Smartphones, smartwatches, smart glasses: intelligent, data-driven technology surrounds us and touches every aspect of human life.
The devices as a result of these technologies could not only interact with their human owners but also with each other.
Your Fitbit Flex can interact with your smartphone via the app, over a Bluetooth or Wi-Fi connection and vice a versa. The latest Apple Watch answers calls and reply texts.
Those gadgets marked the beginning of the ‘smart’ revolution and IoT mobile app development.
Smart devices, homes, automobiles Their real potential, although, lies in the network of relationships between them.
Connected, smart devices and their associated mobile applications represent the next big leap in interactions between things, computing devices and humans: the smart office.
The smart office
Aren’t you carrying a portable office with you all the time? I am talking about the device that you use most of the time to check and reply emails, edit documents, and access the Project Management System.
Yes, I am talking about your smartphone, it can be any latest device.
That’s almost quite what an employee does at the office. But a smart office can go beyond that. You can navigate to your meeting’s location. You can provision supply to the warehouse from your Apple Watch.
That’s we already have the infrastructure to build an intelligent office. The only problem is they don’t work in unison.
This is a unique opportunity for businesses to create products that span multiple devices and give a platform for building custom apps that works with existing products and services.
The smart office market is expected to be valued at USD 46.11 Billion by 2023, at a CAGR of 12.94% between 2017 and 2023. The phenomenal growth in smart and connected products combined with IoT services results in the high growth of the smart office market, a report by Markets and Markets indicates.
Shared intelligence
The smart office technology lets an entire organization to simultaneously answer a client question or give reaction to a proposed idea. This is the idea of collective intelligence.
With so many people giving their views on same very thing at the same time, things just can’t go wrong. It enhances your organizations accuracy and efficiency.
Chatter for example allows a help desk executive to seek answer to a client’s question from a person in the concerned department without going through the hassle of scrolling through the documentation.
An employee in your office at the time of the need can link to the right personnel, at the right time, no matter where he or she is.
Connected environments
Devices such as Philips’s hue light bulbs and Google’s Nest thermostat convert a smart office into an intelligent ecosystem.
Remember the time of fall when it’s neither too hot or cold to decide the optimum room temperature everybody will feel comfortable working under.
A Smart thermostat with ambient temperature sensors interfaced with the temperature controller can iron out the issue. In the end, it also saves energy.
In a connected workplace, there is better transparency of work. Team Leaders can learn the status of a project in seconds without having to call a team meeting.
This saves everybody’s time and can do miracle in an agile development environment.
Business intelligence
As devices stay to connect us, we are turning into a share of much more than a mere office.
It’s time to start thinking advantageously about how to carry your company and your office organized for an unparalleled grade of superiority and intelligence.
IoT can bring your business, your workplace, and your work into the future, today.
Connected products
The biggest problem with product installations is what if they fail to function as expected.
This isn’t the case with smart devices that can monitor condition of its each component and notify a technician on his smart portable device whenever one of the components fails the product.
These products, with so much of data they fetch and report, can with data mining return unprecedented insights.
Smart bracelets now serve as visitors’ tickets and payment instruments at Disney Land. They track visitors spending habits, path, and wait times at rides.
Park managers control traffic and marketers develop targeted marketing campaigns with the same set of data.
Smart furniture
Desks in an office are a common sight. Moreover, it’s prime function in the office haven’t changed for a long period.
However, with IoT you might see smart furniture which would include smart desks in your office.
These desks would have the capability to understand the user’s preferences and adjust to it automatically.
These desks would increase the overall efficiency of an employee as the minor tasks can be completed quickly with its help.
Improves Collaboration
With the changes brought by the pandemic, the hybrid workplace is gaining popularity. It has increased the need for better support and collaboration across teams. With this technology, professionals can communicate with on-site colleagues, and augmented reality offers true-life experiences.
Applications
IoT enabled workplace solution has various applications:
Workplace IoT security concerns
We saw the IoT smart office applications, now let’s discuss about its security concerns.
Usage of IoT devices in the office space does pose some security issues. Let’s discuss this one by one.
If you allow the usage of IoT devices in the offices, then your employees must be aware of its security features.
These devices usually consist of cameras and microphones. Often, these features are basic and can be easily hacked which raises the red flag.
It won’t be a tough job for someone to orchestrate industrial espionage through any of these devices.
Even in the case, someone doesn’t spy on you on purpose, would you risk discussing your big decisions such as big deals or layoffs in the presence of a device that records all the data incessantly?
Moreover, it would be a massive headache as far as the privacy of the employees is concerned.
Intelligent office: a luxury or necessity?
There’s no doubt that IoT in a workplace has a plethora of benefits. However, due to its primitive security features, the consumers have a lot of skepticism about it.
They are always in a constant dilemma of whether they should use it or not. Till now people haven’t figured whether its benefits outweigh its disadvantages or not.
Maybe a few years later, once the security features are well developed, then you would see people embracing the concept of smart office systems with no skepticism.
However, you need to know that IoT-powered offices mean way more than just temperature control or lighting via a smartphone.
It means quick, efficient, and safe operations which results in better return investment.
At the end of the day, it’s always your call to decide for or against it. However, before deciding, you must consider that the benefits from an IoT-enabled office can have huge positive results for your business.
But, at the same time, you must also think of the fact that installing IoT devices doesn’t cause any hinderance to your employee’s privacy and the overall office environment.
If you’re in favour of the smart office systems then you must concentrate on minimizing the security risks.
You can do that by hiring an expert team of developers who can build an app of your requirements.
