Local cloud computing company IP Converge Data Services, Inc. called on businesses to make the digital transition during the 2016 Philippine Cloud Summit held last June 29. Entitled “IoT: The Pinnacle of Digital”, the forum showcased the international shift towards the digital age spurred on by the Internet of Things.
“Digitization itself has changed. By definition, it used to refer to business tools that drive operational efficiencies. Today, it is more than that. Digital is a frame of mind that allows organizations to create and engage markets in a disruptive manner and redefine the economy,” said IPC president Reynaldo Huergas.
King-Yew Foong, research vice president and chief of research for communications service providers at Gartner, an information technology research and advisory company, made a bold forecast that in the next three decades, changes in the IT sphere will be so extreme that they’ll overshadow the development of the past three centuries. He emphasized that enterprises have to continuously innovate to sustain their growth, citing industries such as insurance and automotive as early adopters of IoT globally.
Foong added that some of the benefits enterprises should get in making the digital shift are the reduction of operating costs, capability to provide a unique customer experience, and finding new business models and income streams. However, adopting an IoT environment also has its own challenges, ranging from cybersecurity to project implementation. For proper IoT integration, Fong noted that stakeholders should have thorough understanding of the whole process and should choose the IoT partner that fits their enterprise requirements.
While IoT is still continuously developing, experts claim that it is here to stay. As digital is the new norm for enterprises and beyond, the cost of doing it is still a lot less than the cost of not doing it. Or as they say, pivot or perish.