Can we talk about a local Internet of Things?
Every day we buy things using our smartphones, tablets or computers. We call a cab using an app. We even measure our temperature or our heart rate with a simple gesture on our devices. It’s very clear that the Internet of Things (IoT) is present in our lives and it’s influencing us in a big way. This, though, is just the beginning.
A study conducted by Gartner, Inc. forecasts that “6.4 billion connected things will be in use worldwide in 2016, up 30 percent from 2015, and will reach 20.8 billion by 2020. In 2016, 5.5 million new things will get connected every day.”
Nevertheless, on a local scale, things are a bit different, as the Internet of Things is just gaining traction while only 48% of the adult population is using the Internet. The good part is that the numbers are increasing annually, giving the opportunity for IoT to penetrate more and more the dynamic market in Romania.
Stating this, we find that the local IT communities (in Cluj-Napoca, Bucharest, Timisoara) are more aware of the importance of IoT, as they start to organise events on topics such as e-health or Smart City, proving that we, as an ecosystem, are learning and adapting at a fast pace.
And part of this change is brought by companies such as Accenture Industrial Software Solutions Romania, who strategically focus their energy, support and resources to work with the communities in building new systems, ideas and products for a better, smarter future.
About this continuous dialogue between the company and the community that results in various projects and events, János Égly, Executive Director at Accenture Industrial Software Solutions Romania says:
IoT is at its beginning and we intend to leverage the worldwide pulse of it and our experience in the interest of the local communities through our access to Accenture’s global network. One of the first steps in our contribution plan was to open our Industrial Software Center of Excellence in Cluj-Napoca for our local IT professionals and communities.
In the last six months, we hosted 6 community events and meetups. Our innovation group in IoT was also opened for interested local IT professionals. The second big step was to start supporting professional education, especially through cooperation with local universities. Here I would like to mention our pilot program launched in the second part of last year focusing on cooperation in the IoT space.
Furthermore, we also participate in summer internship programs as well as offering students part time opportunities to develop themselves in the real industry environment. We are also sponsoring a series of local IT conferences, as in today’s technology storm continuous info sharing is key.
Moreover, Accenture continues its initiatives, partnering with Techsylvania for this year’s edition, seeing it as ‘’a major local event which contributes a lot to developing the local IT communities by offering the possibility to share information about and even experience the latest technologies.’
With this in mind, the IoT local community has the capacity of creating impactful and relevant products that can scale and influence on an international level. And, as we believe, it’s just a matter of time to get things done.
