IOT .... Internet of Wings
By invoking the Internet of
Things, industry leaders imagine a Digital India driven by collaboration and
disruption
With the Internet of Things
(IoT), possibilities always galore. What if people could propel themselves up
ten floors instead of being ferried in a stainless steel box we call the el
evator. Again, consider refrigerators ordering your daily fix by gauging your
location and preference in real-time. Esoteric? Well, going by the recently
concluded panel discussion on the Internet of Things: New Age Digital
Opportunities in Mumbai, an amazing world of possibilities hitherto confined to
the domain of science fiction, is fast opening up. And that could well make the
fridge a family member, or get you as close to Scotty in Star Trek by just
uttering `Beam Me Up'.
The panel, presented by
Vodafone Business Services in association with The Economic Times, attracted
top minds from sectors as varied as Telecom, FMCG, Banking, Automobiles and
Consumer Durables. It afforded a ring side view of how promoters and chief executives
are eyeing the future, impact of IoT-driven automation on industries, and most
tellingly, getting real with IoT.
From the mobility space,
both cars and elevator companies made their pitch. As Ankit Jain, Sr. Director
and Head of Ola Play took up the gauntlet, he claims to be solving a unique
problem in the ride-sharing space. With IoT, he wants to make the driver
downtime more purposeful by ensuring the driver's seat is literally what it
is---the most coveted seat in the car, informing, educating and empowering the
driver. “We're reim aging the car as a w o r k space...which is really being
driven by the `connected car' concept,“ says Jain. Again, the concept is bound
to add more value for passengers in terms of additional services and even make
the passenger driver in-car experiences more meaningful.
From a manufacturing
standpoint, Sumit Sawhney, Country CEO & MD, Renault India emphasized on
the big shift in R&D from mechanical to digital and how the carmaker now
has a the carmaker now has a full-fledged electric division as well as one on
connected cars. “IoT is going to drive ease of life and that is what we have to
be geared for,“ Sawhney con tends. But what gives Sawhney pride is the fact
that when his compa ny launched Kwid, he unleashed a plethora of digital
activations driven by artificial intelligence, such as virtual test drive and
digital showrooms. Today, Renault has picked such initiatives from India and
ranked them among its global best practices.
Again, when it comes to
people flow in elevators, trust Amit Gossain, MD, KONE India, to think out-of
the-box. He's open to partnering with startups for ideas that could potentially
lead to customer delight. At the same time, he's gung-ho on his Chennai-based
tech team to deliver fantasies in upward mobility. Watch this space.
Punctuating the
wide-ranging impact of IoT among sectors, Nick Gliddon, Director, Vodafone
Business Services, Vodafone India reasons the ramifications are equally
weighted for both the consumer-facing and enterprise side. “At the back end, we
see lot of technological infusion in the customer processes due to digitization
while in the front environment, it is all about making life easier,“ says
Gliddon, explaining the impact of IoT across B2B and B2C channels. Gliddon even
adds a caveat that in the whole IoT ball game, collaboration is key and
stitching partnerships is the way to go. For instance, citing from Pune's smart
city initiative, where Vodafone is a partner, the company collected 27.5 million
pieces of data and worked with an analytics company which then delivered a
proof of concept to the urban planning institution. IoT is going to play an
increasingly bigger role in the digital journey of every organization.
In the banking industry,
`smart' is a given for some time now. But as Pankaj Sharma, EVP &
Head-Retail Operations, Axis Bank, points out, sensors and wearables are
increasingly coming in to play. The bank is now toying with a payment chip
integrated into a wearable, which also tracks the daily activity of the
individual and awards loyalty points. Again, using thermal sensors in ATMs,
Axis is gearing up to reduce robberies. As for the impact, Sharma claims that
the bank has achieved 85% cost reduction using remote surveillance mechanisms and
on a monthly basis, can detect and prevent 75-80 genuine fraudulent cases.
Again, when it comes to the
implementation of IoT in large organisations, State Bank of India stands out.
With 25,000-plus branches serving 350 million customers, the bank is vying to
be in the top 10 digitized banks in the world as its deputy MD and CIO,
Mrutyunjay Mahapatra scours the planet to pore over and dissect the best IoT
solutions at play. Mahapatra feels that `what needs to be done' is long settled
as practitioners like him increasingly look at the when, where and how of
implementing cutting-edge tech strategies within their organisations. For SBI,
since it's a question of scale, the allocations are also mammoth. The
digitization push alone is worth Rs 4,000 crore, for instance. And Mahapatra is
of the opinion that IoT, AI and machine learning should primarily address
business pain points rather than aiding wishful thinking. He is also a firm
believer in honing homegrown talent rather than hiring from the outside. After
all, “culture eats strategy for breakfast“, speaking of which he propounds the
STEP approach, wherein `S' denotes security, `T' indicates transformation
preparedness as the transformation cycles are shrinking, `E' sums up the
enterprise architecture connecting people, processes and technology and `P'
stands for productivity. In the consumer durables space, Akshay Dhoot,
Head-Technology & Innovation, Videocon, also took a grounded approach to
IoT by highlighting the fact that there aren't enough IoT-enabled commercial
products yet on the shelves. Having said that, Dhoot underlined ease of use as
the prime mover for IoT implementation, going forward, akin to the spread of
smartphones. In essence, expect smarter air conditioners, washing machines,
refrigerators, televisions, and what have you. But don't expect TV controls in
your smart phone. “Picking up the remote is so much simpler.“
Meanwhile, from the
fast-moving consumer goods perspective, Devendra Chawla, CEO, Future Consumer
Ltd. & Group President-Food, FMCG, Brands, Future Group, is restlessly
mapping the journeys of global retail giants at the forefront of change.If
German retailer Otto uses algorithms that were discovered for particle physics
by CERN Laboratories to derive a 90% accuracy as to what their consumers will
buy over a week and a month, the Minneapolis-based Target uses beacons to ferry
information. “Data is the new oil,“ says Chawla, adding how the senior
leadership at Future Group recently took a couple of days out with reps from
MIT Labs in an immersive dialog on IoT. He also highlighted how Future Group
Chairman Kishore Biyani has announced a Rs 100 crore accelerator fund for
startups and entrepreneurs to work on retail magic.
In the farrago of fact and
fiction about IoT, there now seems to be a silver lining. While the Indian
market embraces and adopts new technologies that could sound stranger than
fiction, it is all part of the global march to make life easier. And in doing
so, the watchword remains disruption. In Nick Gliddon's words, “Whether you're
disruptive to the customer processes in the frontend, you're digitizing a
process or creating new processes at the backend, IoT is fetching the biggest
returns.“
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moinak
mitra
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TNN31MAY17
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