SOLUTION BRIEF
BI Interrupted: The IoT Pandemic The number of IoT devices installed in various settings to rise at a compound annual growth rate of
41 %
from 2015 through 2020.1 With the IoT set to take such a strong place among modern enterprise technologies, organisations must be prepared to use all of the information generated by and processed with these devices. Business Intelligence (BI) advances are critical here, and the BI industry is evolving as the IoT begins to play a large role in today’s businesses. This is especially true as companies work to glean as much value as they can from IoT devices.
The Need for IoT Value Creation Investing in the IoT is an expensive, complicated process. Connected devices must be deployed across a wide range of network settings, and organisations must not only interconnect these systems, but also create the apps and services needed to allow the IoT endpoints to act on the data they gather. This requires a great deal of integration, and the scale is staggering.
The Business Insider Intelligence study estimated that 24 billion devices will be installed by 2020. This rapid increase in the number of devices being installed will be made possible through $6 trillion in spending. All of these advances over the next five years is xciting, but returns may not come right away. They will be significant, however. The study predicts that IoT devices will create $13 trillion in ROI by 2025. The IoT demonstrates clear potential, but it may take a while for businesses to begin deriving value from that technology. Advancing BI functionality alongside IoT investments can enable organisations to take advantage of what the IoT has to offer in more nuanced ways by making data more actionable. This can accelerate the ROI cycle by broadening the parts of the business that are impacted by the IoT. For example, a company using the IoT to track elements of the supply chain can, without using BI, glean value through greater visibility into assets and inventory levels. Add BI functionality to the mix and companies can use historic data alongside information being created by IoT devices, sales quotes, and similar knowledge to put just-in-time supply chain management principles into place. Combining raw data with analytics capabilities is essential if organisations want to create value. Unifying the IoT with BI programmes makes that possible.
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SOLUTION BRIEF: BI Interrupted: The IoT Pandemic (continued)
Unifying BI and IoT to Drive Value The rapid rise of the IoT has staggering implications for BI. The IoT generates such massive amounts of information that it can easily overwhelm analytics teams trying to make sense of that data. Organisations must: • Identify what data is actually valuable •R ecognise patterns that indicate opportunities to automate processes • Pin down opportunities to use data for solving specific problems These are universal benefits that can apply to any part of a business. This adds another layer of complexity, however, as the breadth of the IoT can be staggering. A recent Forbes report delving into a Dresner Advisory Services study explained that sales teams are among the groups that expect the IoT to be most valuable for them2 . Strategic planning teams are the other top beneficiary of the IoT. These teams aren’t just talking about future gains either. The study found that: • Organisations that advocate for the use of IoT solutions are also 50 % more likely to be taking advantage of robust analytics tools •T hese sophisticated analytics organisations tend to be BI leaders as well, and they think of the IoT as a powerful source of data • Businesses are ramping up their data analysis capabilities across the board as they work to leverage the IoT The IoT and data analytics are both game changers in modern enterprises. BI tools take both of these trends to help companies use them for value creation by making information actionable for end users.
Making IoT Data Actionable IoT devices are incredibly varied in nature. Not only do they handle diverse functions, they also run on different app architectures. The result is an integration burden that requires a great deal of work technology teams. Throw in the need to integrate those IoT devices with not only one another, but also with BI systems, and you’re looking at a significant development burden. Tools are emerging to help resolve some of these issues, but either way, technology teams need a robust knowledge of both how the IoT functions, and what BI solutions can do in order to unify them and make raw data actionable.
Businesses that want to get ahead must begin by equipping their teams with the knowledge and skills to leverage emerging tools. Learning Tree offers the training needed to integrate IoT and BI systems, and achieve even the loftiest goals.
Sources: 1. http://www.businessinsider.com/iot-ecosystem-internet-of-things-forecasts-and-business-opportunities-2016-2 2. http://www.forbes.com/sites/louiscolumbus/2016/10/02/2016-internet-of-things-iot-big-data-business-intelligence-update/#1aa2bad525aa
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