Mexico. To this day, the main widespread use of the Internet of Things is to reduce maintenance costs or improve productivity, but little has been said about its ability to provide opportunities to generate new revenue.
That is a point on which less information is available, since it is recent. And only a few companies have taken advantage of the opportunities of the new revenue channels offered by the IoT. Here are some aspects for your company to find these new benefits.
First, to get the most out of Internet of Things initiatives, your business needs an agile structure. That can be a long step and not so simple, but essential to look for new opportunities (large companies like Google already use this agile company approach). The reason: being agile gives you the opportunity to test new ideas that will allow your business to keep pace with industry disruptors, without jeopardizing your day-to-day activities. To create new revenue channels with the IoT you have to test, be open. It may seem simple, but we're talking about changing the way business is traditionally done.
There are very few companies that have started using IoT to generate additional revenue. One of them is the largest printer manufacturer, which has put sensors in the ink cartridges, so that when the printer runs out of ink, the new cartridges are automatically ordered (if requested to do so, of course).
This is just one example of how a product is transformed into a service model. Thus, the revenue from cartridges will be for this company and not for its competitors. I think this model is likely to spread to many consumer products such as: shampoo, milk, soap, for example,... everything could be delivered to your door as soon as the user needs it. And you wouldn't have to do anything or worry about running out of ink right when you have this important document that you need to print the next morning and it's already 11pm.
In another example: Hitachi data experts have recently created the Data Exchange City in Copenhagen. As a smart city, Copenhagen is equipped with a large number of sensors that generate large volumes of data which can be sold. Thus, companies have the possibility of taking advantage of this data to create solutions that improve the quality of life of the inhabitants: such as traffic or energy consumption.
Consequently, the question that can be asked is what are other ways in which the IoT will be able to create new revenue channels in my company? HDS, as a company specializing in data storage, management and analysis, we are ready to support our customers in their evolution into the digital age.
By: Alejo López Crozet, Managing Director of Hitachi Data Systems Mexico and Central America.
