While the world wakes up to the possibilities of the internet of things (IoT), where almost everything you can imagine can be linked to something else via the internet, there are many Irish companies who have not yet managed to use the web to engage effectively with their customers, suppliers and employees.
The value of Ireland's digital economy is expected to double to €14 billion a year by 2021, according to a Virgin Digital Insights report published at the end of 2016. At present, 86 per cent of Irish households have access to the internet and, according to the report, 94 per cent of Irish households use it to make online purchases.
The problem, says Nicola Mortimer, head of business products, marketing and operations at mobile operator Three, is that 60 per cent of Ireland's online spend goes overseas. "A large percentage of Irish businesses are not trading online – they have a website, but they don't have the ability to process online payments or to close a sale online.
“This is such a pity, because adding commerce to a website can be achieved quite easily using a cloud-based app. If someone is nervous about it, there is help available from Government agencies. Or they could buddy up with another company that is already online, or use the experiences of another company as a case study. It’s quite a simple DIY job.”
Irish businesses need to start trading online, because increasingly that is where buying and selling takes place, says Vodafone's head of enterprise customer solutions Jonathan Rutherford. "I am spending much less time going around the shops during the day," he says. "Increasingly, I shop for food and clothes online and I do that most often after 10pm. So, if you want business from people like me, you need to be available to do online business 24/7."
Another area where businesses can use well-established internet tools to improve their performance is by using a cloud-based VOIP telephony such as 3Connect, says Mortimer.
Vodafone’s cloud-based VOIP solution is One Net, which Rutherford says is suitable for an SME that is already operating with two-to-eight fixed-line phone numbers, plus several mobile phone numbers.
“One Net gives your customers a single-contact number that then allows calls to be routed, using IVR, interactive voice recognition, to where they need to go – sales, accounts, customer support or individuals within the company,” he says.
Because of the ability to automatically transfer landline calls to mobiles, you need never miss a customer enquiry, says Rutherford. “Other features to help your business run more smoothly include the ability to transfer calls, accept and reject selected calls, select custom ringtones and reject anonymous calls.
“Installed on smartphones, tablets and desktops, One Net lets you see real-time information on which staff are available at any one time, and gives you instant messaging and document-sharing capability across the company.
“This kind of flexibility and agility is vital for SMEs,” says Rutherford. “Relationships are very important for small businesses and so is the ability to give exceptional service, which is why connectivity is so important.
At Three, Mortimer says a recent case study involving a small restaurant, Las Tapas de Lola, provides a great example of what cloud-based unified communications can do. She says: “With 3Connect, the staff don’t have to be in the Wexford Street restaurant to answer calls from customers wanting to make bookings. The manager can work from her home office, 40km outside of Dublin, and when she calls a customer back to confirm a reservation or to check details, the call comes from the restaurant number. It means the manager now has a better work-life balance, as she can spend more of her day at home with her kids.
"Also, if the manager is unavailable to take calls, then it's just a matter of simply diverting the calls to Vanessa Murphy, the restaurant owner."
Once Murphy had seen the advantage of switching from a paper-based reservations system to an online system, it was easy to see the advantage of moving from a paper-based staff rostering system to an online system easily accessible by all front-of-house and kitchen staff.
And connectivity doesn’t have to mean hand-held devices. Employees are increasingly using smart glasses and headsets for a wide range of applications, from maintenance technicians accessing online manuals to security personnel having point-of-view cameras monitoring their interactions with members of the public.
"There are some really neat things being done in the world of virtual reality and augmented reality," says Rutherford. "Sherry FitzGerald are using VR headsets to allow people to take virtual tours of properties they might be interested in, but without having to spend time physically travelling to the property itself.
"With IoT, everything is becoming connected. For example, Vodafone is providing BMW with the M2M [machine-to-machine] SIM chips for the ConnectedDrive feature. As well as helping to provide easy access to how a car is performing and what kind of maintenance programme should be scheduled for it, it also allows for automatic calls to the emergency services should the car be involved in an accident."
New opportunities
Rutherford believes the internet of things and machine-to-machine communications offers new opportunities to companies by allowing them to extend their offering to include services as well as products and, as an example, he cites Ireland’s connected cows. “Keenan Systems have been very successful in selling their cattle-feeding systems across the world,” he says. “But by then developing ways of remotely monitoring how individual cattle are performing in terms of milk yield etc, they have been able to develop a service where they advise customers on animal nutrition to improve that performance.”
The growth in IoT can be compared with the progression of internet 1.1 20 years ago, says Austin Boyle, MD in technology at Accenture Ireland. "An IoT area that is realising significant progress in terms of operational efficiency and increased business competitiveness is the industrial sector, in areas like manufacturing, mining, agriculture, oil and gas, and utilities.
“The industrial internet of things [IIOT)]has been heralded primarily as a way to improve operational efficiency, but, in today’s environment, companies can also benefit greatly by seeing it as a tool for finding growth in unexpected opportunities. In the future, successful companies will use IIoT to capture new growth with three approaches: boosting revenues by increasing production and creating new hybrid business models, exploiting intelligent technologies to fuel innovation, and transforming their workforce.”
Operational efficiency is one of the key attractions of the IIoT, and early adopters are focused on these benefits. By introducing automation and more flexible production techniques, for instance, manufacturers could boost their productivity by up to as much as 30 per cent, according to research by Deutsche Bank.
“Predictive maintenance of assets is one such area of focus, introducing savings over scheduled repairs, reducing overall maintenance costs and eliminating breakdowns,” Boyle adds. “For example, today, large utility companies are using sensors, analytics and real-time data to help them to anticipate equipment failures and respond more quickly to critical situations, such as leaks or adverse weather events.”
Ireland already has a good street-level example of IoT driving efficiency – solar-powered smart bins that automatically issue “empty me” alerts when they are full.
“Although companies are viewing and beginning to leverage the IIoT as an operational efficiency strategy, it also offers rich potential for those that make equipment and products to introduce new digital products and services, generating entirely new sources of revenue to improve both the top and bottom lines,” says Boyle. “Separately, for owners and operators of equipment, such as companies in the processing industry, there is a real opportunity for increased revenues. The easy win is to avoid downtime and plant and facility shutdowns, thereby increasing production throughout.
“Many companies are just now beginning to make the transition, and it may not be easy for some industrial, transportation and service-sector executives to capitalise on the opportunity to sell new digital offerings. However, those that hesitate and fail to quickly adopt the benefits of connectivity offered by the IoT could be quickly outmanoeuvred by existing competitors and new entrants.”
The same is true for connectivity at all levels – as early as 1992, the British group Stereo MC sang: “If you make sure you’re connected, the writing’s on the wall. But if your mind is neglected, stumble you might fall.”