Embracing the Internet of Things - What's in Store for Enterprises?

For instance, in the pursuit of providing seamless service management to our customers, we have introduced the Electronic Partnership BroadBand (EP-BB), which allows proactive service management, moving our service model from reactive to prognostic.Customers are alerted in advance (even before the customers themselves realises it) when its office necessities such as printing toner or paper run low, as the sensors installed on Fuji Xerox’s multifunction devices (MFDs) printer are able to transmit such information to the cloud to process the alerts. Our strategies have always been about simplifying business processes, enabling our customers to achieve better productivity and helping them achieve their desired business results.

Growing security concerns

However, as promising as IoT may sound at this stage, there are growing concerns among executives about combating the ever-growing security threats that are becoming increasingly sophisticated, which cannot be ignored.According to a recent IDC survey, 30% of respondents (mostly the IT executives) cited security as the biggest roadblock to adopting IoT.

In fact, IT experts play a key role in determining how IoT will impact security across the organisation. Security technologies, encryption schemes and access policies should be part of the success equation to overcome any security challenges. A rule of thumb for organisations that are ready to embrace IoT fully is to approach it with care.

The road ahead

Increased connectivity has definitely created a more mobile workforce for any organisations, with knowledge-sharing across geographies made much simpler, and increased work productivity due to streamlined processes. Instead of allowing technology to hinder the growth of the business, it is also crucial that organisations leverage smart office solutions (such as Fuji Xerox’s Smart Flow) to streamline work processes and reach its potential business growth.

While most IoT software and devices may be complex in nature with high security compliance risks, it should not be an impediment for organisations to adopt the changes. The business value of adopting IoT is too great for businesses to sit on the sidelines.To best tap on the ever-growing IoT opportunities, enterprises should be prepared to take risks and be open to changes. If we move past the security issues, we can look forward to a slew of benefits when IoT further matures and strengthens. Companies that are fast in embracing IoT will definitely gain a competitive edge over their competitors.

That being said, many companies are not far behind too. It’s a matter of time before adoption becomes widespread as new security architectures and solutions emerge, and it will be interesting to see how organisations evolve over the next couple of years with IoT.