Experimenting with Sensors – The Organisational Perspective

Sensor networks certainly open up many new innovative opportunities for a company. While there is potential, the organisation will need to address many factors while seeking to tap an opportunity with sensors at its core.
1. People – An assessment of the opportunity will start with the assessment of skill set that needs to be on board. Experienced professionals, relevant knowledge will perhaps be the starting point of any sensor based project assessment.
2. Be open to connect its data – The company will need to think about the data within. There is no place for a silo. So it may require strong leadership push to do away with the silo. That addresses the internal but equally the company needs to be open to opening up it’s data to external opportunities. One may say culture but it perhaps also means that the company needs to look at the opportunity that an API based infrastructure might provide.
3. Be focused on open standards – This is an obvious because it helps unlock potential by reducing friction. It is also perhaps tough to do but a journey definitely needs to be started. Sensor based infrastructure and apps are locked within their own application contexts and usage. This needs to change now. A leader needs to keep this in mind while working towards the open standards dictum. It may mean negotiating skill, understanding time frame as technology improves that allows for open standards to be available.
4. Customers and Privacy – Any organisation exists because of it’s customers, whether direct or indirect ones. Privacy concerns of customers should not be an after thought. Instead applications and infrastructure need to plan for and address privacy concerns from the first step.
5. Imagination and Experimentation – This area is untapped and the leader needs to encourage experimentation. It is possibly the best chance to create some great infrastructure and applications.
6. Power and Connectivity challenges – At the core of such wireless based infrastructure is the power and connectivity concerns of the project. Sourcing of power, stable connectivity may be a challenge in some areas but those are perhaps also provide long term opportunity. What’s needed is a pragmatic approach to these issues with appropriate technology and business intervention.