Harnessing IoT As A Service For The Enterprise

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An entire exhibit hall was dedicated to the consumer applications of IoT at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, but IoT company Zebra Technologies wants to keep the enterprise applications of the technologies at the forefront.

Philip Gerskovich, senior vice president at Zebra, said that many businesses make the mistake of assuming people are chained to their desks, when in reality they are often working off tablets at conferences, taking business calls on cellphones and writing emails on trains.

"When we take these mobile people and you connect them to real-world information using the IoT, you’re going to create transforming experiences," Gerskovich said.

Gerskovich outlined a few use-cases for consumer-directed applications of IoT, but said that a huge possibility for the technology exists in the enterprise space, where companies are always looking to cut spending.

"We see these business models occurring even in B2B transactions, where businesses don't want to make big capital investments anymore -- they want to pay for things as they use them. Again, it's an opportunity for the IoT, because the IoT enables you to remotely manage and monitor things that you couldn't do before," he said.

IoT will allow businesses to offer remote management and other capabilities as a service: "Things that would otherwise have to be paid for as a capital expenditure," Gerskovich said.

PUBLISHED MARCH 24, 2015