Five considerations to ensure your IoT rollout is managed effectively

By Stefan Spendrup, Vice President of Sales, Northern and Western Europe at SOTI. 

For years, IoT and mobility have been improving business and industry operations by automating tasks, making remote work safer and ensuring devices can be managed remotely. 

As the COVID-19 pandemic hit, this technology became a lifeline to industries such as retail, healthcare, transportation and logistics (T&L), and field services, helping to maintain social distancing, keeping people safe and, at the same time, improving their operations.

The pace of change is continuing to accelerate. In retail, innovative mobile technology no longer just improves in-store experiences by ensuring they are fast, convenient and secure. Now, as we move to a post pandemic way of shopping, technology such as digital signage and kiosks, IoT-enabled stores and mobile POS (mPOS) systems are improving consumer safety by reducing the need to touch things in store. 

For the remote healthcare industry – which is already anticipating greater technology implications from the eventual 5G rollout – Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) headsets are being used for everything from remote consultations with specialists to prescribing and guiding patients through therapeutic exercises and treatments for chronic conditions. 

However, with COVID-19 sparking a level of technological change often only seen during and after wartime, there is a risk that many of these devices have not been implemented properly and are not being managed correctly. Industries that have responded quickly and have adopted short-term solutions to social distancing measures, need to consider a fully integrated mobile-first strategy to ensure their business is cybersecure. 

By scaling a technology fast, businesses may not have considered a fully integrated suite of business mobility solutions to keep workers working safely and manage all their mobile devices and IoT endpoints.