IoT for Consumers & the Enterprise
The IoT Revolution at Home
My parents have been taking care of my brother’s dog Charlie the past couple of years while he has been in graduate school. He recently finished, moved across the country, and took the dog with him. My parents will not admit it, but they are empty nesters again and are missing Charlie more than me or my brother.
I gave my brother a housewarming present that was an Internet of Things (IoT) camera called Furbo. In all honesty, the camera is more for my parents than it is for my brother. The Furbo hooks up to the wireless network inside my brother’s apartment, and upon downloading the app and logging into my brother’s account, we are able to see Charlie’s activities throughout the day. And while the IoT camera market is now fairly saturated, (Nest Cam Indoor, Wyze, Arlo Pro), my parents appreciate the ability of the Furbo to dispense treats via the app with a press of a button!
These IoT capabilities are not just limited to camera devices. For example, my wife recently had friends visit Chicago in a spur-of-the-moment trip. Despite the house being a slight mess and the two us still working, we were able to do some quick cleaning before our guests arrived. The Neato is our IoT vacuum, and I was able to get the floors cleaned in an hour and a half via the Neato app.
While there is a lot of focus right now within the tech industry on blockchain, I personally find the market opportunities within the Internet of Things most interesting. IBM’s Institute for Business Value found that 55% of companies plan on investing more than 5% of revenue in this area. The Internet of Things is the network of sensors, devices, and software that allow the transmission of data through the Internet. By exchanging information seamlessly, IoT opens up many more possibilities for aggregating and operationalizing this data, leading to increased efficiencies.
The Smart Grid
While the Furbo and Neato are examples of IoT within the consumer household, there is substantial value for increased revenue and margins for the enterprise. IBM’s Communications sector works closely with utility companies to implement smart grids and AMI (advanced metering infrastructure) meters. This IoT technology enables two-way communication between your electric/water/gas smart meter and the utility company, resulting in immediate and accurate readings. This eliminates the need to deploy trucks out to neighborhoods, thereby lowering the costs of both physical assets and manual labor. Utility companies can incentivize consumers to use or decrease energy during certain hours, which decreases the stress load on the grid and also maximizes margins when purchasing energy on the second-hand market. By 2020, it is estimated that 1.53 billion connected devices will be managed by utility companies.
These smart grid savings can be passed along to the consumer. IFTTT (If This Then That) enables the creation of customized applets based on a variety of third-party services. For example, with a smart light switch, the WeMo IFTTT applet will turn off a device after its used up a certain amount of energy in a day. ComEd has partnered with IFTTT to launch 12 applets for Peak Time Savings (PTS), their incentives program. These applets can call your phone to notify you of an upcoming PTS event, and also set your IoT thermostat to a certain temperature at the beginning and end of the PTS event.
After Hurricane Maria destroyed a significant amount of Puerto Rico’s infrastructure last year, PREPA, the government-owned utility company, had significant delays in restoring energy to the island. The media reported hospitals, government buildings, and schools operating in the dark. Some of the island’s citizens went weeks without power. PREPA released a 63-page plan in discussing its strategy to modernize the power grid of Puerto Rico, highlighting its investments in IoT technology. In moving to a smart grid, the utility company will be able to better determine where crucial outages occur, direct and reroute power to key facilities, and deploy technicians into the field with increased efficiency. While it will take time to rebuild the island, Puerto Rico has an opportunity to take advantage of the latest IoT technology to build a smarter, more efficient grid for its future.
