas of visibility replenishment and maintenance.

We will come back to this topic from time to time with new IoT articles concepts and products we come across.

There are many IoT products currently in the marketplace many aimed at home automation such as the Nest thermostat or measuring fitness like the Nike FuelBand.

Lets think more enterprise, I like BigBelly Solar’s smart trash which can help streamline a currently inefficient activity – refuse collections.

Happy to come and visit to discuss how enterprise mobility and the internet of things can help your project.