Zigurat’s Virtual IoT Lab Underlines the Importance of Strategic Vision Before Launching an IoT Project

Virtual IoT Lab, the new event of Zigurat Innovation and Technology Business School, brought a complete perspective on what connecting things to the internet actually entails for organizations and the value IoT integration could add to their business model.On February 4, Zigurat invited 5 experts whose ideas are shaping the IoT space to share their implementation experience and analyze everything that IoT has to offer from the business perspective. The 1-day online event concluded with success as the attendants gained some valuable insights into why many IoT projects fail and what are the must-have features to succeed.If we talk about the IoT moment in history, it’s about time for leaders to recognize the potential that connected devices have in bridging the gap between the physical world and the digital space. As many organizations wish to capitalize on the benefits of IoT applications, the invited experts of the IoT Lab took a look at how to do something meaningful without rushing into it for the sake of it. Virtual IoT Lab started with the director of our IoT master's program, Oriol Rius, and Jaume Rey, the Managing Director of NEXIONA, discussing the most common barriers to successful IoT implementation and how to overcome them. They recognized that the difficulty lies in that 99% of the world was already there before the IoT started. That’s why integrating legacy equipment requires not just one expert but a team of them. In a very dynamic and fun-to-follow way, they also covered aspects relevant to IoT’s implementation in business, such as ROI, people's mindset and security aspects. After mapping the challenges, Virtual IoT Lab focused on best practices that anyone considering getting into IoT should follow. Marc Pous, Developer Advocate of balena, encouraged the newcomers to follow the money: a solution that doesn't hold a promise to save or make money will most probably be short-lived. He recommended making hypotheses and tests, playing with data, working with people and startups outside the organization, as well as getting started in open source to keep an open mind. From IoT solution pilots, we moved on to business models. Victor Paradell, the global director of Cloud at Ingram Micro Cloud, made a business case for IoT and looked into the opportunities in a variety of industries: smart buildings, gas monitoring, smart parking, water management, appliance monitoring, retail, among others. With the guidance from Francisco Maroto, the CEO of OIES Consulting, Virutal Iot Lab established the baselines for choosing the right analytics tools, starting from knowing the volume of data to be analyzed. Regardless of the line of business, when exploring IoT one must start with pre-use analytics to know the data their organization will be gathering and to be able to structure it in a way that would actually be beneficial for the business.Thank you all for attending and shout out to our exceptional speakers for sharing the IoT integration and implementation stories from the front lines. See you at our upcoming events but meanwhile, don’t forget that you can relive the event until the 28th of February or register to watch it now for the first time. Go to Virtual IoT Lab