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Is the IoT touching daily life now?

In addition to the possible applications noted earlier, the IoT is already integral to a broad spectrum of day-to-day life. Engineers are able to use Wi-Fi enabled sensors embedded in bridges to analyze stresses caused by weather and traffic, and proactively address structural

Can you unlock your front door or turn down the thermostat from your smart phone? Do you track traffic in real time in your car? Are you wearing a Fit Bit®? Does your smart phone help you locate an available conference room at work? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you’ve begun to experience the Internet of Things. Although the term has been used in technology circles for several years, it is only now starting to be the focus of more mainstream discussions.

What is the Internet of Things?

Kevin Ashton is believed to have been the first person to use the term Internet of Things (IoT) while he was at MIT in 1999. Simply put, the IoT is a rapidly expanding network of connected people and things – the connections will be people to people, people to things, and things to things. It relies on a Wi-Fi and/or Bluetooth enabled object, sensors to pull information from or about the object, a wireless internet connection, and resources to compile, analyze, and visualize the collected data.

Gartner estimates that the IoT will include 26 billion installed units by 2020. It is emerging as the “third wave” in the development of the Internet – the 1990’s fixed Internet wave connected 1 billion users; the mobile wave in the 2000s connected another 2 billion. The IoT has the potential to connect ten times as many (28 billion) “things” to the Internet by 2020, ranging from bracelets to cars.

Why now?

Several factors are contributing to the rapid expansion of the IoT. Broadband Internet continues to be more widely available and the cost of being connected is decreasing. More devices are Wi-Fi enabled and have built-in sensors that are smaller, less costly, and more powerful. Technology costs, including the costs to analyze terabytes of data, are coming down, and smart phone penetration is skyrocketing. All of these things are creating a perfect storm for the IoT – cheap sensors, cheap connectivity, cheap storage, and cheap visualization.

The Internet of Things

from Workplace Advisory at Allsteel

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weaknesses before failures occur. Retailers’ apps use your smart phone location service to determine where you are shopping, pushing coupons and specials to your smart phone as you approach their store to entice you to come in and purchase. Sensors track RFID tags as products move through the production line. Patients wear devices that record and transmit key biometric information to their physician. Even Disney® is in the act with Disney MyMagic+®, a customized wrist band that allows you to enter the park, open your room, schedule rides, upload photos, and pay for meals. It’s quite clear that the IoT is pervasive today, and will be even more so tomorrow.

The expansion of the IoT is forcing companies to rethink current business models that are based on static information architecture. New efficiencies, and cost and risk reductions are possible when dynamic, real-time data is available. For example:

• Customer-buying preferences can be impacted by real-time location data and dynamic pricing.

• Operating systems can detect and proactively correct errors before the system actually fails.

• Manufacturing processes that are monitored in real time can be fine tuned and run more efficiently.

Companies that realize and integrate these changes into their business models will expand their competitive edge.

What about tomorrow?

As the infographic above shows, there are likely applications for the IoT that we cannot even imagine right now. All we know is that potential applications are growing exponentially. In their 2012 report, the McKinsey Quarterly suggested that future applications of the IoT could be broken into two broad categories:

• Information and Analysis: As chips and sensors are embedded in more and more objects, more defined and/or granular information about where the object

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is or how it is being used will be available. Compiling and analyzing this data will provide an organization with more robust information for making decisions.

• Automation and Control: Data is the foundation for decision making. Embedded sensors can provide more data about both individual components and an overall systems operational efficiency status. By closing the loop and translating this data into instructions for specific situations, additional risks may be eliminated and efficiencies increased.

How do wearable devices fit into the IoT?

Wearable computing technology actually dates to the 1960s when helicopter pilots wore head mounted displays; so it’s not new. Even the familiar office ID security badge is a type of wearable. But with recent materials science advances driving technology miniaturization coupled with battery life improvements, we’re standing on the brink of widespread wearable adoption. As an example, consider the nearly one million U.S. users that Slice Intelligence estimates pre-ordered an Apple Watch® on the first day it was available for sale.

Wearables typically consist of modular components: sensors, displays, and computing architecture. A wearable device may include one, two, or many more functions. Applications allow devices to monitor a range of individual data points, including a user’s location, movement, alertness, productivity, and even stress levels.

Wearable devices, whether a bracelet, badge, or even fabric, brings the IoT to the individual level. It connects the person – location, socio metric and bio metric data – with a network. As this connection is literally at the individual level, security and privacy issues are even more complex. Tracking the location of an individual is a bit different than tracking the location of a package in a warehouse.

In spite of these possible challenges, the application and acceptance of wearables in the workplace will likely expand. Cornerstone’s 2014 State of Workplace Productivity Report found the following:

• 72% of U.S. employees surveyed believe wearable tech in the workplace will eventually become standard.

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• 66% would be willing to use wearable tech if it helped them do their job better.

• 76% of employees would wear company-provided wearable tech that tracks job performance and productivity.

Financial incentives – bonuses, extra time off, flexible schedules – increased employees’ willingness to share this data with their employer.

First off, organizations will need to figure out what to do with all the data – where to store it, how to compile and analyze it, and then how to visualize and use it in an individually meaningful way. Without new analytical and reporting tools, the range of data available will simply overwhelm most organizations and users. The basic spreadsheet will not be sufficient to take on this additional functionality. The cloud, with its universal capacity for data storage and analysis, will be an integral component for organizations to use.

What are the risks associated with a more broadly applied IoT?

A second risk is network security and privacy. It’s a significant concern today and will only increase exponentially with a seemingly unlimited number of internet enabled objects creating an equal number of potentially hackable access points. This risk impacts both organizations and individuals. For example, will someone be able to access your personal information by compromising your internet enabled thermostat? Organizations will need to invest in new technologies and protocols to protect both their own networks as well as networks where their connected products are deployed. Implementation of IoT will need to be managed responsibly and with respect to user privacy.

So what does the IoT mean for the workplace?

Today, we see IoT applications falling into two broad categories:

Intelligent Building

Basically a “system of systems,” these applications are already in use in many buildings today. Sensors adjust window shades and HVAC based on sunlight entering the building. Embedded sensors monitor

the function of different mechanical systems to streamline operations, improve efficiencies, and proactively address failures before they occur.

Presence Awareness

The simplest presence awareness today links a security badge to a central database. The badge is swiped at a card reader and the user is recorded as entering and/or leaving the building. The data is compiled and aggregated and may be used to measure the utilization and occupancy of the building. More robust applications replace the security badge with the location function on a user’s smart phone to provide expanded presence awareness – which user it is, where the user is on a specific floor, where available workspaces are relative to the user, where the user’s colleagues are located, and the path to get to them.

Organizations will see a return on their investments when new data can support efficiencies or enhancements in both categories – the real-time data that allows a user to locate colleagues and available workspaces can be

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compiled over time and used to manage a facility. It can then provide detailed occupancy information for making workplace change decisions.

Looking to the future, it is easy to imagine a range of workplace applications for the IoT as devices continue to shrink, technologies continue to be both more complex and powerful, and costs continue to fall. For example:

People Centric Applications

• “Push” workplace information (occupancy, temperature, light, noise levels) to users based on personal preferences and work to be completed.

• Support wellness by alerting users that it is time to move/stand based on real-time biometrics.

• Turn on and/or connect collaboration technology based on the user’s socio metric, location, preferences, and profile.

• Locate colleagues and available workspaces in real time.

• Enhance efficiency by linking a user’s location, calendar, and schedule priority data with workspace availability and location.

• Improve meeting effectiveness by alerting leaders when participants biometric data indicates they are not alert, connected, or paying attention.

Building Centric Applications

• Improve workspace occupancy and utilization using integrated space and users’ socio metric, location, and movement data.

• Enhance sustainability by applying actual use and occupancy data to manage building infrastructure.

• Improve flexibility using real-time data to drive workplace change and reconfiguration.

Organization Centric Applications

• Monitor the effectiveness of wellness programs based on individual biometric data pulled from wearables, smart phones location services, or sensors embedded in seating or height-adjustable tables.

• Real-time resource location information.

The efficiencies of shared data that are realized today will expand as the number and complexity of IoT applications continue to expand.

Summary

The IoT, like technology in general, will continue to change rapidly and become an increasingly integrated component of work and the workplace. There is no crystal ball to identify which wearable devices, sensor technology, or application will have the longest life cycle. One thing we do know is that router and broadband capacity will need to be increased to support the growing number of connected devices.

At Allsteel, we continue to track the evolution of the IoT as we recognize the tremendous impact it will have on work and the workplace. We purposely design our furniture solutions to provide the flexibility necessary to accommodate an ever-evolving range of technologies, recognizing that like the technology itself, our client’s requirements will change over time. ■

©2015 Allsteel Inc. Allsteel is a registered trademark. Apple Watch is a registered trademark of Apple Inc. Disney and Disney MyMagic+ are registered trademarks of Disney Enterprises, Inc. Fit Bit is a registered trademark of Fit Bit Inc.

Allsteel Inc. Muscatine, Iowa 52761-5257

allsteeloffice.com

(09/15)

Jacob Morgan. A Simple Explanation of the Internet of Things; Forbes.com. 2014/05/13

Shehryar Khan and Evangeline Marzec. Wearables: On-body computing devices are ready for business. Tech Trends 2014: Inspiring Disruption. Deloitte University Press, 2014

Michael Chu, Markus Loffler, Roger Roberts. The Internet of Things. The McKinsey Quarterly, 2010 Number 2

Gartner Says the Internet of Things Will Transform the Data Center, 3/19/2014

The Internet of Things: Making sense of the next mega-trend. Goldman Sachs, 9/2014

Jeff Roof. Next Frontier: Bottom Line Cost Cutting, Facilities Management Journal, September/October 2013

Strategy in 2015: Wearable Technology is Changing the Workplace. dIAmeter/IA Interior Architects, January 2015.

Steve Johnson. Hidden Devices Scrutinize Employees, San Jose Mercury News, under contract with NewsEdge, 12/29/2014

The State of Workplace Productivity Report: 2014 – The Quantified Employee, Cornerstone OnDemand, 2014.

Jaimee Minney. First Apple Watch Data: One just isn’t enough. IntelligenceSlice.com, 4/12/2015

The Workplace Advisory team listens. And we apply research and our extensive workplace experiences and insights to assist organizations develop and implement a situationally appropriate workplace strategy: one that aligns with their organizational culture and business goals, supports their workers’ ability to work effectively, utilizes their real estate assets as efficiently as possible, and is highly adaptable to changing business and work practice requirements.

References

About the AuthorEric Johnson is a key member of the Workplace Advisory team at Allsteel. He effectively integrates the breadth of workplace considerations – design, talent, operations, and technology – to creatively and optimally support changing work practices and an increasingly diverse workforce. Eric’s career has included corporate facilities, interior design, strategic workplace consulting, and workplace and mobility program design, implementation, and management. He has also taught graduate level workplace change and strategy. He is a certified interior designer and a member of Corenet Global and IFMA.

INSIGHT from AllsteelThe INSIGHT mark identifies material – papers, presentations, courses – created specifically by the Workplace Advisory team to share our workplace strategy knowledge and perspective. Additional INSIGHT material may be found at allsteeloffice.com.

Workplace Advisory at Allsteel