We talked with Olivier Ondet, Senior Vice President for IoT and Analytics for B2B markets, Orange Business Services. Orange Business Services one of the world’s largest integrators of IT solutions, about trends in the development of the Internet of things. The number of connected IoT-devices under the company’s management has reached 16 million.
– Olivier, tell me, in which industries the development of IoT solutions is now particularly intensive?
– The Internet of Things (IoT) has the power to make companies more productive, agile and streamlined and as a consequence, IoT activities are drastically growing in all areas. We have over 2,000 IoT and data experts at Orange Business Services who work every day on areas as diverse as the automotive sector, smart cities, health, transportations, industry 4.0 and many more. Being a major IoT player, we already manage 16 million connected objects every day in the world with our MtoM and IoT solutions.
As a matter of fact, the possibilities for IoT are as endless as the business requirements: predictive maintenance and operations optimization in manufacturing; asset tracking in construction; product personalization in consumer markets; logistics optimization in travel and transport; energy management in utilities; public space security, traffic management, street lighting and waste collection in cities; remote patient monitoring in healthcare; yield optimization in agriculture; fleet management and over-the-air software updates in automotive…and many more.
At a global level, we see great interest for IoT technology in Automotive and Transportation, Smart Cities, Utilities (with smart meters), Manufacturing, e-Health and Smart Home.
In Russia, we see growing demand in the housing and utilities sectors. It reflects in the growth of smart meters for electricity, gas and water. In addition, the number of tools that we provide to urban services is increasing; there are special sensors and equipment to monitor the performance of each housing system in different countries. A big city consists of thousands of apartment buildings, so it is critically important to not forget about the ecology of the environment and energy efficiency. Implementation of smart sensors should not greatly affect electricity consumption thanks to the use of special communication standards like LTE-M, a standard that is 4 times more efficient in terms of objects battery lifetime compared to ordinary LTE. However, with a large number of fixed IoT devices, it’s more reasonable to turn to Longe Rage technology (LoRa) – which is 15 times more efficient and economically effective.
In addition to smart metering for utilities, the area of health and safety protection is developing at an impressive rate. At the same time, IoT in the transport industry is one of the main drivers for growth in Russia and throughout the world. For instance we are providing Dobroflot with an IoT solution to monitor and optimize the fuel consumption of its fishing vessel fleets.
We see that priorities on IoT markets in different countries is directly related to regional specificities and the different government programs that are implemented there. For example, in Russia, much attention is paid to utilities, industry and agriculture, while in the Middle East the focus shifts to creation of smart cities.
– Where are IOT projects now being implemented at industrial facilities?
– McKinsey forecasts that the economic repercussion of IoT applications in 2025 will be between $3.9 and $11.1 trillion. From these figures, around $1.2 to $3.7 trillion will be apportioned to IoT applications in the manufacturing industry.
Health and safety is an ongoing challenge for enterprises. The International Labor Organization (ILO) estimates that more than 2.3 million people die every year due to accidents in the workplace or work-related diseases. IoT can make it easier for high risk industries such as construction and mining to spot and eliminate potential hazards in the work environment. IoT sensors can report on everything from air quality to body temperatures and ground stabilization detection. Coupled with data analytics, IoT can help drive more proactive safety programs. IoT-enabled maintenance tools can also be deployed to monitor equipment and predict maintenance schedules, helping to identify any problems that may disrupt operations, fracture delivery times and threaten the environment.
Automation is also the fact that all the data collected can be used additionally for predictive analytics in any industry. IoT is also invaluable when it comes to inventory management, vastly reducing the risk of management errors. Estimates of available supply are accurate, which prevents slowdowns in processes. A European factory for a large worldwide beverage manufacturer , for example, is equipping its pallets with RFID (radio frequency identification) tags so it can control the location of the pallets in its warehouse. It now tracks one million operations annually, dramatically improving loading times, keeping deliveries on track and and reducing inventory costs.
– How do you assess the prospects of using IoT solutions for home?
– It all depends on the country you are looking at. In Russia, smart metering has already been implemented in newer houses to save on utility bills. Nevertheless, it is very important to consider how smart devices will work with each other – there are a lot of proprietary systems on the market that are not confined to work with solutions of other vendors. Smart home consumer electronics is starting to gain momentum worldwide, with smoke detectors, light and heating management systems, or home security devices.
– Are there are some areas of use for IoT, in which right now there are not so many real projects, but there may be an abrupt growth in the following few years?
– According to Statista, the consumer segment will grow significantly. “12.86 billion IoT sensors and devices will be in use in the consumer segment by 2020, growing at a 34.89% CAGR per year from 2017”. It will be an interesting segment to watch.
– What is now the biggest obstacle to the spread of IoT? A lack of good sensors or is it connectivity that doesn’t keep up, or are there any other problems?
– The IoT brings a huge amount of opportunities but there are several main challenges that companies need to overcome to make the best out of it. First, testing several use cases is key to detect those achieving the best Return on Investments. Businesses also need to have the right amount of resources (human and financial) and skills before they can start any project.
One challenge could be technology. We need to ensure that the chosen technology (sensors, connectivity, platforms…) will last in-time, and will adapt to future evolutions. If we talk about Russia, so far we see a need for a unified infrastructure to carry out large IoT projects.
On the global scale information security is one of those major issues in IoT developement. In order to cope with growing amount of threats, providers need to adopt a comprehensive approach toprotecttheir IoT infrastructures.
– Where is the most active demand for IoT right now?
– Asset tracking management of personal cars, as well as public and commercial transport fleets is a key market. There is also a great demand for smart territories across the globe. The same can be said about Russia, where smart cities projects are not only limited by Moscow and St. Petersburg. For example smaller Russian cities are focused on intelligent video monitoring and smart metering projects.
– What is the main difference between the IoT market of the West and emerging markets (for example, Russia)? Is this somehow affected by the difference in the structure of demand?
– It depends on which vertical we are looking at and its overall infrastructure readiness to implement IoT projects. For example, many industrial enterprises in Russia still have quite low level of general digitalization. At the same time, in the energy sector, things are exactly the opposite, technological innovations that have been implemented there are ahead of what was done in the West.
However, IoT market as a whole in the West is more mature in this regard. For example, in the EU, you can use IoT devices (for instance connected cars) in any member country because the technology is compatible
– What is the main focus for R&D in IoT for leading IT companies?
– IoT will become even more powerful with the development of Data analytics and AI technologies allowing for more Automation and Business Intelligence.