Author: Abhishek Kalyan

How IoT Protocols Secure Data Exchange in the IoT Sphere

Posted on by Abhishek Kalyan

With the continuously increasing number of IoT devices, cases of DDoS attacks are also being witnessed frequently. According to a Statista report, the number of connected devices will reach about 31B by 2020. Thus, this is the time when businesses, customers, stakeholders, and IoT app developers should garner knowledge about IoT protocols that can significantly hold the chances of security breaches at bay.

A Comprehensive Guide to IoT Protocols

IoT protocols are modes of communication that ensure end-to-end security of the data exchange between connected devices.

Basically, the IoT devices are connected to the cloud through an IP network. However, Bluetooth and RFID devices allow IoT systems to connect locally. In both cases, there is a difference in range, power, and memory consumption. IP network connectivity is relatively complicated, requires more power and memory from the IoT devices while the range is not an issue. On the contrast, non-IP networks need less memory and power and are limited to a specific range. As far as the IoT protocols are concerned, a blend of IP and non-IP networks can be considered as per to their usage.

IoT protocols can be classified into two different categories. Let’s have a look at them.

1.) IoT Network Protocols

IoT network protocols are the set of communication protocols used to connect devices and ensure secure data exchange within the scope of the network. Some of the IoT network protocols are:

HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol)

HyperText Transfer Protocol has built the foundation of data transmission over the web. This protocol is commonly used for IoT devices when there is a massive amount of data to be published. However, HTTP is not the first choice of most IoT app developers because of its battery life, cost, energy consumed, and many other constraints.

3D Printing is one of the best use cases of the HyperText Transfer Protocol. It connects computers to the 3D printers over the network and enables systems to print 3D objects and pre-determined process prototypes.

LoRaWan (Long Range Wide Area Network)

LoRaWan is a low-power, long-range protocol that offers signals detection below the noise level. It connects battery-powered devices to the internet, wirelessly in private or global networks. This protocol is mainly used by smart cities, where there a myriad of devices that operate with less power and memory.

Smart street lighting is the most significant use case of the LoRaWan protocol. This protocol facilitates the connection of street lights to the LoRa gateway. The LoRa gateway further connects to the cloud app that controls the intensity of light bulbs and reduces power consumption during the daytime.

Bluetooth

Bluetooth is an extensively used protocol for wireless, short-range, low-cost, low-power, and secure data exchange between electronic devices. Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) is a subset of this protocol that cuts down power consumption and plays a significant role in connecting IoT devices.

Bluetooth protocol is mostly used in smartphones, smart wearables, and other devices, where small chunks of data can be communicated with low energy and memory consumption. With such high usage and demand, Bluetooth is deemed the most preferred IoT connectivity protocols by every IoT development company.

ZigBee

ZigBee protocol enables smart objects to work in tandem and is generally used in home automation. Well-known for industrial settings, ZigBee is integrated into applications that support low-rate data exchange over a short distance.

ZigBee protocol  is used in electric meters and street lights in urban areas, which provide low-power consumption. It is also used with security systems.

2.) IoT Data Protocols

IoT data protocols provide point-to-point data exchange with the hardware at the user side, with no need for internet connectivity. IoT data protocols connectivity takes place via a wired or a cellular network. The key IoT data protocols are:

 Message Queue Telemetry Transport (MQTT)

MQTT protocol gathers data from multiple electronic devices and supports remote device monitoring. It is a publish/subscribe protocol that operates over TCP (Transmission Control Protocol), enabling it to support event-driven data communication via wireless networks.

MTQQ is mainly used in economical devices and demands less power as well as memory. For example, smartwatches, fire detectors, car sensors, and apps for text-based messaging.

Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP)

CoAp is an internet-utility protocol for restricted devices. This allows the client to send a request to the server, and then the server can respond to the clients in HTTP. CoAP uses User Datagram Protocol (UDP) and reduces memory consumption for light-weight implementation.

Constrained Application Protocol is chiefly used in mobiles, automation, and microcontrollers. It sends a request to the app endpoints like appliances at homes and reverts resources and services in the application.

Advanced Message Queuing Protocol (AMQP)

This is a software layer protocol for message-oriented middleware infrastructure that renders queuing and routing. AMQP provides reliable point-to-point connections and ensures secure data exchange between the connected devices and the cloud. This protocol comprises three components, named Message Queue, Exchange, and Binding, responsible for seamless, secure, and successful message exchange and storage. It also facilitates the relationship establishment of one message with another.

AMQP is mostly used in the banking sector. When a server sends a message, the protocol tracks it until is it is delivered to the destinations without hindrance.

Machine-to-Machine (M2M) Protocol

M2M is an open industry protocol accountable for remote application management of IoT devices. This protocol uses public networks and creates an environment where a machine can easily exchange data. Besides, it supports the self-monitoring of equipment and facilitates system adaptability to match with the changing environment.

M2M protocol is used for automated vehicle authentication, smart homes, ATM machines, and vending machines.

Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP)

The XMPP is designed in a unique way and runs on a push mechanism to communicate data in real-time. It is a flexible protocol and can easily integrate with the changes. XMPP operates as a presence indicator and shows the availability status of the devices or servers exchanging messages.

Apart from instant messaging applications like WhatsApp and Google Talk, XMPP is used on news websites, online gaming, and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).

Final Words

According to the Economic Times, over 32,000 smart homes and businesses are at risk of data leakage. Knowing and exploring the potential of the afore-mentioned IoT protocols will help you to create a secure environment for communicating data with the cloud.

Since choosing an appropriate type of connectivity and protocol is an inevitable aspect for a successful IoT project, we suggest to consult the experts of a smart IoT Development Company. They will navigate you in your IoT project journey right from ideation and conceptualization to development and deployment.

Reasons Why IoT is Gaining Popularity With Each Passing Day

Posted on by Abhishek Kalyan

The Internet of Things (IoT) is growing at a meteoric rate. Some experts believe that advancement is taking place so fast that the potential uses of this revolutionary technology are beyond the reach of theory. But, what exactly is the reason behind this unprecedented growth and popularity?

Well, IoT comes with a myriad of possibilities to disrupt almost every industry today. Some of the industries have already embraced this technology with the help of IoT app developers, while others are devising to adopt it and explore tremendous business opportunities.

With IoT innovation, businesses stand a chance to procure hefty growth prospects. Besides, they can also unleash additional revenue sources by significantly reducing the time-to-market. Key benefits that businesses can yield with IoT implementation are:

Enhanced Business Opportunities

IoT has the power to turn any business into a fast-growing, powerful organization. Tremendously transforming how a company approaches the global market, it can help to create new growth avenues. IoT can also assist them in building advanced and robust models and generating new revenue streams by increasing return on investment (ROI).

Efficient Business Processes

Businesses can harness IoT to keep a real-time track of their equipment and garner profound operational insights with the help of sensors. This data helps them to identify issues in their assets and improve their efficiency by minimizing energy costs as well as lost time due to maintenance.

Better Safety & Security

With the help of IoT app developers and deployers, monitoring workplaces in real-time becomes easier than ever. This helps in ensuring asset safety and provides complete protection from physical threats.

Increase Productivity

The productivity of a business is directly proportional to its profitability. Internet of Things trains employees in real-time by augmenting their efficiency and reducing discrepancies in operations, which boost organizational productivity to a large extent.

Cost-Cutting

Improved asset utilization, business processes, and productivity can considerably reduce operational costs. Predictive analysis, along with concurrent operational insights, can help in decreasing the maintenance overheads.

Inventory Tracking and Management

IoT can reshape the way businesses track and manage their inventories. Instead of providing remote scanners and other devices to your employees to keep an eye on your inventory, you can exploit smart IoT systems to record all inventory changes automatically, thus minimizing the workers’ load and allowing them to focus more on other essential and arduous tasks.

Know Customer’s Needs & Preferences

IoT-enabled devices facilitate tracking and recording of customers’ behavior and preferences and, thus, provide recommendations accordingly. Businesses can use this data to come up with improved products that align with the customer’s needs. These significant insights about every stage of the buying cycle help them to comprehend their target demographic on a more qualitative level.

In Conclusion

The unparalleled popularity of IoT is credited to a host of driving forces, including ubiquitous internet connectivity, the exponential growth of smart devices, easy availability of low-cost technologies along with a massive amount of data. However, to leverage the potential of the Internet of Things, businesses must strive to overcome the challenges of IoT implementation by following a holistic and forward-thinking approach.

6 Critical Challenges of IoT Implementation in Enterprises

Posted on by Abhishek Kalyan

Internet of Things (IoT) is relatively a new concept for businesses, which is unearthing massive opportunities for them to thrive in today’s era. Various experts have various takes on what IoT stands for enterprises. However, the underlying notion behind IoT always remains the same – collect data, analyze it, and generate profound insights to expedite operations and yield benefits. It seems easy in theory, but IoT deployment is way challenging than said. We had to pour our blood, sweat, and tears to successfully deliver our first IoT project as an effective IoT implementation needs a lot of brainstorming, diligence, intelligence, and determination.

The following are a few challenges that we encountered during our IoT development and deployment journey.

Delivering Value to the Clients/Customers

The success of an IoT implementation is directly proportional to defining the problem statement clearly, and this is what most IoT development services providers miss out. The IoT development cycle requires a great deal of retrospection, but this gap of understanding the client’s problem statement is the biggest obstacle. Thus, IoT developers and consultants need to know what IoT can really bring to the table and figure out the KPIs to monitor and improve through an IoT solution.

Hardware Compatibility Issues                          

Data gathering majorly takes place through various sensors, PLCs, etc. which are further connected to IoT gateways to store and transfer data to the cloud. Enterprises must meticulously identify their machines, hardware, and legacy systems based on their business objectives. When there are legacy systems that don’t have integrated sensors and PLCs, the IoT implementation becomes a bit challenging. Incorporating external sensors is one quick workaround, but it won’t be foolproof, making this challenge more critical. Thus, understanding the machines and their compatibility issues before IoT implementation is highly recommended.

Data Connectivity Issues

This is probably the most overlooked issue since data connectivity has improved a lot. But still, there are some areas where data connectivity is a huge challenge in an IoT implementation. It involves how IoT devices work with the gateway and the cloud and what data format do they create. Most IoT gateways are compatible with Wi-Fi/LAN and GPRS, but legacy systems depend on RTUs, PLCs, and telemetry systems to generate data. So, a suitable edge layer is needed to translate transport and data format protocols and send data to the IoT-integrated platform. Defining and understanding the perfect combination of these protocols before IoT implementation will be beneficial in the long run.

Inaccurate Data Collection

Suppose the entire IoT implementation did not encounter any hurdles, and the system is running seamlessly. But due to an unexpected incident or the software inability to handle certain anomalies in run time, inaccurate data gets collected. This further results in inaccurate analytics that may not help in gauging the operations and making better futuristic decisions. As we said earlier that IoT is all about data collection, the inability to garner accurate data can be a significant challenge for the IoT developers as well as their clients.

Analytics Storage Space

The real potential of an IoT system is realized through profound, actionable insights obtained from the garnered data. This demands a high-performance analytics platform that can handle an enormous amount of data to be stored in the solution at a later point. Experts must take this aspect into account while devising the architecture of IoT implementation to engage data processing, cleansing, and representation. Hence, the system should be extensible enough to store real-time or predictive analytics so that the system never go out of space.

Data Security Issues

Due to ransomware attacks, businesses are concerned about data security. There are also possibilities of corporate espionage to gain intellectual property. Thus, IoT development services providers must ensure data protection by using a comprehensive governance model, which renders secure access to sensitive data and reports. This planning phase, which defines various data-related security policies, is essential for successful IoT implementation.

Conclusion

The abovementioned challenges are the key factors that influence the decision-making process of enterprises and potential clients for IoT implementation. A smart grid solutions provider successfully implemented an IoT solution by overcoming these challenges. The experts of our IoT development company helped them to devise and build a system that connects plenty of electric meters, handles and analyzes massive data and provides intelligent reports for making the best decisions.

How IoT is Transforming the Agriculture Market

Posted on by Abhishek Kalyan

Due to the mainstream adoption of the Internet of Things (IoT), connected devices have penetrated almost everywhere, right from energy, healthcare, home automation to retail, and the oil and gas industry. The impact of IoT has been observed in most sectors, and the sphere of agriculture is no different. It has brought forth a plethora of technological transformations in farming practices and tremendously improved every facet of agriculture. Now, farmers are less likely to rely on age-old techniques and use horses and plows for farming. By leveraging smart gadgets, they have gained more control over the process of growing crops and raising livestock, thus making their farming practices more predictable as well as efficient.

In this article, we will shed light on the benefits of IoT in the agriculture industry and explore its use cases to have an idea of how it is revolutionizing this industry. So, if you are planning for IoT mobile app development and embracing smart farming, dive right in.

How smart farming is levelling up the agriculture market

According to Business Insider, the IoT-enabled agriculture solutions will hit a milestone of 75M by 2020. Meanwhile, another report says that the global smart agriculture market will reach a massive amount of $15.3M by 2025. So, we can say that with the continuous evolvement of this market, the IoT mobile app development can help you to stand out as an early adopter and climb the ladder of success within the coming years.

Let’s have a look at the benefits of smart farming.

Deeper insights into internal operations

Smart agriculture sensors have the potential to gather tons of data about soil quality, weather conditions, cattle’s health, and crop growth progress. This data can give you deep insights into your staff performance, equipment efficiency, and thus, track the state of your business.

Better control over the internal processes

More control over the internal operations, lower will be the production risks. IoT products enable you to predict the outcome of your crops and plan for better distribution. If you know the volume of crops you are going to harvest, you can make sure that your product won’t lag behind and lie around unsold.

Cost management and waste reduction

The increased control over the production using the IoT solutions can help you to detect the anomalies in livestock health and crop growth. Hence, you can mitigate the risks of losing your yield.

Improve business efficiency

Smart farming solutions can allow you to automate multiple processes like irrigation, fertilizing, pest control, etc. across your crop production cycle and increase your productivity considerably. Automation can also help you to maintain high standards of your crop quality as well as growth capacity.

All these benefits can eventually improve your bottom line.

Now that you are aware of how IoT can benefit your farming, let’s have a look at the real-life implementation of IoT in the sphere of agriculture.

IoT use cases in agriculture

Climate monitoring

Weather stations combined with various sensors are probably one of the sought-after smart agriculture gadgets. They are generally placed across the field to garner a variety of data from the environment and send it to a cloud. The gathered data can be used to map the weather conditions, select appropriate crops and take necessary measures to enhance their capacity.

Greenhouse automation

Apart from collecting environmental data, weather stations have the potential to adjust the conditions according to the given parameters. Specifically, smart greenhouse automation systems work on a similar principle. Incorporating a smart sprinkler controller into your greenhouse system can allow you to manage your lighting and irrigation systems remotely.

Crop management

One more type of IoT-enabled product in agriculture and another element of smart farming is crop management devices. They should also be located in the field to gather data specific to crop farming. This data can range from precipitation and temperature to leaf water potential and crop health and help you to keep an eye on the growth of your crop and any anomalies to immediately prevent any infestations or diseases that can harm your product.

Cattle monitoring and management

Similar to crop monitoring, some sensors can be attached to the animals to examine their health and performance. Companies also use smart agriculture sensors to get an abundance of insightful data about the health, activities, and nutrition of each cattle as well as collect information about the herd.

Comprehensive farm management systems

Adopting farm productivity management solutions is the best approach to streamlining agricultural operations. These systems generally possess a number of IoT devices and sensors, installed on the field, as well as a robust dashboard having in-built analytical capabilities and reporting/accounting features. Such an end-to-end solution allows you to monitor and streamline most of your business operations remotely.

Final Words

Smart farming has become a necessity for agriculture businesses to thrive in this competitive world. With the high-quality IoT mobile app development, farmers can effectively cope up with all the challenges they encounter in their conventional farming practice. Additionally, the profound insights derived from sensors can help them to be more careful in their use of fertilizers and pesticides, thus mitigating hazardous environmental impacts.

In brief, correct IoT implementation in agriculture can address and overcome many challenges along with increasing the quality, quantity, and cost-effectiveness of agricultural production.

How IoT is Empowering the Oil & Gas Industry

Posted on by Abhishek Kalyan

The Internet of Things (IoT) has been fostering digital transformations for almost every industry across the globe. Like other industries, oil and gas (O&G) industry is also riding high on IoT wave.

Companies, which gave off the conventional old-decade vibe, are gradually identifying IoT connectivity as a significant growth driver and gradually investing in IoT development services and solutions to reshape their business smartly.

Honestly, digital transformation headwind elevated throughout this oil & gas industry in the 1990s, but unluckily, failed to bring a revolution. Coming to the present, this sector has almost reached the pinnacle of digitization with IoT advancement. The way it is leveraging the growth of IoT might outplay other capital-intensive industries in the process.

Below, we will discover how IoT is benefiting the oil and gas industry, study its use cases to have an idea of how it can transform the O&G sector.

Benefits of Internet of Things on O&G:

Taking today’s global warming issues, volatile prices, the activity of environmental activist groups, and the difficulty in creating new energy sources into account, we can say that IoT mobile app development could be a boon for many organizations. The use of IoT to its full extent can yield below-written benefits to the oil and gas industry.

Magnify productivity

The implementation of IoT in the O&G sector can facilitate the whole process of oil and gas extraction and optimize the expenses.

Increase safety

Internet of Things alleviates a plethora of risks and errors that are often caused manually.

Facilitate futuristic decision making

IoT provides real-time data analytics for making data-driven decisions about the next steps in research, extraction, refinement, and logistics of the oil and gas sector.

Reduce waste

IoT-driven O&G industry is also focused on eradicating the risks of leakage or asset damage and making the environment more friendly.

Automation

IoT automation reduces machinery downtime in case of breakdowns and crashes. With fewer human factors, the Internet of Things also decreases the chances of accidents and accounts for increased employee security.

At one fell swoop, IoT adoption helps organizations to avert accidents and disruptions, make the whole development process more predictable, increase revenue, outstand competitors, and expand market share.

IoT use cases in the O&G sector

Each oil and gas company adopts IoT differently, based on their business needs, perspectives, and objectives. In the case of O&G, the market segment is considered to be a decisive factor. Now, let’s explore top use cases of the Internet of Things in the oil and gas industry.

Preventive equipment maintenance

Preventive maintenance plays a significant role in O&G. Predictive analysis the most common cause of revenue loss in oil and gas companies i.e. Unproductive time. For the upstream segment, tracking equipment conditions are deemed the most pressing challenge.

Most of the oil and gas mining is done in areas that are difficult to access and usually, an onsite presence is mandatory to discover breakdowns and check if any piece of mining equipment needs repair. The Internet of Things allows companies to track the state of the machinery in real-time and avoid downtime.

Real-time tracking of tanker fleets

IoT sensors for O&G tankers monitor all the parts of the ship that are carrying products remotely and examine transportation facilities that are difficult to reach. These sensors also enable real-time location tracking of any particular tanker and increase the efficiency as well as the safety of transporting O&G products.

By employing GPS, satellites, and mobile data, IoT solutions provide live updates on the state of assets and quickly respond to any changes taking place in equipment operation.

Workers protection

Oil and gas is a hazardous business that is prone to massive onsite accidents. The roughnecks and drillers work in the riskiest conditions and daily subject themselves to risks and injuries. IoT meticulous inspection helps to eliminate the chances of a breakdown in the equipment. In the coming future, smart, automated machinery will carry out most of the potentially risky operations by eliminating human intervention.

Advanced data analytics

Precisely, IoT is all about garnering data and using it to obtain valuable insights. Equipped with sensors, oil and gas production sites like oil fields, pipelines, and refineries have the potential to gather, store, and analyze massive data. Some of this data is time-sensitive. For instance, leakage and equipment breakdown, which need to have a higher priority as compared to all other data types.

Earlier, the satellite was the only medium to transfer the data, which was a time-consuming process. IoT leverages low power wide area networks (LPWAN) for transmitting data and edge computing to process giant data sets. This allows IoT-enabled solution to rapidly provide insightful data to end-users in comprehensive and easy-to-read formats.

Supply chain management

IoT adoption has made the complicated procedure oil and gas extraction easier than ever. It offers unparalleled equipment for managing the supply chain. The IoT sensors collect the data, notifies the refineries about the oil types that have been delivered to enable them to make great inventory, manufacturing, and operational decisions.

In downstream O&G, IoT solutions notify distributors when clients are running out of the stock. In the United States, where many homes use heating oil, companies use IoT solutions, which inform both clients and distributors about the oil levels and refill it time-to-time. These solutions also allow distributors to keep an eye on the consumption and make a consumption plan for months in advance.

Remote inspection of equipment

Remote inspection is critical for preventing accidents. For instance, oil leakages generally result in environmental problems, substantial revenue losses, and acute damage to the company’s reputation. IoT mobile app development solutions not only detect leakages and notify the concerned person about the issue but also inspect all types of O&G machinery automatically and avert emergencies.

Companies use IoT sensors to inspect the condition of the filter, pumps, and other core components. IoT solutions also facilitate real-time inspection of pumpjacks and wellheads, allowing the business to ensure sustainability, prevent accidents, and meet international standards.

Final Words

IoT solutions are helping the O&G sector, right from downhole sensors to surface control valves, to obtain real-time insights in the analytics. Also, the connected devices will touch all the bases of the oil and gas supply chain, which results in accelerating operations and creating a safer work environment for the entire O&G field. In short, IoT is not just technology anymore. It is an excellent opportunity for the legacy oil and gas industry to transform and thrive in a commoditized world rapidly.

How IoT is Revolutionizing the Energy Sector

Posted on by Abhishek Kalyan

As energy consumption is anticipated to rise by 40% over the coming 23 years, the demand for smarter energy solutions could touch its pinnacle point at that time.

Fortunately, there have been significant shifts toward energy management that are making this sector more efficient. From smart bulbs to autonomous offshore oil rigs, the current effect of the Internet of Things has brought a revolution in the entire energy industry. So, businesses belonging to this sector are exploring IoT use cases to improve their process automation and operational efficiency.

But what exactly has IoT brought to the table? How has it transformed the energy sector? And why businesses are investing in IoT development services and solutions?

Let’s try to find answers to these questions below.

To begin with, we will shed light on the advantages of the Internet of Things in the energy sector.

The IoT is bringing forth ample potential opportunities in the energy industry. The use of this technology in this sector is majorly driven by the need for more streamlined energy management. Yet, there are many other ways IoT can propel this industry. Some of them lie in the following:

Higher energy efficiency:

The increased control over energy consumption results in reduced waste, saved costs and enables the cutting of CO2 emissions, which makes the world a better place to live.

Reduced operational cost:

The IoT-enabled solution helps companies to eliminate operational and maintenance costs through system modernization and automation.

Increased power supply reliability:

The cost of power outages amounts to about $150B each year in the US, and around 25% of all industrial outages and interruptions were caused due to equipment failures. Taking this into account, IoT energy devices are deemed to be the panacea of these issues as they provide a more stable and reliable source of power.

New data sources:

In terms of gathering and processing of abundant data, IoT-enabled devices offer real-time insights into the system’s analytics and performance. These insights facilitate the implementation of predictive maintenance models and ensure the protection of the staff.

Top use cases of smart solutions in the energy sector

  • Industrial IoT use cases in energy production and management

Energy system monitoring and maintenance

IoT can be used to keep track of the number of system metrics, comprising performance, health, efficiency, and thus, facilitate the maintenance of the energy system. Be it a wind turbine or any other equipment, it might be challenging to detect the exact issues before the system crashes. Also, checking the problems manually is a very tedious and time-consuming process.

This is why companies are leveraging IoT sensors to examine the efficiency and outcome of their equipment. By gathering data from the sensors, they are able to implement the predictive maintenance models based on the IIoT platform. Thus, the organization could predict their maintenance needs in a better way, improve their efficiency, and lessen system downtime.

Process automation

IoT facilitated the development of entirely autonomous oil drills or energy plants. As said earlier, IoT sensors enable monitoring the system’s efficiency in real-time, and thus, automatically improve its performance using machine learning and AI.

Simultaneously, smart drilling tools can automatically modify the drill depth as per the external conditions using AI algorithms for the optimum results. It also eliminates the need for manually tampering the equipment.

Increased efficiency

Likewise, smart solutions can make power plants more productive and minimize waste. They also have the potential to increase coal power plant efficiency, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This is obtained by leveraging fuel combustion, interpreting data from over 10,000 sensors, and adjusting the whole process to the specifics of burning fuel, i.e., automatically tuning the oxygen flow in the boiler.

Safety and disaster prevention

Smart IoT solutions can be used to prevent production accidents and improve operational safety. Organizations have been exploiting drones to detect methane leaks during the wildfire in Northern California. The drones transferred data to the unified control system, which resulted in automatic isolation of the leaks until the damage was overcome by the crew on-site. Companies have also been analyzing this method to inspect infrastructure daily.

  • Consumer-facing smart energy solutions and use cases

Smart meters

Smart meters directly connect consumers to the power station, thus facilitating two-way communication. It allows consumers to share real-time operation information with utility agencies. This helps the agencies to identify the performance issues and minimize the system downtime immediately.

These IoT energy devices can also detect and automatically separate the damaged part without affecting the performance of the rest of the system. Besides, the consumer can reap the benefits of smart meters in many ways such as:

  • Improved outage management as well as restoration
  • Reduced meter reading costs
  • Improved grid reliability
  • Meet regulatory mandate
  • Enable beyond-the-meter load applications
  • Decreased energy theft
  • Ameliorated retail operations efficiency
  • Enhanced network planning and asset management
  • Enable the integration of electric vehicles and distributed generation

Smart grids

Smart energy grids are the outcome of smart meters connected in a single network. This represents how IoT-enabled devices help in energy management in other ways.

For example, a company in North California launched a “self-healing grid system”, which is designed to automatically readjust itself in case of a power outage and, thus minimizing downtime.

Another example: Chattanooga, Tennessee, was one of the pioneers to implement and leverage smart grid solutions. This helped the community to save over 1.4M dollars in operational expenses during a single storm.

Furthermore, due to the positive impact of smart grids on the environment, it has been prognosticated that they will dwindle the air pollution by 30% over the coming 10 years.

Smart buildings

Smart IoT solutions can automatically detect and manage the humidity, heating, and lighting in a building, thus reducing energy consumption. These systems also make possible the zero-energy building concept, which says that the total amount of energy annually consumed by the building is equal to the amount of on-site created renewable energy. 

Sustainable cities

Akin to buildings, the infrastructure of an entire town can also be managed with IoT energy solutions.

From street lights to electrified public transport, the Internet of Things offers a plethora of ways to manage energy consumption and make urban cities more sustainable.

Vancouver, San Francisco, and Copenhagen are a few cities that have put considerable effort to reduce energy consumption, improve efficiency, and become sustainable.

Final Words

The Internet of Things has started ruling the energy sector by improving efficiencies. Considering the growth potential IoT has shown, it will soon be recognized as a boon for various energy organizations that ensure more resilience, care, and prudence than ever before.

If you also are also endeavoring to take your business to a next level, capitalizing on smart energy solutions would be a great idea, especially in an era where the global community strives to spend a more sustainable, waste-free life. To explore the opportunities hidden within the IoT landscape, you can tap into a reliable and experienced IoT development company.

4 Inventive Ways Brands Leverage Alexa Skills for Content Marketing

Posted on by Abhishek Kalyan

In this cutting-edge competition, it is essential to adopt emerging marketing technologies and comprehend how they can carry off annual goals for content planning. Nowadays, voice technology has gained traction among content strategists, and thus business owners are building Alexa skills to churn out useful consumer content.

In 2018, a host of brands partnered with an Alexa sill development company to voice their business, but not all brands could do well. Creating a skill without clear objectives and brand authority behind it is unlikely to yield the expected outcomes. You must have an idea of how to build an Alexa skill, identify a voice for your brand, create music and audio cues, offer relevant information, and intelligently craft a call-to-action (CTA) for your voice platform.

Fortunately, several brands have already exploited the Alexa skills as well as voice technology, providing examples of what is beneficial for this new content platform and what isn’t. Meticulously understanding what they have done the best and what they could have done better can steer your way toward launching your own skill.

Below are some examples of inventive ways brands use Alexa skills for content marketing.

Ask Purina

The Ask Purina provides comprehensive information on a variety of dog breeds. The brand endeavors to help aspiring dog owners to choose the ideal breed that suffices their needs and preferences. Users can search specific dog breed name, energy level, size, living considerations, family fit, shedding level, or narrow their search by specifying hypoallergenic using the following utterances:

  • Alexa, “tell me about dogs that are good with children.”
  • Alexa, “find breeds that are good in apartments.”
  • Alexa, “tell me about dogs that are hypoallergenic.”
  • Alexa, “tell me about dogs that don’t shed.”

Users praise the detailed and quality information provided by the skill and also seem to appreciate its integration with Amazon Echo Show devices.

Zyrtec – Your Daily Allergy Cast

If you ever had allergies, you likely understand how sniffling and watery eyes can ruin your day and deter you from an outing. Zyrtec, an Allergy medicine brand, joined hand with an Alexa skill development company to create an excellent skill that helps people evaluate pollen count, weather, and allergens in their region before they step out. It also provides a personal Allergy Impact Score that indicates users how the allergens might make them feel. The brand has played smartly by encouraging users to choose medicines for a variety of allergy issues. The overall concept of this Alexa skill offers a solid example of how content marketers create useful, relevant, and exciting voice content for their brands.

Johnnie Walker

Whiskey epicures are pretty serious about their consumption. Johnnie walker brought forth an Alexa skill for content marketing and offering options to their customers to choose a label as per their preferences, learn a little more about whiskey, buy a bottle, or partake in a guided tasting. Users must be at least 21 years old to access the skill. This skill is an excellent instance of how a brand can maintain consistent engagement and relevance while offering a piece of voice content from which consumers can garner information.

Tide – Stain Remover

The Tide Stain Remover skill is a brilliant and exemplary technique of content marketing. The brand has implemented a “stain remover” skill, with the help of Alexa skill developers, which includes step-by-step voice guidance on how to remove over 200 types of stains. It provides useful content to consumers who need support for removing a stain and establishes the goodwill of the company.

Takeaway

Before you adopt this voice approach for your brand enhancement, conduct meticulous research of the current market. This will help you garner a comprehensive understanding of what consumers need and how you can live up to their expectations. Besides, you have an additional advantage of having a glance at tactics of the early Alexa skills adopters to identify details that make as well as break the reputation of a brand.

Alexa – The Next Big Thing in E-Commerce

Posted on by Abhishek Kalyan

Let’s begin from the beginning!

Technology – First, we held it. Then, we wore it. And what now? We don’t even have to touch it. Isn’t it amazing?

Voice technology is here, and all set to impact every facet of our lives as well as disrupt the market. Siri, Google Home, and Cortona are the virtual assistants that collided voice interaction with smartphones and computer systems. However, Amazon’s Echo, powered by Alexa technology, is turning out to be a trump card for most of the businesses and outshining its voice-activated competitors with its skills for ordering and tracking Dominos’ pizza, controlling smart devices in the home, booking Uber rides, and more.

That said, Alexa represents more than simplicity by converting voice into actions. Now, it has evolved into a new consumer channel. Using the Alexa, the commerce market has again experienced a revolution. According to a source, it is anticipated to increase to $40B by 2022.

Voice technology is gaining momentum and bringing forth ample opportunities for brands. Precisely, when we talk about Amazon conglomerate, e-commerce businesspersons must tap into Alexa skills development services to leverage these opportunities and take their business to a new level.

Alexa, can you help me boost my sales?

Most of the voice commerce consumers are younger, wealthier, and more like to have children. They prefer to purchase lower value and commoditized items (think groceries, entertainment, and electronics).

However, what if your products or services come with a higher price tag or aren’t commoditized? Will you be able to penetrate and stand out in the market with these conditions using voice assistants?

Honestly saying, a plethora of organizations have already been trying to be level with their competitors when it comes to voice technology channel strategy. However, it also offers enormous market opportunities. With increasing credibility of voice technology, not only will consumer’s demographics broaden but also the volume of purchases and their average price will escalate. Thus, nearly all businesses must adopt voice technology to allow users to order groceries easily and generate more sales.

Alexa, can your skills be my new advertising strategy?

An application to your smartphone is a skill to Alexa. With over 80,000 skills, Alexa has an answer to almost every question we ask.

With a rise in voice commerce, your product needs to be where consumers are searching for the solutions. Great brands leverage Alexa skills to engage in target markets and improve their consumers’ experience.

Let’s take an example of Tide.

Alexa, how do I get rid of red wine stain on the carpet? The brand has implemented a “stain remover” skill, with the help of Alexa skill developers, which includes step-by-step voice guidance on how to remove over 200 types of stains. It provides useful content to consumers who need support for removing a stain and establishes the goodwill of the company.

Alexa, how can you provide automated support to my customers?

As Alexa is moving towards mainstream adoption, more customers will be willing to make voice-activated purchases from the same store.

When a user visits an e-commerce site for the first time, he/she is requested to share personal details like name, contact, and address. Once users make their first voice-activated purchase, their preferences and voice are also acquired.

 All this information is used by Alexa to make suggestions and automatic closure of purchases when a customer visits the same store to make a purchase. Thus, Alexa automates the process to a large extent by having an apparent catch of what users want and enhance their loyalty to specific products, regardless of their brand.

The Bottom Line

Voice commerce is in its nascent stage at the moment. All the afore-mentioned factors ensure that Alexa will propel and be the next big thing in e-commerce. While we can’t predict the exact future impact of this voice assistant on e-commerce, we can confidently state that consumers will undoubtedly adopt the technology that can facilitate shopping.

Furthermore, creating content for voice-based searches and digital assistants is undoubtedly crucial for the business to leverage this innovation. Our Alexa skill designers can help you to create unparalleled skills with the best intents and utterances that will allow you to offer the best shopping experience for your customers.

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