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Connected Devices

Dive into the world of connected devices.

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The growing demand for and consumption of interconnected devices and sensors is creating a massive amount of information that is becoming both a challenge and an opportunity for organizations.

    Living in a connected world

    Internet of Things (IoT) is a system of interrelated computing devices, mechanical and digital machines, objects, animals or people that are provided with unique identifiers and the ability to transfer data over a network without requiring human-to-human or human-to-computer interaction.

    This ‘digital ecosystem’ of devices and end point technologies is a growing trend that we continue to see tremendous adoption in – mainly due to the decreasing cost of ownership for both businesses and end users. Now the big question is, what do we do with all this information and how to we manage it to provide tangible business results.

    Manufacturing shop floors are integrated like never before - to ERP systems, to the financial function within an organization - which is just one great example of how connected devices are driving value and digital transformation for organizations.

    Why should this matter?

    The growing number of IoT devices influences the vulnerability of systems and core enterprise IT solutions. IoT devices can be used for massive denial of service (DDoS) attacks or can be manipulated to gain critical access to or can influence the operations of an IoT ecosystem.

    The growing number of connected or stand-alone communication-capable devices poses new challenges for communication and better life balance. New connectivity standards are being developed to support rapid deployment of sensors.

    What is a Digital Ecosystem?

    We at Baker Tilly Digital believe that IoT capabilities can create and drive new business models, innovative businesses, and blur the lines between huge blue-chip organizations and small startups – thanks to the ease of entering a digital ecosystem. This ecosystem has these key characteristics:

    • Resides on a cloud-based platform
    • Leverages cognitive capabilities (e.g. Artificial Intelligence (Ai), and machine learning etc.)
    • Connects to the rest of the organization via automation tools such as Robotic Process Automation (RPA), Application Programming Interface (API) connectors etc.

    Top reasons why businesses are adopting IoT solutions

    • Improving quality of service and product
    • Improving productivity of workforce
    • Increasing reliability of operations
    • Increasing asset productivity
    • Reducing cost of materials or waste

    How to harness the power of IoT

    One of the biggest challenges surrounding IoT is that everyone is talking about how disruptive and game-changing it is – without understanding what IoT really is.

    Many organizations don’t understand why it overarches other concepts including cloud computing and consumerization, let alone how IoT can help their business.

    It is a confusing and possibly even an alarming proposition. Most clients want to start small with proof-of-concept IoT implementations to demonstrate ROI, but traditional ROI factors will not apply to data valuation and value generation in new IoT and information-based business models.

    For Baker Tilly Digital, IoT is about practical opportunity and tangible value: we put the transformative business and economic dimensions first, with enabling technology as the foundation.

    Many organizations aren’t sure how to phrase the right questions, and haven’t begun to imagine the possibilities of IoT implementations.

    Moreover, for organizations that are already on their IoT journey, the immediate challenges are often orchestrating workflows and processes, capturing and securing data and monetizing it.