How to release IoT’s potential with connected automation

There’s a huge opportunity for organisations to exploit the potential of the internet of things (IoT). IoT promises to transform every industry with billions of smart IoT devices, from smartwatches, to sensors on engines, to equipment that can monitor entire factories – all connecting, collecting and sharing data.

IoT can potentially enable new services and ways of working that identify and solve issues before they occur in homes, hospitals, offices and factories. We’re talking about reducing risks, cutting costs and increasing productivity on a vast scale.

Organisations are putting huge investment and efforts into combining their device data from IoT – with people, processes and enterprise data. But the promise and benefits of IoT have yet to be seen: analysts report that over 70 per cent of projects are failing, with 70 per cent having problems integrating IoT with old IT systems.

The number one problem is that organisations’ ability to immediately understand and react to IoT data insights is often a challenge: integrating them with multiple legacy systems and processes, or bringing instant human experience and AI insights into IoT-initiated processes, can be difficult.

For example, deploying IoT sensors enables operations experts to receive lots of important data that can prevent issues. But often the data is difficult to parse, its context is not obvious, or it’s unclear what “next best interactions” are available to address the issue. Therefore, it’s often too difficult to make quick decisions, and turn those decisions into positive actions.

Traditional approaches to innovating in these complex environments often include replacing core systems or creating new, bespoke digital services from the ground up, but are hampered by the complexity, cost, time and staff investment needed. Address these constraints and there’s a huge opportunity for IoT-enabled, real-time, pre-emptive and preventative services across all sectors.

McKinsey advises that fixing the interoperability challenge will triple the returns from IoT.  Fixing this issue is crucial to unlocking the potential of IoT. 

The IoT enablement catalyst 

The good news is that connected automation now provides a low-cost, smarter capability that solves these challenges.

Connected automation is an industry-first, no-code, highly secure, software-as-a-service layer that IoT devices can easily connect to. Connected automation intelligently orchestrates multi-vendor software robots, API mini-robots, AI and staff, all operating together in real-time as an augmented digital workforce. It’s a hyper-productive digital workforce delivering high-speed, data-rich, end-to-end processes that enable IoT devices to instantly communicate and securely work with physical and digital systems of all ages, sizes and complexities – at scale.

So, for the first-time investments in IoT can deliver on its true potential, without requiring a huge outlay to change existing systems.

Connected automation can also easily bring human experience into IoT initiated end-to-end processes, via intelligently automated issue handling. So, when human judgement is required, handoffs arrive via robot-created, sophisticated, intuitive, digital user interfaces – all in real time. Where augmented insights are instantly required within IoT-initiated processes, AI or other smart tools are used to escalate with predictive analysis and problem-solving capabilities, in real-time.

Once decisions are made, whether by people or AI, they can immediately be actioned: without any major changes to existing systems or processes.

Crucially, the security vulnerabilities IoT faces are also addressed. All end-to-end process data is triple-encrypted, down to each user and device, with tamper-proof blockchain and GDPR/PSD2 compliance.

No coding or integration effort is required by connected automation to augment ways of IoT working across legacy and digital systems: regardless of their complexity. It can be natively integrated to all IoT services including device software, analytics and existing core systems including CRM, BPM, ERP and more. By augmenting and extending the scope of all existing technology investments, ROI is achievable in months, at 10 per cent of the cost of traditional digitisation and automation approaches.

Connected automation in action

Connected automation enables organisations to finally deliver real-time, pre-emptive and preventative services that quickly and securely reduce risks, cut costs and increase productivity. Asset management, field service scheduling, predictive maintenance, remote monitoring, services portals, work order execution and so many other use cases are now possible. Here are three transformed IoT service scenarios:

1.      For healthcare monitoring, an IoT device can drive early interventions – prompting a range of outcomes, from a friendly call to an immediate ambulance.

2.      Utilities companies provide preventative maintenance for customers’ heating and appliances, with IoT devices instantly relaying information about impending issues. Real-time integration to inventory systems enables part ordering, field service systems for repair scheduling, CRM systems for customer updates and more.

3.      For equipment monitoring in factories, on-condition predictive maintenance means less maintenance and fewer factory shutdowns.

Final thoughts

The potential for connected automation to better enable smarter IoT services throughout the private and public sector is enormous. At TrustPortal, we’ve created and proven a connected automation offering that’s already delivered significant benefits for major telco and utilities companies. Results include over 30 per cent cost savings, 65 per cent faster processing times, and significant improvements in staff and customer satisfaction.

Connected automation is available as a proof of value trial or highly scalable enterprise solution. Expect to deliver a range of pre-emptive, and preventative IoT services that reduce risks, cut costs and increase productivity.

To learn more visit trustportal.org.

Chris Lamberton, CEO, TrustPortal