The pace of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (IR 4.0) is swift, especially with the fusion of multiple technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Blockchain, Big Data, and many others.
To remain competitive or survive in this area, a business must be agile enough to leverage and embrace these technologies.
My previous blog article, “How IoT Can Solve the Problems of Seven (7) M’s of a Business“, explains how businesses can take advantage of IoT or any of the IR 4.0 technologies in their daily business operations.
However, the IoT deployment has yet to reach a massive adoption for various reasons mentioned below.
(1) Business Case
Before investing in their IoT journey, it’s essential to plan carefully at the early stage. Many failed because they deployed technology in low-priority areas. Understanding their business case, identify which of the seven M’s need a solution.
(2) Rethinking
Relook at the current process and how technology and maximize the outcome. Probably process which involves humans can now be eliminated or replaced with IoT.
(3) Action
Help your organization to understand where the action is needed. The company will assign new jobs and responsibilities to the staff.
(4) Change Management
Something that is too often overlooked. Managing staff from different generations (one that is less tech-savvy against the new computer generation) is not easy. They need to bring out from their comfort zone.
(5) Too Many Silos
Breaking down the barriers of siloed departments requires the understanding and appreciation of sharing data. Big data analytics will fail if essential sources of data are not shared.
(6) Culture
The era of IR 4.0 requires a different mindset of being agile in responding to emerging technologies. All staffs need to be exposed and have a common understanding of technologies’ impact on their lives and business. Culture of continuous learning – ensuring the habit of acquiring skills and abilities to help them become better at their jobs.
(7) Talents
Recruiting and developing new talent. The staff needs to unlearn and relearn new skills quickly.
(8) Pilots
The idea of investing money and resource can be daunting, especially when adopting a new technology that is not familiar to them. Thus, it can easily break it down into smaller pilot projects to see the immediate impact and get buy-in before scaling up into a more extensive deployment.
(9) New Business Model
Sometimes, the old model of Capex-based investment will no longer be the only way to implement IoT projects. This blog article, “Seven (7) IoT Business Models That Can Create new Revenue Streams.” will help you explore new alternatives.


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