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Internet of Things: The First Step to Digital Transformation [Podcast]

Appian Contributor
September 26, 2017

As light bulbs, door locks, thermostats, and even toothbrushes are being connected in the ever evolving network of "Things", it's easy to see how our homes are being brought into the digital age. But businesses are also realizing that by embracing IoT, their businesses can become more informed, efficient, and deliver higher value to their customers.

The Modern Business is Evolving

Traditionally, businesses would use slow and iterative BPM tools to improve their processes. For example, a store could track the effectiveness of a new layout by doing market research of how easily customers were able to find what they were looking for, or a factory could judge how well an auto-shutoff feature for their machinery affected their power bill at the end of the month. Making major changes and measuring the impacts could take months, if not years. This caused businesses to make slow and careful changes.

However, utilizing IoT allows companies to revolutionize their business. By connecting their devices, companies can understand in real-time the immediate impacts resulting from a change in their processes. Now, that same store can automatically track how efficiently customers move through their stores, and the factory can easily measure and see the power cost of their machinery. With IoT, companies are able to make and test changes rapidly, allowing them to move much faster than their competition.

Actionable Insights from IoT

But IoT is not just about collecting data, it's also about being able to quickly take action. By connecting electronics to platforms like Appian, businesses can harness AI to generate insights, identify problems and take appropriate corrective action automatically. For example, companies could use their processes to automatically shut off power to a broken device, tune parameters to accommodate a failure, or automatically order a replacement part.

For example, Rolls-Royce has been a leader in integrating IoT by connecting sensors in their jet engines to their platform. If their sensors detect an issue with one of their engines, Rolls-Royce is able to dispatch maintenance crews to be on-site with the parts in-hand by the time the airplane lands, reducing costly delays which can cost airlines thousands in lost revenue.

Connected devices are getting cheaper to produce, and platforms today are better at delivering value from the data; learn about the the trend that McKinsey believes will generate $11Trillion in value by 2025.

In this episode of Appian Talks, listen as we discuss a variety of topics on IoT, specifically:

    • Why IoT is even more relevant today

    • How the Healthcare industry is using IoT

    • What companies can do with IoT

    • How using AI can provide actionable insights on IoT generated data

Click the play button below to listen now.

[podcast id="12891045" text="How the Internet of Things (IoT) is Digitally Transforming Businesses" on Spreaker."]

Austin Fathman

Product Strategy Developer