Blogger Stacey Higginbothan aptly notes that the Internet of Things (IoT) is now a part of our everyday lives and will eventually cause upheaval across the mobile industry.
As a portfolio manager, will you be at the forefront of the IoT revolution?
Over the past decade, IoT evolved from an area that only IT personnel really understood or dabbled in to something widely understood—and invested in—by organizations around the world.
Look around. Today, IoT is changing industries and the way our appliances and apps work with each other, and us.
Manufacturing plants can use a mobile app to change a light bulb’s color based on the situation. So, for example, software can monitor how many returns are received and change the light’s color once a certain number is reached. The app can also change the bulb’s color when items have to be packaged, when there’s a safety situation or when deliveries arrive.
The opportunities are only limited by the imagination—and by which information can be measured or reported by an app. Imagine: a fire alarm is pulled, and all the lights in the facility change color.
Forward-thinking companies are taking full advantage of IoT and making a business of it. You may have seen advertisements for the Amazon Echo, which has been “married” with other IoT technologies to create new applications.
What It Means for Portfolio Managers
Having read all this, can you think how a portfolio manager might benefit from the IoT explosion? If you understand the enterprise picture of your company and industry, you’re in a good position to think about IoT applications that your company can use, or an IoT need that your company might fulfill for customers.
The portfolio manager is in a great position to ask questions about how IoT can revolutionize various projects/programs within the enterprise. What about partnering with another firm that produces something entirely different? Is there an area where your industry needs to reduce cost, increase safety or be more effective? Remember, you could ask the question that sparks the next big development in IoT.
Stay tuned for my next blog post, about how the IoT will impact the mobile industry.
This discussion was originally posted at ProjectManagement.com.
