IoT and AI are the top technology priorities in almost every large business today.
A typical business spends about $150,000 for an innovation program, finds a technology partner, either co-creates or provides use cases and gets a proof of concept (PoC / pilot) developed in a span of 3 months.
While these PoCs offer a great photo-op and PR opportunity, most initiatives end up in cold storage.
Having worked on several digital transformation programs, I have realised that, it is the “How” that makes an initiative successful rather than the “What”!
To give you an analogy, at a gym, everybody gets access to the same equipment, but only a few people are able to get into shape.
IoT is all about using cutting edge sensor technology, connecting it to a communication network, getting that data on to a platform and actioning on the insights.
True digital enterprises approach IoT initiatives with service delivery assurance at the core. They engage stakeholders from the business, sort out the mechanics of service delivery and improve their risk profile and finish by bringing it all together through a pilot.
5 secrets to a successful IoT program are:
- A clear view of the proof of value to the business (RoI) and a good understanding of where funding would come from if the solution were to scale.
- The political will to secure business buy-in from the beginning and the ability to ring fence the solution with leagalease if concerns around privacy and ethical use were needed to be overcome.
- A well-oiled deployment team that can install, replace and provision sensors at scale across the identified geographical area.
- A humming project management engine that can orchestrate a complex turnkey deployment on time, on budget. Which is supported by a flexible service delivery who are able to offer pay-as-you-go, 24x7, real time and end-to-end service support.
- A market leading eco-system of sensor suppliers, connectivity partners and platform providers with unique commercial arrangements that allow them to collaborate and compete at the same time
Artificial Intelligence (AI) initiatives usually fall into two buckets. One, where AI driven solutions support the decision making process and the other, where the AI solutions themselves decide, take action and replace human intervention. Digital enterprises start with hiring a leader for their AI initiatives.
5 Secrets to a successful AI program are:
- A "Constitution for AI". If Enterprises are serious about leveraging AI this is a must.
- A culture of data driven decision making.
- A humming data practice, which can do classic ETL, data cleansing and data integration.
- Extensive predictive analytics. If the enterprise do not already use predictive analytics, any talk of AI could be considered unproductive.
- A shifted trust paradigm to technology over institutions (people and process).
Whilst cool tech gets most of the attention in digital transformation, in IoT and AI based initiatives, it is the least important component. With democratisation of technology, the only way any business can be successful with their digital transformation initiative is by meticulously applying the secret sauce.
