How To incorporate IoT In Your Small Business
IoT (internet of things) is now not a thing of future but a thing of the PRESENT. It has been already incorporated into the processes of many organizations, including small and mid-sized businesses. Majority of the SMBs which are at a growing phase look to cutting down the costs and IoT provide these businesses with the right money-saving procedures. As more advanced and innovative devices get connected, businesses are adapting to the technological changes and reaping huge profits from it.
IoT (internet of things) is now not a thing of future but a thing of the PRESENT. It has been already incorporated into the processes of many organizations, including small and mid-sized businesses. Majority of the SMBs which are at a growing phase look to cutting down the costs and IoT provide these businesses with the right money-saving procedures. As more advanced and innovative devices get connected, businesses are adapting to the technological changes and reaping huge profits from it.
Consumers across the world have given a big thumbs up to the IoT devices such as WIFI doorbell, Alexa, thermostat, Google Home, etc. As per a report, more than 100 million Alexa devices have been already sold, and it could generate an approximate $19 billion of the total sales by the year 2021.
Alexa is just an example of an IoT device which has gained popularity for its beneficial personal use and now has entered the meeting rooms of office and even the desks of employees of leading organizations. There are many other IoT devices which one can use in their small business to improvise security and productivity.
You have to tap the tremendous opportunities which IoT can provide, such as:
Office security and maintenance
In a small organization where there are less number of employees, and most of them are multi-tasking, there would be instances where lights are left on and the door unlocked, overnight. Such incidents can have huge consequences, as security of your office is compromised, and the maintenance cost also increases.
This arises the need for a smart office, just like a smart city. You have to spend a minimum amount of dollars on your office security and get connected bulbs and smart lock. The rest is done by automation, which opens up and shuts down your office on a timely basis.
Minimizing multi-tasking
Studies have shown that many of us are not good at multi-tasking; this is why you should be leveraging the services with the IoT technology for getting better results. Your workload can be reduced when you make the best use of your time by setting up a proper workflow that stores the things in one place. It could be Trello, Evernote, Slack, Google Drive, OneNote, calendar, or the email inbox. You can get news, notifications, sales data, etc.
Better communication with your team
When you have better communication with your team members, then automatically the overall productivity increases. There are various business communication tools that can centralize important conversations between your members at a commonplace. You need not worry missing out an email as an automated notification alert can help you in the same. Connected services with IoT can streamline your process to a great extent.
Monitoring of supply chain data
It has been seen that IoT provides deeper insights into the supply chain. By analyzing the data such as the stock condition, its supply date, etc. it can help your business to improve certain aspects of the process. The connected devices already within the shipments can be used for gathering the data such as of logistic firms which have to manage the cargo as per the requirement. These devices can also be used for monitoring security and reducing damage.
Conclusion
IoT will very soon become an integral part of small businesses as companies start reaping huge profits by its successful integration. With huge IoT global spending across industries, IDC has also forecasted that by 2020, it will reach $1.29 trillion.
In such a scenario, every organization must understand how IoT can help their business process to incorporate it successfully and generate more revenue.
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