The Internet of Things (IoT) is no longer a new trend, but we have been delaying its massification for 21 years. COVID-19 accelerated the digital transition process of many companies and reinforced the IoT as one of the pillars of the current transformation.
The IoT market is expected to grow from USD 150bn in 2019 to USD 243bn by 2021, and it is easy to understand why. Contactless payments, remote working, telemedicine, or contact-tracing are just a few examples of things that would not be possible without the various applications of IoT.
In order to speed up this process in a sector as traditional as maintenance, Infraspeak launched the Infraspeak IoT Store, a marketplace of IoT solutions that can be installed on machines, infrastructures, and equipment, with full integration with the company platform.
These solutions are provided by a network of reference partners from all over the world, including Emitu, Wattsense, DTWay, or Sypro i-Predict, which are capable of installing and integrating the best IoT sensors in the market, making the Internet of Things more accessible to companies and maintenance operations.
Reduce costs, optimise processes and improve quality of service
There are several types of sensors and devices available, and a lot of different data can be collected, such as temperature, humidity, or energy consumption measures. Irrespective of what you’re measuring, the goals are always the same: reduce costs, optimise processes, and improve the decisions made, every day, by maintenance and infrastructure managers.
IoT gives visibility and control over everything that happens, automatically and in real-time. Whenever an anomaly is detected, an automatic task is generated. In the case of a service provider, for example, the IoT allows them to notice an anomaly in a piece of equipment even before customers have realized there’s a problem. Malfunctions can be resolved even before a complaint, significantly improving service quality and equipment lifespan.
Luís Martins, Co-Founder, and VP of Product at Infraspeak, explained: “At Infraspeak, we are committed to ensuring intelligent maintenance operations, so it makes perfect sense to facilitate the implementation of IoT. Companies that manage equipment today, face the challenge of not being able to collect data, and use it to make better decisions, and be more efficient and profitable. Implementation of IoT is inevitable since it is the simplest way to obtain the data that allows you to make decisions faster and prevent unnecessary problems.”
However, investing in IoT is only the first part of a process that all companies will have to go through, in order to not lose competitiveness. It is critical that sensors and other IoT equipment are connected to a platform that transforms the collected data into intelligence.
That is what will have a relevant impact on day-to-day maintenance operations. Besides the obvious advantages to business development, logistics is also made easier with the Internet of Things. Teams no longer have to be on-site to assess the state of the equipment and are able to control it remotely, which, in the era of COVID-19 and remote work, is undoubtedly a great advantage.
