How IoT can help businesses

Internet of Things (IoT) is famously defined as the digitisation of people, objects and environment to empower innovation, foster visibility and improve the quality of decision making. In layman terms, IoT refers to connecting multiple devices to expand the reach and usability of such devices to interact with high volumes of data.

For instance,  IoT is used in the insertion of sensors in the cars to track usage data by insurance companies.  

Another example is Alexa, the virtual assistant developed by Amazon to perform a set of functions by recognising your voice. Alexa can manage multiple services like playing your favourite music to booking your appointments for the day. Alexa also helps you to check your bank account balance, and transfer funds without a third level of authentication. This mechanism enabled by IoT connects your voice to your device and the bank's database. This works on a self-service model that authenticates the user's biometric accesses and matches them with the user's request,   in this case, transferring the funds. From the customer's end, how easy is that? All he has to do is to direct Alexa to perform a task and it is done.

A well defined IoT channel ensures that all things can be connected through Internet of Things. In this transformative stage where the physical things are converging on a digital platform, it seems possible to connect everything to sensors and data. And that's precisely what IoT aims to achieve. Through IoT, businesses connect data that provide insights into the various business processes. The applied insights enable businesses to take preventive measures to improve overall product quality and ensure a seamless delivery experience. IoT is slowly gaining ground in establishing stronger human connections with sustainable technology models.

It's imperative how the financial and banking institutions are leveraging IoT methods to make payments easier for the customers. Payments are facilitated through multiple channels like mobile wallets, wearables, in-app transactions, QR codes and other sensor-enabled digital transactions. This has seen a surge in the mobile applications, too.

When sensors are fixed into the connected devices, environments and customers, it becomes easy to iterate the capabilities of a hardware-software infrastructure in the form of software updates. The whole process of receiving feedback through integrated forms, or responses to text messages fall into place.

Customer preferences

According a recent report from Markets & Markets, customers would prefer a brand that's relevant but distinct from the rest in the market. IoT provides businesses an opportunity to tailor unique customer preferences with machine learning algorithms and location based parameters. It's also possible to streamline related searches based on the search history and provide user specific experiences.

IoT-enabled mobile apps strengthen security features by adding the element of connectivity to the device and environment. Through such devices, interaction with the app is triggered by mono gestures which make it further easier to track the progress.

For example, customers can control their home lock systems with a single gesture. Temperature control, CCTV access etc are made easy by accessing them through the user's biometric or voice recognition systems. In case, if the customer loses their mobile phone, there are IoT and GPS-enabled apps that allow the customer to track the location of the device and even lock the device to safety with a single gesture.

IoT synthesizes large volumes of data that the connected devices generate on regular basis. Companies are leveraging this data to orchestrate multiple actionable insights, which may come in the form of sales, user behaviour, customer preferences or product upgrades. Data is ruling all along in the way businesses take their decisions.

The word "customer" weighs  heavy in the present day  as the hyper vigilant culture of businesses is surfacing with each passing day to provide greater customer experience. Customers are looking for not just products or services, but wholesome experiences from businesses. IoT is definitely a stepping stone for businesses to pitch their services to customers and understand the user behaviour. Early adapters of IoT are likely to retain more customers than the others.

(The writer is  CEO & co-founder of Solutions Infini Pvt Ltd)