About a year ago, a deadly virus entered our daily lives, affecting almost every aspect of our lives. Among them, consumer behavior has changed dramatically, and companies have been forced to innovate to survive the brutal blow of the new coronavirus epidemic. Technologies like IoT become a savior for businesses to help them keep up with the latest information and trends to design their products accordingly. Now, let’s take a look at how it can help businesses and industries cope with these unprecedented changes in the post-COVID world.
Proximity Monitoring Solutions
While working from home will become the new norm around the world, certain industries and specific team operations require team members to be physically present. To ensure your team’s safety, healthy work environment and business continuity, IoT applications powered by Bluetooth will alert team members when they are in close proximity to each other or enter restricted areas. Not only that, but there can also be a central monitoring system. This technology can be used on construction sites, factories, warehouses, hospitals, nursing homes and more.
Temperature sensors provide real-time readings to managers
The catering industry has been the most affected. They have no dine-in revenue because they were forced to completely switch to serving food and takeout with a smaller staff. Additionally, warehousing has been a big issue for the industry, exacerbated by the pandemic. With fewer employees than before, manually monitoring refrigerator and freezer temperatures to ensure food is stored at the proper temperature has become a costly undertaking. This process can be fully automated through IoT sensors that can feed this information back to managers so they can respond promptly to equipment failures.
Data centers will play a greater role
As businesses collect large amounts of data, data centers will play an important role in the normal operations of the business. Teams are going global and the rules are changing, which means the reliability of any business will be directly proportional to the reliability of its data centers. For this reason, proactive monitoring and detection of temperature and humidity issues becomes critical. Now, instead of assigning multiple people to monitor temperature, humidity and dew point, placing sensors near critical equipment in the data center can provide managers with accurate real-time information on ambient temperature, humidity, etc., thus saving resources and money.
Likewise, some technology companies offer last-minute corporate data center solutions. As data centers become more and more localized, you can find one close to your company to access in case of any emergency.
IoT sensors and analytics for smart agriculture
Agriculture is another industry thrown into disarray by misaligned supply and demand. In uncertain times, technology can provide some practical, data-backed solutions to agricultural problems.
Field IoT sensors can provide information about terrain, soil conditions, real-time temperatures, and more directly to farmers via apps. With integrated analytics, farmers can plan for any adverse weather conditions and even make decisions about what crops to plant next season. Overall, IoT can be used to optimize agricultural practices for maximum output.
Another application of IoT in agriculture is the predictive maintenance of machinery used in agriculture. Since old machines cause environmental problems directly or indirectly, it is a good idea to equip them with IoT-enabled sensors and predictive maintenance technology so that timely maintenance notifications can be issued and the service life of agricultural machinery can be extended.
Leverage IoT to better manage supply chains
This is one of the most common applications of the Internet of Things, but it is also one of the most important. With the new normal of online shopping on the rise, the supply chain of e-commerce companies needs to be smooth. Any friction will cost them customers, sales, and revenue. IoT sensors placed in warehouses transmit inventory information to central applications, which will help managers make better purchasing and order fulfillment decisions. This has a direct positive impact on the bottom line of the business.
Such sensors could also be placed on supermarket shelves to prompt managers to replenish supplies. When accumulated, this data can be used to study consumer purchasing habits and patterns. Not only that, but these smart shelves can also track possible thefts without the added expense of security services and monitoring equipment.
Summarize
Globally, 87% of businesses believe IoT provides a better return on investment and helps them change their core strategies for the better. Considering the speed at which the world is changing, IoT is no longer a luxury but a necessity.
Keywords: 4G industrial gateway