With everyone talking about the Internet of Things (IoT), it’s no wonder organizations have begun dabbling in the revolutionary technology. But with the benefits becoming more and more apparent every day, do startups need to take advantage before it’s too late?

Implementing IoT technology into digital businesses has transformed from a theoretical concept to a practical reality. The advantages of integrating IoT architecture is a potential game changer for digital startups around the world. These benefits include streamlining business activities, data flows, value driven data systems, and data analytics in real time. These are the reasons why businesses must start thinking of incorporating IoT in 2016.

Sensor availability

Wireless sensor technology is the crux of deploying IoT enabled devices into ‘fringe ecosystems’. However, these sensors used to be expensive, limiting their commercial exposure. They have been leveraged effectively in the manufacturing, transport, and energy sector.

Today, the price of sensors and RFID tags has fallen due to high volume production. This has enabled IoT service providers to churn out fragmented solutions that can benefit small businesses. Thus, IoT technology is no longer confined to big business but can be offered to smaller businesses.

Utilization of Smartphones

The meteoric rise of the smartphone in the market has presented a unique opportunity for IoT providers. Armed with simple sensors, smartphones make an ideal IoT enabled device that has successfully gained market share.

Because of this, there is no need to deploy complex IoT devices anymore as smartphones can be leveraged in various ways. And with everyone already familiar with how smartphones work, IoT technology will be easy to teach and manage.

Customer Sophistication

More and more businesses are adopting an IoT framework. Customers will soon be accustomed to dealing with data driven systems. That makes being a part of the IoT trend a necessary marketing strategy in itself.

Businesses clinging to dated technologies will become isolated and lose customers. After all, the last VCR producer just called it quits, so you dated technology can’t last forever.

Competition

Businesses must realize that the value derived from data driven IoT technology has great potential. Competition that has successfully integrated an IoT framework in their infrastructure will be way ahead of the curve. They will be unable to compete with such value driven business models. Ultimately, a business must adopt IoT to survive, else perish.

Over the years, the Internet of Things has gone from being a pipe dream to a practical reality. A Gartner press release stated that by 2020, more than half of major new business processes and systems will incorporate some element of IoT. But keeping the above factors in mind, only serious digital businesses will adopt IoT technology by the end of the year.