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Isn't IoT another word for controls?


Isn't IOT just controls? When I first heard the term IOT years ago I initially thought it was just a bunch of hype. Similar to the words green and others which have popped up over the years that are really new descriptions of something that has existed for a long time, yet these words do a great job bringing broader awareness of an issue. So for me, and ex-controls person in commercial and industrial, IOT was one of those words.

Isn't IOT just controls?  Curiosity got the better of me, as it always seems to, and I found myself deep into the nuances around IOT and its potential impact on our industry and most specifically our workforces. While the end devices are controls, no doubt about that, the difference that IOT implies can be found in several different areas, such as:

  • Consumerization: well this always helps as it drives costs down and is something we have seen with remote monitoring devices related to IOT
  • Development: when you get early participants such as Microsoft and Google (a few years back with their home based products) you see a market start to change with regards to almost every component. For instance in order to work in a home you must have easy to install network capability. Certainly zigbee and other wireless protocols. have been in the control space they really started to gain traction when a home market was revealed
  • Approach: many of us to this day still price control jobs by points, inputs and outputs. IOT has opened the doors and reduced the price so significantly that now where a building might have 50 points could easily have 5000 points. This could be perceived as a blessing and a curse, what are we going to do with all this information?

Our operating landscape is constantly shifting; those service organizations which embrace new tools, and determine how they will add value for your clients. will be the organizations which prevail.

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Next post:  how do corrective actions help the service business?
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