The Internet of Everything: a disruptive force for suppliers and customers

Data-driven disruption

A huge quantity of valuable new data will give unprecedented insight into almost anything: consumer behaviour, weather patterns, energy usage, traffic volumes or supply chain networks, to name just a few. This intelligence – when gathered, analysed and communicated to the right places – has huge implications for the way we all do business.

Analysis indicates that the IoE will create as much as $14.4 trillion of potential economic ‘value at stake’ for global private-sector businesses up to 2022. This will be generated by a combination of increased revenue and lower costs. So what does this mean in real terms for end customers?

• Value-added services: The focus will shift from products to services. Instead of purchasing a product based on its capabilities, end customers will be asking how an IoE-based service can meet their specific business objectives.
• Customer experience: The way end users interact with devices, products and organisations will be revolutionised.
• Business decision-making: More informed decisions mean change can be smoother, faster and more successful.
• Efficiency: Full insight into inventories, downtime and business processes will drive greater efficiencies and reduce time to market.
• Agility: Greater transparency will allow businesses to react faster to new market opportunities.

Take for example a Cisco customer. A mining company using an IoE-based system. A centralised view of operations lets the company control the quantity and timing of materials moved between sites and processes.

This means the flow of material from several different mines to concentrators, smelters and refineries is optimised for maximum efficiency. Equipment is monitored centrally over a huge geographic area so problems can be picked up immediately, and remote troubleshooting cuts repair times dramatically.

The supplier of the future

Gartner forecasts that there will be a $309 billion incremental revenue opportunity in 2020 for IoT suppliers, and that more than 80% of this will be made up of services¹. So there is clearly a huge opportunity for suppliers, but what will customers be expecting of them in this new digital age?

• Highly scalable architecture: As additional connections are added and data multiplies unpredictably, customers will need flexible, resilient networks and storage services that can scale up quickly and easily.

• Performance: When customer experience and critical business operations rest so fundamentally on connectedness, network performance will be key.
• Making data meaningful: The services, tools and support to transform massive data into actionable intelligence will be essential.
• Simple management: Customers will demand automation and straightforward management of networks, systems, processes and devices.
• Security: The IoE will create more potential vulnerabilities. Robust, scalable security will be vital to protect data, customers and revenue.
• Integration: To avoid needing an entirely new infrastructure for the IoE, businesses will require seamless integration between different architectures, networks and protocols.
• Geographical diversity: To create a fully connected architecture, many customers will need the ability to distribute and connect devices in any location, even harsh environments.

Moving into the IoE age

The IoE will clearly be hugely disruptive to almost every type of business. But only those organisations that can grasp these new opportunities will succeed – those that lag behind will quickly be out-competed.

Infrastructure will, of course, be absolutely critical in that success. So now is the time for both suppliers and their customers to be thinking about what the IoE means for their technology, business model and operations, before the competition does.

To find out how ready your business is for the Internet of Everything, take the Cisco survey now. You can also see how real-life businesses are already using the IoE to boost customer experience and efficiency here.

¹ Gartner Says Over 20 Percent of Enterprises Will Have Digital Security Services Devoted to Protecting Business Initiatives Using the Internet of Things by End of 2017, Gartner, 11 September 2014