The repercussions of the Covid-19 on the personal and business world have been extremely overarching. Not only did the pandemic whack physical (and mental) health, but it also pushed many businesses to the brink because they couldn’t keep up with the skepticism and incertitude. In such back-breaking times, it might seem logical to shut down business units, stall market expansion plans, and keep away from making investments in modern tech. Surprisingly, however, that’s not entirely true as investments in IoT are swelling. Confused? Read on to find out why!
The Race Towards IoT
In recent years, despite the initial apprehension, IoT has gained widespread adoption across various industry disciplines, starting from manufacturing and expanding to software, banking, healthcare, and more.
The latest trends in IoT are offering more computing power and reliable connectivity, thereby helping organizations reshape and revolutionize their business models. Did you know? IDC forecasts investments in IoT technology are projected to grow at 13.6% per year through 2022.
While the race to adopt these trends and statistics made total sense in a pre-pandemic world, when organizations had the vision and the budget, little did anyone expect adoption to continue in the post-pandemic era as well – given the transformative changes that the pandemic has brought about.
However, a recent Gartner survey has thwarted all false notions about IoT expenditure. The survey revealed that 47% of organizations plan to increase investments in IoT – despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Here’s why!
- To reduce costs: One of the top-most priorities for COVID-stricken organizations today is cost reduction. Since the pandemic has impacted market share, customer loyalty, and competitive standing, the only way they can keep their heads above water is by cutting down on unnecessary expenditure. And paradoxically, IoT helps them in achieving that!
Contrary to popular belief that IoT investments are enormous and can only be afforded by giants, the truth is, IoT helps produce a predictable ROI within a specified timeframe. Right from reduced maintenance costs to breakdown costs, inventory costs, labor costs, energy costs, security costs, and more. Even companies that have limited history with IoT can seamlessly track their business outcomes in real-time and make amends to streamline and optimize costs in shorter time frames.
- To boost efficiency: Since the pressure on businesses to re-shape their strategy and restructure their business to deliver better, long-term results for stakeholders is huge, IoT is a great tool to improve growth and performance. In addition to helping companies optimize their costs in these uncertain times, IoT also opens doors to several new opportunities to boost efficiency.
For companies where IoT investments are relatively new, the possibilities are endless. They can deploy connected sensors to enable predictive maintenance on assets and detect bottlenecks before they impact processes or production, saving hugely on maintenance efforts while avoiding costly downtime. They can also use IoT to collect reliable real-time data to optimize productivity, energy, and consumption – thus improving yield and throughput.
- To improve safety: From the beginning of the pandemic, employee, customer, and stakeholder confidence has been spiraling downward. With little or no assurance of stable jobs and salaries, COVID-19 has brought physical and financial safety into the spotlight. For organizations seeking ways to improve employee or customer safety, IoT delivers several capabilities that help in strengthening trust, loyalty, and satisfaction.
For instance, remote asset monitoring via IoT can help bring down the frequency of in-person monitoring of equipment – helping organizations in healthcare or mining sectors safeguard the health of their employees. When paired with Digital Twins, IoT can also help detect equipment failures before they cause harm to the workforce or stall production – while allowing repairs to be made quickly and at a reduced cost. At the same time, when integrated with AI, IoT can enable live video monitoring, to ensure zero-touch and social distancing norms to be maintained.
With sensor technology becoming more advanced, widely available, and cheaper, the IoT revolution is here to stay. In a post-COVID world, benefits across cost-effectiveness, efficiency, and safety will allow businesses to cope with the uncertainties, strengthen their core models, and bounce back to normal operations.
The post 3 Reasons Behind the Increased Investments in IoT Post COVID-19 appeared first on kloudq.
