Internet of Things: Gearing Up For The Future!

In this rapid technology advancement era, information and data transferring one one device to the other in matter of seconds. Daily activities and technology are heavily intertwined together. I’ll be discussing about internet of things (IOT) and big data in this post to further understand how it can benefits us.

Internet of Things (IOT)

“The Internet will disappear. There will be so many IP addresses, so many devices, sensors, things that you are wearing, things that you are interacting with, that you won’t even sense it. It will be part of your presence all the time. Imagine you walk into a room, and the room is dynamic. And with your permission and all of that, you are interacting with the things going on in the room.”

Eric Schmidt, Ex-Chairman at Google

In a nutshell, internet of Things or IOT, is defined as the concept of connection between any device (that has an on/off switch) to the internet and to other connected system or devices.

These connections allow user to interact with multiple devices at one time such as smart home to further aid us in achieving higher productivity with much convenience.

How can IOT benefit us ?

Just imagine you and your family went overseas and that’s a document for you to edit in your office computer urgently NOW ! Or leaving your home and you realized you did not switch off the water boiler ? With IOT, everything is made possible within your control now.

You can easily access to the document from your location through the network sitting from any location of the globe. People are able to work even if they are not physically present. According to TechHive, connecting devices such as Smart Home can also allow you to control electrical appliances even if you are away from home. The convenience brought will greatly assist us in productiveness.

How Marketers Use IOT

Marketers can create a completely different purchasing experience bridging the gap between physical and digital world for the consumers. Every single moves in the internet by a consumer create a digital ‘footprint’ and are transformed into data as marketers are able to further understand individual consumer better.

Consumers buying habit are analyzed across different platforms and providing real time notifications and targeted ads to attract consumers attention. The time spend by the consumers can also allow marketers to understand the purchasing and emotional journey of the consumers throughout the whole shopping experience.

Big Data

According to IBM, big data analytics is the use of advanced analytic techniques against very large, diverse data sets that include structured, semi-structured and unstructured data, from different sources, and in different sizes from terabytes to zettabytes. It is a term applied to data sets whose size or type is beyond the ability of traditional relational databases to capture, manage and process the data with low latency.

In layman’s term, an extremely huge set of data that can only be analysed computationally to reveal trends, association and patterns relating to human interactions and behavior.

Uses of Big Data

One of the uses of big data is micro-marketing; using analyzed data to identify and target a very small segments of consumers. This provides brands with data of such individuals and specifically tailor marketing mix for these segments. This will increase the relevance of product to the consumers.

Big data also provide organisations with consumer insights with simplified data by analyzing and predicting individual behavior from platforms such as social media and GPS enabled- devices. Brands can accurately target certain group of consumers and insert their product ads to attract these consumers.

According to NewGenApps, Facebook target people based on buying intent, website visits, interests, job role, demographics and what not. All this data is collected by Facebook algorithms using big data analysis techniques.

Conclusion

In conclusion, internet of things (IOT) and big data can help organisations better understand their consumers and providing better shopping experience. With the advancement of technology and ‘Smarter’ devices, this can greatly aid us in our daily activities and achieving great productivity.