The Internet of things (IoT).

The latest concept to capture the imagination of business managers worldwide is Internet of things, commonly referred to is IoT. IoT is not a new idea.  It has been around since the late 1990s.  However, back then, it was more a wish list or speculative thinking than a real possibility.  In 2015 however, electronic miniaturization, increased connectivity and abundance of physical devices capable of connecting to the Internet, IoT implementation is finally practical.  Let’s look at some possible examples.

Environmental monitoring.

Typically, one thinks of air and water quality monitoring in this domain.  Automated, Internet connected monitoring of farmland soil conditions and automated control of irrigation and pesticide delivery, without human intervention is one example.  Natural disaster monitoring, detection and automated notification for hurricanes, tsunamis, tornadoes and even earthquakes is another example.  

Manufacturing.

Automated monitoring of manufacturing equipment, analysis of operating condition, optimum scheduling of maintenance and repair can all be coordinated, without human intervention in the monitoring and notification processes.  Today’s level of technology makes this possible.  However, today this is largely a human intensive activity.

Action item.

I will continue over the next several posts, to examine possible applications of IoT.  Your homework assignment is to figure out potential areas of the application within your own area of expertise.  If you have any bright ideas, I’d be glad to hear from you at AlbertFCase@Gmail.com.  It may take a while, but I will answer exclamation!

Business info: helpful, informative, irreverent and someone entertaining

My name is Albert F. Case, Jr.  But let’s not be formal…  Just call me Al As the principle blogger for QuentionCooper, I thought I would tell you a little bit about myself.  I’ve been in business since 1972 and management since 1977.  Now retired, I was most recently a partner in Training Jumpstart LLC, which I co-founded with a dear friend, Adam Rin.  Prior to Training Jumpstart, Adam and I had both been division presidents at Gartner Inc., the global research and advisory firm, although our friendship of association stretches years before that.

My objective is to comment on and analyze state of the art business practices and technologies.  Occasionally, it seems that sometimes that requires turning on the wayback machine, because we’ve often dropped working a practices in favor of the latest shiny business toy.  I think all of us were successful in business suffer some degree of attention deficit disorder!

In any event, I hope you find this blog helpful, informative, irreverent and someone entertaining.

Best wishes,

Al