The Internet of Things (IoT). This is not some fancy technical term to describe a scenario some years from now. It is already here.
An ever increasing number of devices used in our day to days lives are connected to the internet. It’s estimated that 127 new IoT devices are connected to the internet every second. These devices range from smart phones to laptops and even refrigerators. Yes, the Wifi fridge is a thing and I have been unable to get this out of my head.
Don’t worry. This isn’t a tale about me missing out on a New Year’s deal and an ongoing hunt for a bargain. However, cost does play a very important part in this post.
When we as a family have the need to buy a new item for our home we will look at a number of factors. Reliability, reviews, price range, word of mouth, size , capacity, colour, is it aesthetically pleasing and most importantly, will it do the job we require it to do. Will it take us from our current level of performance to a desired level of performance? That last question or problem statement is generally a given, it’ll keep our food at a desired temperature without sounding like a jet engine.
Some of the functionalities seen on a new WIFI enabled fridge are listed below:
1. Take notes and send them to family members’ phones
2. Look up recipes
3. Peek at the contents inside the fridge (thanks to its interior cameras. Yes, really!)
4. Control smart home devices and perform general searches
5. Stream music
6. Create shopping lists
7. Order groceries
On reading the list I had a few recurring thoughts. My phone can do that, my eyes do that, my smart speaker do that and a pen can do that.
This then raises a few questions: Is the WIFI fridge going to solve a problem I currently have? Will it make my home life better? Will it free up my time to do other critical tasks?
I’m then left with one question: Is this technology for the sake of technology?
I feel many of us ask ourselves similar questions on a regular basis in our home lives but how often do we ask that question in our working lives?
We have an ever increasing selection of technologies/digital solutions available to us in industry and business. We review these regularly and attempt to implement these new technologies/digital solutions but how often do we ask ourselves the following questions:
1. Will this technology/digital solution improve business performance ?
2. Do we have a clearly defined problem statement?
3. Will it make my working life better?
4. Will it free up time to allow for work on other critical tasks?
5. Will this technology allow me to obtain insights that were not previously available?
6. Does it improve the competency and skills of our people?
7. Do we have a process in place for using this new technology?
If we don’t ask ourselves some of those questions then we run the risk of using a lot of time and resource on something you may not need. You run the risk of having Wifi fridges.
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