A meaningful connection – Industries to enrich the world of IoT

It’s been a while that we’ve heard of the smart refrigerator that knows when you’re out of milk or the smart lightings in your rooms that know when you enter or leave – smart technology has started to populate around us, watching us. But, I’m tempted to ask if the independent and exclusively programmed smart devices really have a long life purpose?

The Internet of Things (IoT) devices – however smart, handy and efficient as they may be – are all speaking different languages. So, are they designed to never communicate? Wouldn’t it be great if the smart refrigerator could give heating instructions to the smart microwave when an item is placed in it? Or the smart lighting could control the smart heater or air-conditioner depending on our preferences while sleeping and also when we’re awake or when we’re not in the room? How about our smart car sends signal to our smart television to start recording our favorite show as we won’t reach home in time?

We don’t want smart things – we want a smart life! It goes without saying that I’m demanding some standardization and collaboration here. Like my New Year’s Resolution article whereby all industries need to unite, collaborate and integrate to provide the customer experience that can’t be surpassed – an experience that is simply awesome!
Now, it’s not an impossible task because industries need to simply join hands to rise above the cliché services and top-ups and add-ons and the formula sales and discounts that are offered and have started to bore customers and employees alike! Through collaboration, industries can have a 360 degree view of the customer’s preferences and behavior, and then offer integrated services in their particular area with the best of their knowledge. At this point, offering that discount after being aware of the customer’s preference and his shopping history and style will be different – and impressive!
How about your supermarket gets a notification about your smart fridge running out of butter or cheese in the morning and you’re offered a home delivery? What if you plan for a vacation, with many tasks at hand, but because all your IoT devices are connected, the management starts right away. Your smart refrigerator mentions the items you need to use/dispose before you leave and the supermarket is informed to postpone any offers or notifications until return.
Standardization at this point is not expected soon enough, but the first step needs to be taken ASAP to develop similar standards for other processes and industries where the [Internet of Things] is relevant. Otherwise, the progress of this technology will be set back considerably. Obviously, the IoT won’t stop at electronics alone – there will be a meeting of the minds globally that will bring in not just electronics but transport, IT, logistics, construction, all the big industries. There’s no other way it’s going to work.

As Ephlux’s CEO, M. Ali Nasim, has stated quite lucidly that a middleware framework where business processes and initiatives can be ideated, designed, launched and optimized in real-time is the answer to preeminent customer experience. The evolution of a truly over-arching system, or a single standard through which we can control everything needs some time but it’s an evolution in the making (still an idea!)
The superpower that could boost the speed of things around here would be the cloud, but once again we need the perfect architecture, account management, security drills and permissions and storage planning as well. My opinion here would be for industries to act fast on the collaboration and standardization for and of the Internet of Things before it’s too late to converge to a single framework!
Again, calling all industries – you need to play your part in making the IoT a successful feat because having too many unconnected smart devices, with fragmented experiences would not be so smart after all!