A featured contribution from Leadership Perspectives, a curated forum for enterprise technology leaders, nominated by our subscribers and vetted by the CIOApplications Editorial Board.

KONE

Has IoT Become Mainstream? Yes, It Has. But Not.

IoT has been there for quite a long time. The first IoT devices, such as tracking the fill level of a soda machine, were created in the late 80’s. The term ‘Internet of Things’ itself was coined in 1999 by a computer scientist Kevin Ashton working at Procter & Gamble. Since then, we have seen a boom of different IoT solutions. Nowadays the factories and process industry utilizes IoT to monitor the performance and quality of different processes, many consumer products have IoT built in them (such as smart refrigerators), and a good punch of industrial machines are equipped with monitoring and predictive maintenance solutions based on IoT.

We at KONE Corporation, a leading global provider of elevators, escalators, and automatic doors, have tons of IoT use cases to benefit both the customer and our own processes. One practical value adding example that is often not visible to the end user (which applies to the most of the IoT applications), is KONE 24/7 Connected Services, an intelligent predictive maintenance solution for elevators and escalators. With relevant sensoring, cloud connectivity, intelligent data analytics, and closing the loop with field expertise, we have been able to create a solution that significantly improves the performance, reliability, and safety of the equipment in question.

With approximately quarter of a million units having 24/7 Connected Services installed globally, we have been able to reduce the repair call-outs by 40 percent and entrapments by 50 percent, and we are able to recognize more than 70 percent of the faults in advance.

A classical example of using IoT to provide rock solid results benefitting the customer and the end user in a way, that the end user does not even realize there is IoT in use. They just fluently get where they are supposed to, exactly like it should be.

Based on the above, one could claim that IoT has become mainstream. And so it has in many applications, but there is still a long way to go. The use of cloud and other digital technologies, such as smart sensors, edge computing, 4/5G and so on, has increased exponentially during the last few years. This has also given a significant boost for the potential use of IoT for many practical applications.

There was a statement during the AWS yearly conference re:Invent 2022 that only 10 percent of the enterprise operations is running on the cloud, and now the shift is clearly towards more and more digitalizing the business operations (not only IT) where the true potential lies. The very same applies also for IoT – only the ‘obvious’ minor part of the devices and operations are connected and using IoT. We have seen great IoT implementations, like the example above, but these are still very often focusing on a single product or system, and not really considering the system of systems where they belong to.

Nowadays the factories and process industry utilizes IoT to monitor the performance and quality of different processes, many consumer products have IoT built in them, and a good punch of industrial machines are equipped with monitoring and predictive maintenance solutions based on IoT

The challenge with the wider scale use of IoT is in the fact that there very rarely is one single party controlling the whole process or system of systems, leading into siloed solutions that do not talk with each other. But this is exactly the are where the true scaled value of IoT lies. Being able to optimize full processes and operations has immense value in it. An example related to the use of elevators could be connecting those with the other smart building solutions in a way, that the building itself could not only provide a smooth access from the curb to the office, but also adjust the ventilation, energy use, lightning, and meeting room reservations and catering based on the movement of people. To achieve this, besides mastering one’s own solutions, one needs to focus on smart partnering. No one can master a system of siloed systems alone.

So now that many players have become skilled in IoT, it is time to step up the game. Going forward more and more focus should be on smart partnering and interconnected systems, via open APIs and platforms, to provide end user value that is way beyond one plus one. After that we could say that IoT has become truly mainstream.

The articles from these contributors are based on their personal expertise and viewpoints, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of their employers or affiliated organizations.