In November I attended the Defrag conference (http://www.defragcon.com). It is a great conference to get me thinking beyond what’s new today and think about trends that might impact the next few years. One of the presentations is by Jeff Jonas at IBM about some really large databases.
Then at lunch there’s a discussion at our table about a new standard coming for home automation that should make it possible for disparate appliances, etc to communicate. Part of that discussion included the debate going on about the smart grid, where appliances could coordinate their power useage.
That night I’m decompressing, watching TV, and see an ad by GM that includes an iPhone App that shows an incredible amount of information about your car, even letting you start it from your phone.
Which brings up the question, “what happens to your business when everything is connected?” More and more products from cars to coffee makers contain microprocessors. These embedded microcontrollers are less expensive than the older discrete, analog components they replace. They also give a lot more intelligence to what they are embedded in. A coffee pot can have a more powerful computer than the Apollo spacecraft that went to the moon.
One of the alternatives to WiFi in the home is power line networking, which sends high speed internet over your electrical wiring.
It isn’t a big jump from coffee pots with microcontrollers and power line networking to coffee pots connected to the Internet. Or just about anything else that might be in a home, or office.
No matter what business you are in, you should be considering how your business might change if anything you manufacturer or sell is connected to the Internet.
Think of the coffee pot. A coffee pot is designed to brew a certain number of pots of coffee. As a manufacturer or retailer, knowing when that coffee pot is most likely to fail gives you a promotional opportunity.
When I represented a major water heater company they paid contractors to register competitors’ commercial water heaters. All serial numbers had the manufacture date encoded in them. Commercial water heaters work really hard and tend to fail relatively predictability. Having the competitors’ information, the water heater company could send a promotional mailing at just about the right time to be “top of mind” when that water heater failed. Is there a similar opportunity in your business?
An appliance or device that is more complex could be sending you diagnostic information. Instead of waiting for a customer to realize their washing machine isn’t working, you could be calling them to schedule a pre-emptive repair. The value proposition could change from the lowest price to the best service.
Data collected could also be used by the manufacturer to get more detailed information about how various appliances are being used, perhaps leading to more reliable designs.
Of course if your coffee pot, iron, stove, etc are on the Internet, the next time you go on vacation and wonder if you forgot to turn something off, you would be able to go on-line to check the status.
The technology to link everything is coming soon. The possibilities are endless. Are you going to be ready to take advantage of this information to improve your business?