The IoT, or Internet of Things, is rapidly transforming the future of how industries work. Internet of Things refers to the network of physical devices, vehicles, home appliances, and other items embedded with electronics, software, sensors, actuators, and connectivity which enables these things to connect, collect and exchange data. Businesses are beginning to see how this connectivity can positively benefit their bottom line. Here’s how they’re doing it!
- Hospitality
IoT in the hospitality industry can optimize guest experience, reduce costs, and create higher customer satisfaction. IoT allows guest to now have such luxuries as adjusting the lights from their beds and unlocking their room from their mobile device. With mobile integration hotels can even retain a database of guests and their preferences so they can enact the guest’s personalized preferences for future stays. Hospitality providers can even use IoT to schedule power consumption more accurately based on data obtained from continuous real time monitoring which tracks energy trend and consumption, cutting costs substantially.
2. Financial Services
As the financial services industry relies heavily on collecting and analyzing data, it’s easy to see how IoT can play a role in transforming the industry. Some car insurance providers like Progressive are implementing OBD devices and machine learning algorithms to gather data on the driver’s performance in real time in order to price their insurance accordingly.
Banks are also using IoT to create a more personalized banking experience for the customer. Using sensors, banks can now detect when and how often a customer visits a bank branch in addition to where they spend their money. This allows banks to create partnerships with other businesses to send the customer location-based personalized offers based on the data they’ve collected.
3. Retail
Just like banks, retail companies also use IoT sensor technology to better detect what and when a consumer may be most likely to purchase items. With IoT, a company can even send loyalty discounts to certain customers in-store via their smartphone when they stand near products they’ve been looking at online. Store are also using Beacons, first introduced by Apple in 2013, which are small Bluetooth devices that send discounts, special events, and reminders to smartphones based on location proximity. According to Swirl Networks Inc., over 70% of shoppers say beacon-triggered content and offers increased their likelihood to purchase in-store.
4. Health and Social care
Although IoT can be helpful in making businesses more profitable, it can also help improve lives. Using IoT monitoring devices such as wearables and sensors, individuals with health related concerns have the ability to manage their own wellbeing and maintain their independence while medical professionals monitor their progress in real-time. Chronic diseases like diabetes can now be easily managed with IoT devices created by companies like Vigihealth. They’ve created smart insulin injections that connect to a patient’s smartphone, making it easy to self-monitor insulin levels as well as carbohydrates, glucose and activity.
IoT technology can also improve the quality of life for elderly individuals by sending medication reminders, monitoring environmental factors such as room temperature, and allowing for remote medical assistance.
Tradebox Media are an award-winning software development agency based in Cardiff, UK.