In our previous article we introduced smart locks – a transformative technology generated by the Internet of things (IoT) that seems set to revolutionize how businesses handle security and helping to level the playing field small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) compete on with large, established businesses enjoying a greater surplus of manpower.
In this article we will continue to wow you with additional IoT inspired transformative technologies which your business can adopt immediately, at minimal cost, while boosting productivity and product experience. Are you ready? Well, brace yourselves for:
2. Smart lighting and HVAC
You know, it is only 50 years ago or so that air conditioning your store was considered to be a superfluous luxury. A century ago, even electric lights were viewed with askance. But today, you can’t really expect anyone to set foot in a dim, stultifying establishment. And guess what? It won’t be too long before dependence on manual operation of a light switch or air conditioning remote will strike your customers as being way to twentieth century. But this is about more than being hip and current. It’s about securing an bang for your buck by saving energy and reducing overhead. When you couple that with the rising public mood among millennials in favor of a green new deal, and possible government benefits for energy savings, adopting technology really seems like a no brainer.
By simply installing sensors that know when rooms are vacant and when they are occupied, you can finetune the heating/cooling settings, and flip the lights on and off, as required. But that’s not all! The second generation of these devices can utilize machine learning to fine tune their lighting and cooling schedule, saving you ever more money. This is far from an experimental, or unproven technology. So why haven’t you installed the system yet? We did mention that this is a no brainer, right?
3. Personalized voice assistant
They don’t make secretaries (or personal assistants, to be politically corrected) like they used to and that’s a fact. They make them better. Imagine a super-optimized assistant who is never ill or absent, never complains about the workload and has no cause to ask for a raise because he / she (since we are being politically correct) is never paid? Well, the fact is you probably already have one, or at least have access to one. It is one of many available IoT enabled app on your smart phone.
But it probably doesn’t do everything you would expect a human personal assistant to do – more to the point it probably isn’t doing anything near what it is capable of doing if you fully empower it. Just imagine what apps such as google assistant (or Alexa or Siri from Amazon and Apple respectively) could accomplish if you linked them up, right now, with task management calendars, notes and systems.
But that is small potatoes. You can also set Voice assistants to control other IoT enabled devices, letting you focus on making strategic management decisions about your business. This is one efficiency boosting technology you can’t afford to miss out on.
