How To Get an Edge on the Internet of Things Market

Dana Kachan
Product Coalition
Published in
6 min readJun 17, 2019

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Technologies revolving around the Internet of Things have evolved significantly in recent years. They continue to change the way we interact with our surroundings. For companies, however, they also bring new ways to monitor and to manage objects in the physical world.

There are many factors which attribute to the quick rise in popularity of IoT-based technologies. Perhaps the steady fall in prices of communications technologies and sensors, combined with the rise of overall understanding of how they can be applied are among the leading ones.

Targeting IoT applications properly, as well as managing them effectively is not easy. That’s why a lot of companies find themselves stuck and unable to move beyond certain pressure points.

At the same time, data from Statista shows that the worldwide IoT market will grow to the staggering $457 billion by 2020. But how do you find your competitive edge in a market where everyone would be fighting for a piece of the pie? Let’s find out.

Keep Doing What You Do

The number one thing companies assume is that there is a single pat to succeeding in the field of IoT. There’s no such thing. Some companies tend to focus on connecting existing products in order to make them more attractive to their clients.

Others exploit opportunities in order to achieve operational improvements which will reduce costs while increasing efficiency.

Perhaps the better way to go about it is to combine all of the above, at least to some degree. Instead of tapping into an unfamiliar market or exploring new products, it’s better to play it to your strengths.

Regardless of whether you’re in agriculture or software development, it’s best to place the emphasis on your stronger suits and attempt to make them even stronger.

In short, there’s absolutely no reason for you to venture into the unknown, hoping that emerging technology will miraculously give you the yields you’re looking for. Your strong sides are strong for a reason — find out that reason and capitalize on it.

Tap Into Multiple Use Cases

A lot of businesses become rather frustrated when they fail to see early signs of the transformative impact that IoT can have.

The thing that you ought to understand is that a single use case is highly unlikely to get you there. You need to scale in terms of the number of use cases, as well as the breadth of your application. That’s what helps to maximize the impact. A good idea is to put a well-forged IoT prototyping strategy in place well before you’ve started the implementation.

What is more, the widespread usage of IoT-based products within your own organization is also likely to force a certain cultural shift. It will stoke the organizational energy behind the chances and it will create a new mindset on advantages that IoT brings.

This can also cause a ripple effect, providing for a momentum that oftentimes exposes the weakness in the technology, as well as the gaps in current talent sets. This will show you the in-house IoT skill levels, as well as the number of experts that you’ll need in order to implement IoT at a larger scale.

Your Business Process Will Change, Embrace It

By now you’ve probably realized that IoT is likely to be one of the most exciting and promising technologies of today. However, it has also been portrayed mainly as a technical implementation challenge.

Technologies revolving around the Internet of Things have evolved significantly in recent years. They continue to change the way we interact with our surroundings. For companies, however, they also bring new ways to monitor and to manage objects in the physical world.

There are many factors which attribute to the quick rise in popularity of IoT-based technologies. Perhaps the steady fall in prices of communications technologies and sensors, combined with the rise of overall understanding of how they can be applied are among the leading ones.

Targeting IoT applications properly, as well as managing them effectively is not easy. That’s why a lot of companies find themselves stuck and unable to move beyond certain pressure points.

At the same time, data from Statista shows that the worldwide IoT market will grow to the staggering $457 billion by 2020. But how do you find your competitive edge in a market where everyone would be fighting for a piece of the pie? Let’s find out.

Keep Doing What You Do

The number one thing companies assume is that there is a single pat to succeeding in the field of IoT. There’s no such thing. Some companies tend to focus on connecting existing products in order to make them more attractive to their clients.

Others exploit opportunities in order to achieve operational improvements which will reduce costs while increasing efficiency.

Perhaps the better way to go about it is to combine all of the above, at least to some degree. Instead of tapping into an unfamiliar market or exploring new products, it’s better to play it to your strengths.

Regardless of whether you’re in agriculture or software development, it’s best to place the emphasis on your stronger suits and attempt to make them even stronger.

In short, there’s absolutely no reason for you to venture into the unknown, hoping that emerging technology will miraculously give you the yields you’re looking for. Your strong sides are strong for a reason — find out that reason and capitalize on it.

Tap Into Multiple Use Cases

A lot of businesses become rather frustrated when they fail to see early signs of the transformative impact that IoT can have.

The thing that you ought to understand is that a single use case is highly unlikely to get you there. You need to scale in terms of the number of use cases, as well as the breadth of your application. That’s what helps to maximize the impact. A good idea is to put a well-forged IoT prototyping strategy in place well before you’ve started the implementation.

What is more, the widespread usage of IoT-based products within your own organization is also likely to force a certain cultural shift. It will stoke the organizational energy behind the chances and it will create a new mindset on advantages that IoT brings.

This can also cause a ripple effect, providing for a momentum that oftentimes exposes the weakness in the technology, as well as the gaps in current talent sets. This will show you the in-house IoT skill levels, as well as the number of experts that you’ll need in order to implement IoT at a larger scale.

Your Business Process Will Change, Embrace It

By now you’ve probably realized that IoT is likely to be one of the most exciting and promising technologies of today. However, it has also been portrayed mainly as a technical implementation challenge.

What you need to understand is that it also requires changes to your business process if it’s to derive real business gains. Connecting equipment to the internet, for instance, is going to enable the company to manage usage a lot more efficiently and to predict when or whether maintenance will be needed.

Nevertheless, if the surrounding business processes are not optimized and modified accordingly, the value won’t be maximized, if there at all.

Conclusion

Gaining a competitive edge in the field of IoT will become increasingly more challenging. As technology continues to see broader adoption and potential use cases, companies will have hard times catching up with those who are already ahead.

The above can help you get your organization in the right mindset, needed for gaining any sort of advantage on the increasingly competitive market.

What you need to understand is that it also requires changes to your business process if it’s to derive real business gains. Connecting equipment to the internet, for instance, is going to enable the company to manage usage a lot more efficiently and to predict when or whether maintenance will be needed.

Nevertheless, if the surrounding business processes are not optimized and modified accordingly, the value won’t be maximized, if there at all.

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Digital Marketing Strategist. Ex-CMO @ GamesPad & BullPerks. Contributor to Entrepreneur, VentureBeat and UX Magazine.