It doesn’t seem long since I summarised last year’s conference on the IoT run by The BLN. Having now attended for the third year in a row, and being involved in marketing in this field, I have been very interested to see what is happening now in the world of IoT and give an opinion on where it is all going.

The most obvious difference this year is that we have moved on from seeing lots of separate IoT technologies or methods of communication and on to a broad variety of more solid businesses who know what they want to achieve in this space. In addition we have seen a large number of mergers and acquisitions during the past year, with particular progress being made in the Industrial and business sectors of the IoT.

With the CEO of Thingworx discussing its acquisition by PTC, AlertMe purchased by British Gas, and Qualcomm still negotiating with CSR, it’s become apparent that larger companies are seeing the IoT as THE essential, must-have asset, and in particular those companies with a relevant and complete ‘off-the-shelf’ offering will be in prime position.

The Industrial IoT is the area where businesses can make the most gains, by sharing data through one platform across many departments and moving away from single point-in-time solutions, they stand to make operational and efficiency improvements. An addition bonus will be the opportunity to develop new business models and new ways of thinking leading to new ideas, services and offerings and new revenue streams. Until we start to implement the IoT across large organisations, it will be hard to envisage exactly what shape these revenue streams will be, but the main business case is already clear and the new revenue will be the cherry on the cake.

The main takeaway for companies looking to implement the IoT is to make sure they choose an open (not locked in) solution and one that is scalable. That way they can start with a small project in one area of the business as a POC, and when they are satisfied with the outcomes, can add more functions and departments to the IoT platform.

While some of the audience at the IoT Forum were complaining that too many companies were talking about platforms, the reality is that an appropriate platform or operating system is going to be vital for any business wanting to implement the IoT. With the IoT market valued at (and yes, it varies depending on which report you read) multiple Trillions of dollars for the economy, and rising with every report, is it any wonder all the IoT providers are vying for attention?