Opportunity is opening up in the IoT space for supplying Kiwi tradespeople who monitor, maintain and fix the billions of dollars of equipment in offices, factories and shops.
As the internet and smartphones become primary necessities over paper and landlines, trade services must embrace the next phase of business evolution in order to remain relevant in the market and to appear dependable, effective and cutting-edge for the modern customer.
IoT facilitates unique connections with the latest job management and service technology and is changing the way trade service facilities and professionals operate.
There is significant opportunity in the trade services market, with the number of connected IoT devices worldwide expected to jump 12% on average annually, from nearly 31 billion in 2018 to 125 billion in 2030, according to analysis from IHS Markit.
According to simPRO director to Curtis Thomson, a job management software company, IoT projects have now moved well beyond the initial trials and high-end proof of concepts and are being actively rolled out by leading service companies and manufacturers.
Trade service companies are benefitted by IoT as when their systems are all connected and talking to each other, they have the potential to improve their service delivery, considerably cut costs, and deliver an improved customer experience.
"Think about the IoT in terms of field service applications," says Thomson.
"Say, for example, you have an accelerometer fitted to the cooling tower on top of a building that could take vibration readings, log them to your database, and alert you when the vibrations fall out of a range.
"Or, you have sensors in the fire detection or sprinkler systems all constantly monitoring and reporting back the current state of the equipment they are tasked to keep an eye on.
"Then, when an event occurs that falls outside of a tolerable range for that piece of equipment, a notification is raised, a job is created to investigate, or an alert is sent to your customer."
Thomson's insight into the future of the trade service industry is why companies like simPRO are determined to add IoT to their repertoire.
In June this year, simPRO introduced its new IoT solution which will be available across 2018.
This solution takes hardware, software and data from businesses in the trade and field service industries and integrates them into one platform, allowing previously separate programs and machines to talk to each other and provide automated solutions ordinarily requiring extensive manual effort.
