The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT): Are Companies Ready For It?
Jeff Desjardins
Are Companies Ready For the Industrial Internet of Things?
We've all heard about how the consumer version of the internet of things (IoT) will impact our lives. Smart devices in our homes, cars, and cities are already beginning to send and receive data to each other, allowing for unprecedented integration with consumer technologies.
But the implications of this revolution of connectivity extend way behind just smartphones and your home. In fact, it's about to be applied on an industrial scale to everything from aerospace to mining in ways that people can hardly imagine.
The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) will pull data from millions of tiny sensors on every piece of industrial equipment fathomable. Companies will harness this data in real-time to create insights and efficiencies on a crazy scale: GE estimates it will help to generate a $10-$15 trillion increase in global GDP over the next 20 years.
But can companies handle the IIoT?
While this all sounds great in theory, the reality is that the transition to a useful IIoT is going to be an ongoing challenge. Very different types of data need to be captured and integrated, and companies will need to find ways to turn huge amounts of data into focused insights.
Bit Stew, from GE Digital, recently commissioned a survey of top IT execs to see if their respective companies were ready for the IIoT.
The survey found that only 30% of companies are currently early adopters of the IIoT, while the other 70% are still in the planning phase. Perhaps more importantly, top IT execs identified the potential barriers to their companies adopting the IIoT, as well as the opportunities that the IIoT can unlock for their operations:
80% of senior IT executives view improving operating efficiency and uptime as the top benefits that IIoT will bring.
Other benefits identified: improved operating costs, better uptime, improved asset performance management, and knowledge transfer in the workplace.
Larger organizations (1,000+ employees) found improving uptime to be a more compelling benefit than smaller organizations.
70% say that having proven capabilities for data modeling and mapping were more important for a IIoT platform than any other feature.
Barriers to Adoption
64% of senior IT executives said that integrating data from disparate sources and formats, and extracting business value from that data, is the biggest challenge the IIoT presents.
Meanwhile, 36% say limited access to the right skills and expertise is the problem.
Larger organizations (1,000+ employees) were more likely to struggle with traditional database management and analytics tools (34% vs 12%).
87% say that the overwhelming volume and veracity of data will result in losing valuable business insights.
33% say that businesses without a data management strategy will become marginalized, obsolete, or disappear.
Why is industrial data so complicated?
Industrial data comes from a variety of source types and is often messy. Combine this with its complexity, and that it comes in massive volumes and varied frequencies, and the situation is quite a quagmire for any aspiring adopter.
To enter a truly connected world where data about everything is analyzed instantaneously on an industrial scale, we must first solve these issues around data. It's only then that the IIoT will show its true potential for business.
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Related Topics:internet of thingsIOTindustrial internetiiotadoption
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This infographic highlights eleven exciting areas within the world of technology worth keeping an eye on in 2023.
Nick Routley
It can be tough to keep up with the rapid pace of innovation.
Each new year delivers the full spectrum of progress from game-changing breakthroughs to incremental advancements in a wide variety of fields.
In a noisy media landscape fueled by hype and speculation, it can be tough to know where true value is being created. The infographic above, which draws from CB Insights' recent report on 11 Tech Trends To Watch Closely in 2023, helps narrow down some areas of focus:
Immortality-as-a-service
The secret invasion of super apps
Fintech's rapid regeneration
Bots in the house
Virtual power plants
Healthcare's invisibility trick
Smell goes digital
Femtech turns to menopause
The bio-based materials boom
India's tech ascent
Regenerative agtech takes root
The report draws information from earnings transcripts, media mentions, investment activity, patents, and more to arrive at the trends listed.
We'll examine three of these trends below in a bit more detail.
Setting the Stage: Clash of the Super Apps
The concept of a super app⁠—an all-in-one smartphone application that integrates a wide range of services⁠—is far from new. In fact, for years now, WeChat has been the go-to app for many Chinese citizens to chat, order services, pay bills, and more.
A natural question comes to mind: why doesn't an app like that exist in Western countries yet? Well, there are a couple of key reasons:
Consumers and regulators alike are wary of providers holding so much personal information and power. In China, WeChat actually had government support, integrating public services into the app. As well, expectations of personal privacy are completely different in China than in Western countries
Unlike China, which rapidly adopted digital payments, North America and Europe had preexisting near-ubiquitous financial networks in place. Super apps were a game changer for millions of unbanked consumers in China and beyond.
The situation is changing rapidly though, and 2023 could be the year that the foundations are laid for a clash of various Big Tech incarnations of the super app.
In late 2022, Microsoft was rumored to be building a super app using Bing as the foundation, and recent investment into ChatGPT adds fuel to that fire. Even Elon Musk hinted at his ambitions to turn Twitter into a one-stop-shop for just about everything.
There are still significant barriers to bundling a plethora of services into a single app, but that isn't stopping companies from racing to be the one to do it. To the victor go the spoils.
The Resiliency of Life Extension
The concepts of immortality and age reversal have been a preoccupation of mankind since the dawn of time, so it stands to reason that technology that promises extra lifespan and quality of life continues to be compelling for individuals and investors alike.
Players in this space can approach life extension and anti-aging from a number of different angles, from supplements to tinkering at the cellular level.
Two high-profile examples in this space are Calico, which is a subsidiary of Alphabet, and the Jeff Bezos-backed Altos Labs. Other billionaires have expressed an interest in life extension as well, including Peter Thiel, who has definitive views on mortality.
I believe if we could enable people to live forever, we should do that. […] I think it is against human nature not to fight death. – Peter Thiel
In 2023, look for more investment and news from startups focused on gene therapy, genome analysis, regenerative medicine, or "longevity in a pill".
Beyond Plastic: The Bio-Based Materials Boom
Public pressure is mounting for producers of consumer goods to change the way they manufacture their products.
The good news is that many of the largest producers of consumer packaged goods and apparel have some kind of plan in place to use more post-consumer recycled plastic in their products. The bad news is that not enough plastic is recycled globally for companies to source enough material to produce their products more sustainably. As a result, many companies are exploring the option of ditching plastic entirely.
For example, materials derived from seaweed are an active area of innovation right now. Mushrooms and algae are also commonly-used materials from nature that are being used to create biodegradable products. In one particularly interesting example, a company called MycoWorks recently began working with GM Ventures to explore the use of mycelium-based leather alternatives in GM's vehicles.
While researchers and companies are just scratching the surface of what's possible, consumers are likely to see more tangible examples of bio-based materials popping up in stores. After all, brands will be very eager to talk about their increasingly plastic-free product lines.
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