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Does the Industrial Internet of Things Live Up to All the Hype?

By IoTevolutionworld Special Guest
Bart Fischer, Managing Director, Accenture Electronics & High-Tech
March 18, 2015

Remember the dawn of the Internet? Remember all the skeptics who didn’t see its transformational genius? Remember how it became enormous?

It’s happening again.

What’s happening involves the Internet of course, but in a newly emerging context. I am referring to the phenomenon called the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). Accenture defines this as the convergence of intelligent industrial products, processes and services that communicate with each other, and with people, over global networks.

Accenture estimates that the IIoT will add at least $10 trillion to the world economy by 2030, of which $1.6 trillion will accrue to the United States’ cumulative GDP. If investments are greater and other improvements are made to support the IIoT, that gain could reach $7.1 trillion in the country by the same year.

If you are skeptical of the hype, think of it this way. The number of connected devices coming onto the market is growing. A typical smartphone houses eight to ten sensors. A leading-edge thermostat, which is an emerging device category, contains between four and five. Another new type of product, a wearable fitness monitor, embeds two to three. More electronics devices equipped with more sensors means more opportunities to connect these products to others, build more applications, embed in them more software, offer more services, travel through more networks, generate more revenues for businesses, and deliver more benefits to consumers.

According to a new global survey done to support the Accenture Technology Vision 2015, the range of emerging channels that companies say they are using to engage customers includes wearables (cited by 62 percent of survey respondents), connected TVs (68 percent), connected cars (59 percent) and smart objects (64 percent). In fact, 87 percent of survey respondents acknowledged a greater use on the edge of networks of more intelligent hardware, sensors and high tech devices.

Three trends driving IIoT

IIoT has coalesced through three fundamental trends. First, Internet-connected networks are becoming ubiquitous. More people than ever can afford to connect to these networks.

Second, prices of devices that connect to the Internet continue to drop, making them more available to many more people. A growing percentage of the global population, for example, can afford to buy a cell phone, wearable device, PC, or smart thermostat. 

Third, barriers to entry in using Internet-connected devices continue to plummet. It costs less than ever for people to start a business on the Internet. They can use inexpensive IIoT devices, Internet connections they don’t have to pay to use, and software already written by someone else.

Going forward, a big challenge will be deciding in which IIoT opportunities to invest. Here are two worth considering:

Healthcare
It’s clear the healthcare market is going to be one of the first and largest IIoT markets. Consider the potential for hospitals where preventable medical errors remain a leading cause of death. These errors are often caused by false alarms, slow responses, and incorrect information.

By networking distributed medical devices, alarms can become smarter so they only get triggered when multiple devices indicate patient danger. Adding sensors to checkpoints allows clinicians to track their compliance with protocols and safety standards. And connecting measurements to patient treatments enables smart drug delivery systems to react to their conditions faster and more reliably.

Aerospace and defense
Aerospace and defense is another big IIoT opportunity. One of the reasons is that more sensors are being embedded in more airplane components. Consider a scenario involving an aircraft engine oil pump. Sensors collect data indicating the pump is likely to fail within a few hours. The data gets transmitted off the plane to a predictive maintenance system. At the airport gate the team has a replacement pump ready to be installed when the plane lands. This keeps the aircraft in service instead of having to take it offline for an unplanned and expensive maintenance event.

Throughout the electronics and high-tech industry, executing IIoT strategies should be at the top of the agenda.  And the focus should be on delivering to customers what they really want: not more products or services, but more meaningful business outcomes. These companies need to seize this big moment now.

Bart Fischer is a managing director for Accenture’s Electronics & High-Tech group. He can be reached at [email protected].




Edited by Ken Briodagh
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