industry 4.0 and sustainability

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The Internet of things grew by 24% and reached a market of 6.2 billion euros in Italy, according to data recently presented by the Internet of Things 2020 Observatory of the School of Management of the Politecnico di Milano. A constant increase that is recorded for a few years now and is attributable to several sectors, including smart asset management and industry and enterprise 4.0.

Impact of industry 4.0 on business and sustainability.

To drive the Iot market, according to the Observatory, both the most consolidated applications that exploit the traditional cellular connectivity (3.2 billion euros, +14%) and those that use other communication technologies (3 billion, +36%), with an important boost also from the services enabled from the connected objects, that it records a +28% and reaches a value of 2,3 billion euros, sign of a growing maturity of the market.

The Internet of Things in Italy, said Giulio Salvadori, Director of the Internet of Things Observatory. continues to grow at a sustained pace in all segments of the market, with particularly significant increases in smart home solutions, Industry 4.0 and Smart City. Growth is driven by new communication technologies and services enabled by connected objects, a sign of a market that grows in maturity as well as in terms of turnover. At the same time, the technological evolution continues: the LPWA (Low Power Wide Area) communication networks are expanding, alongside which more and more use homes and experiments enabled by 5G, able to enable new market opportunities, whether in consumer or business or PA related contexts.

Iot for business information management also for Smes?

When we speak of objects connected to the Net, we must imagine not only the possibility of seeing them applied to industrial processes, but also to the management of company information, such as that allowed by printers equipped with sensors that become real objects through which to collect strategic data. Managing the data and information contained in the documents correctly, not only by dematerializing the processes but also by rethinking how they are managed, leads to greater efficiency and makes the process sustainable, not only from an environmental point of view, but above all from an economic point of view.

There is, unfortunately, still today, a gap related to the size of companies that make use of Iot according to the Internet of Things Observatory: on a sample of 100 large companies and 525 Italian Smes, 97% of large companies know Iot solutions for Industry 4.0 (it was 95% in 2018) and 54% activated at least one I-Iot project in the three-year period 2017-2019, while only 39% of Smes heard about these solutions and only 13% launched initiatives. Only one in four has started to use the incentives of the National Plan Industry 4.0 to activate initiatives.

Why start an Iot project?

According to the same observatory, efficiency is the main objective of Iot Smes (49%), followed by the improvement of the corporate image (40%). And efficiency is considered a lever even for large companies (which indicate it in 69% of cases) along with effectiveness (46%) and desire to experiment with innovative solutions (34%).

Among the reasons for choosing mobile printing solutions and therefore Document Management solutions in the cloud, in emergency time COVID-19, there are also those related to the possibility of activating smart working in a simpler and safer way, for which having available digital documents and printers and scanners reachable _ at a distance". becomes essential.

Rethinking processes. afferma Stefano Epifani, President of the Digital Transformation Institute Ä è una fase chiave nella costruzione dell'ecosistema abilitato dall'Iot. Our ability to improve the efficiency of organizations today passes through two closely interconnected factors: operational flexibility on the one hand and the ability to adapt its business model to the changing market on the other. And it is clear that the former represents an enabling element for the latter. In this historical phase, characterized by the emergence of Coronavirus, dematerialization and business process re-engineering are key elements to manage the complexity resulting from the adoption of models of remote working and ( sometimes (  smart working. The ability to rethink not only processes, but also business models, will represent for many organizations the element that can make a difference. And in this path will benefit those companies that more than others have developed virtuous paths in the construction of ecosystems Iot.

What are the risks of Iot?

To slow down companies compared to Iot projects, as reported by the observatory, are the lack of skills (indicated by 56% of the sample) and poor understanding of the benefits of these solutions (44%)but only 44% have training plans on Iot skills or the recruitment of specialized personnel.