How Global IoT Day on April 9 Helps You Exceed Your Customers’ Expectations - Master Meter

At Master Meter Inc., we are excited to celebrate Global IoT Day on April 9. With our innovative advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) and automatic meter reading (AMR) technology, who can blame us if we geek out about a day called #IoTDay?

The internet of things simply means any object with an on/off switch that can or could be connected to the internet. If you have AMI or AMR technology in your system, you are already part of the IoT. We covered this in January’s Blog IoT & You.

Last fall, Chairman and CEO Michael Dell gave a keynote at Dell Technologies IoT Strategy Day.  Below are a couple highlights from his speech:

The Internet of Things is “the infrastructure of the next industrial revolution. And that’s what we’re co-inventing with our customers and our partners.”

First, you’ve got software that makes products smarter — like a thermostat, or cars, or jet engines, or wind turbines. And software takes everyday services and puts them online, like taxis and travel and insurance. And those products and services generate massive amounts of data – -which when analyzed, can be used to make the products and services smarter, better, more personalized and predictive. …

Ready or not, we’re all moving toward a new reality — a new future in which everyday objects become smart machines, loaded with information that can improve the world.

Using Master Meter hardware and software (such as Harmony) allows utilities to embrace the internet of things. IoT not only addresses the leaks and peaks in your system in real-time, it also is an opportunity to create positive experiences for your customer by creating peak moments. Peak moments are brief moments that matter to your customer. These moments are remembered and typically have extraordinary impact. Imagine if your customers found a leak on their own using your AMI system. Imagine if they were empowered to make the repair on their own without ever having to find the time to contact your customer service center. When you exceed your customers’ expectations, they begin to see more clearly the true value your service provides.

If you aren’t currently integrating IoT within your organization, begin identifying the opportunities where IoT could make a difference. Where can IoT help you exceed your customers’ expectations? Where can you begin to shift your customers’ mindset when they look at that bottom line on their utility bill? How can you make that figure represent not just water use, but water innovation, and the added value to your end user?

Thirsty for more about #IoTDay? Here are Master Meter’s Top 5 Internet of Things Facts:

1. For every living person on earth, there will be two to six connected things by 2020, according to IoT Analytics.
2. The most “popular” IoT applications—based on the number of news items, Tweets, LinkedIn posts and Google search items—are Wearables, Smart City, Smart Home, Industrial Internet and Smart Grid, according to IoT Analytics.
3. Business and Governments will be the top users of the IoT by 2020, according to BI Intelligence, with Consumer applications falling to a distant third (less than half of business use). Governments are focused on increasing productivity, decreasing costs, and improving their citizens’ quality of life. We forecast they will be the second-largest adopters of IoT ecosystems.
4. For a device to be labeled as IoT, according to The Internet of Things Global Standards (IoT-GSI) it must have seven design features: sensors, internet connectivity, processors, energy efficiency, cost-effectiveness, quality and reliability, and security.
5. And last but not least, Computer Weekly created a list of top IoT initiatives in 2015, according to its editors. Number one? A project with Gemalto’s M2M unit, agricultural science firm Eltopia and the University of Minnesota: How the IoT could save the honeybee from extinction.