When you talk about the internet, after 60 years, people intuitively “get” the idea. Server space afforded by networked computers can be accessed by you, or I, anywhere, at a very low price (more on that later). In many cases you can find what you want by using an “indexed search” tool, not a tricky string of numbers. Most of us do it every day without thinking; Type in approximately what you want into Google … and, Hey Presto! Immediate results – Fast. Simple. Very Easy.
In IoT there seems to be a mismatch. The idea of computer 2 computer is perfectly sensible, but machine 2 machine (something which has been in motion since the beginning of the industrial revolution) appears to be incredibly difficult to get right. There a million technologies. None of them can do exactly what the client wants.
Taking out the drudge work
The power of marketing is the ability to show the “value proposition” within a product. If you’re working in sectors that already have scale, a rugged working environment (water distribution, waste water, waste management, etc.), IoT has value to you.
A lot of your time is taken with visiting individual sites (utility monitoring, logistics, takeaway deliveries), or you have a labor intensive process you want to streamline (manufacturing, farming, logistics, etc.) then your “pain point” shows you the utility. This is why consistent top sectors for IoT adoption are agriculture, logistics and manufacturing.
But what about other sectors? Airlines; from check-in to baggage handling, forestry; from planting to milling, shipping; containers to customs …anything that involves time & distance (plus scale). You are going to find that leading players are already invested in remote sensor technologies, sometimes a lot more than sensors.
Scale and scope
Scale and scope are the watchwords. Think about football games; tickets, pre-sales, merch, seat allocation, TV broadcasts, cameras, security, grass cutting, pitch markings, parking, cleaning …it is a principle of scale. If five people and a stray dog turn up to watch you play, none of that matters. But, when an entire city is invested in a do-or-die victory? Game on.
“And in an industry moving this fast, being misunderstood isn’t just a hurdle – it’s the same as being invisible.”
https://mvno-index.com
People do not really “get” the time to market element. When I want to switch my current computer hardware vendor it is no biggie. Usually I am running Microsoft OS. That is the common backbone of systems integration. “But, We use Linux servers?” The in-house technical team can probably handle that. Workarounds exist. Nobody really runs an office stack on Mac, unless you don’t have an office to stack in the first place.
Switching costs
So, in office computing, your options are quickly whittled down to a few basic choices, maybe just one and an “indie alternative.” Within the IoT sphere you are bounced around by long range, low power, high latency, low bandwidth, high frequency, high security, … buzzwords that sound like schizoid gibberish. The variability of real-world operations is wide. This means project complexity is a real deal breaker. The everything, everywhere, all at once, “solution” is a non starter.
Most of those high v low, options are just “settings.” If we go back to our internet desktop analogy, those things were mapped out in the early 80s, when you needed to manage bandwidth carefully. Only the elite could upload an entire video to their “dreamweaver” website and nobody could afford to watch it (based on usage fees).
We are now accustomed to “free at the point of use;” public WiFi. YouTube gives you almost unlimited storage space. Google gives you free email. Microsoft licenses you a virtual office environment. Even your connectivity provider gives “all you can eat” data packages, after years of trickle down economics.
It is not really “free” though, is it? Aggregated data collection is subsidizing the up-front fee. That is a different story for another day, but it is very relevant to how your data is used, moved and stored. The topic of “free” brings us back to our original topic (what management “do not get”?).
Who is the buyer for IoT?
In a lot of cases, there is no PMO (project management office) or Lead Delivery Manager racing to add more complexity to their already billowing scope. Senior management culturally want to bring “change,” (by change you can read in – oversight tools). Middle managers know to guard their territory from prying eyes because they know “change is a very dangerous term for them.
A lot of IoT upsell comes with the words “bespoke,” custom,” “turnkey” and “tailored,” push messaging to senior management’s peacocking. Any savvy CEO rationally looks at a combination of intrusion into product and processes, “services” and “consultancy fees,” as anti-competitive scope bloat.
The last topic for this post is “vendor lock in.” “What if we want out of this deal?” S/He thinks. “…We don’t know enough to know enough here.” That is when you get ghosted on your brilliant IoT advocacy; when the rubber meets the road.
The Japanese experience
If you follow the trajectory of IoT (…as data analytics), from Deming to JIT (Taiichi Ohno at Toyota, 1970s), TQM, to modern high tech, real-time feedback loops, you know that silos are bad news for any kind of data quality initiative. Data points and spreadsheets did not seal that deal, the Japanese built better cars based on a collective culture, some very astute thinking and a focus on quality work.
