Why Entrepreneurs Should Care About The IoT

internet of things entrepreneurship

The Internet has already brought humanity together into one giant web of communications. But the internet we’ve all come to know and love is really only the first internet. The next internet won’t just be connecting computers – it’ll be connecting everything to everything.

In many ways, we’re right at the start of something big. The internet of things is set to connect not only our phones and our home appliances, but our very bodies to the cloud, allowing all our data to be shared with the service providers we use (and probably government too).

For entrepreneurs, it’s an exciting time. Just like the first internet, the internet of things will generate its own billionaires as savvy business people work out how to use it to offer value.

If you’re an entrepreneur, here’s why you should be interested in the internet of things.

You’ll Be Able To Analyze Your Customers In Real Time

To some extent, businesses already collect a lot of data that allows them to get a pretty good picture of who their customers are and which products they’d like. But with the internet of things, this data will be expanded.

The internet of things, for instance, will enable companies to offer better customer service. Sensors inside products will alert the company, through the internet, if a product is about to fail, enabling them to make a preemptive call to the customer, informing them of the problem and that a replacement is on its way.

You’ll Be Able To Monitor Your Own Equipment

A similar principle applies to your own equipment and plant. Ever since the 1970’s, businesses have been using the Modbus to facilitate communications between computers and machines. But now that technology is advancing rapidly, the way that machines talk to computers is changing. Boeing, for instance, is putting sensors in all its aircraft that constantly transmit monitoring data to a central computer, informing it if there are any mechanical issues.Similarly, factories are now embedding sensors in everything, obviating the need for humans to monitor production lines and equipment, automating the process and lowering costs.

Your Business’s Performance Will Be Shared

It’s not just industry that stands to benefit from the upcoming internet of things. Service companies will also be impacted. The internet of things means that the costs of sharing data will plummet, meaning that it will be much easier to inform managers and stakeholders about the state of the company.

The idea is that information about a business can be acted upon with unprecedented speed, allowing entrepreneurs and their teams to react to situations as they develop. Data becomes more actionable when more people are in the loop and will enable multiple departments, like HR and IT, to come together to solve problems that the business faces.

You’ll Connect With Other Industries

The end result of the IoT will be an ecosystem of firms all communicating to each other about their needs in real time. Firms will be able to automatically and cheaply calculate how much of a particular product they need to order from a supplier to meet demand. And suppliers will be able to monitor the companies that they supply to see whether their production needs have changed.

With over 9 years of search marketing experience, Sandra is cross skilled between PPC and SEO. Her experience in search spans across different verticals including Technology, Retail, Travel & Automotive.