Going from 0 to 1 with IoT

On the fence about IoT or smart building technology? Tired of information overload or need clarity on your goals? 

Large organizations with established brands like Rogers offers people on the fence a way to cut through the noise and proactively develop and implement a plan unique to their situation. 

In this episode of Cleaning the Built World, Nathan Mah, Co-founder at Mero is joined by Adam Burley, Senior IoT Manager at Rogers Communications, to discuss how to get started with IoT deployments in a way that’s secure, scalable and that fulfills concrete objectives. 

Watch the full episode:

Three top takeaways:

Here are the three most important takeaways from the episode:

Takeaway 1: Start small and start with the end goal in mind.

IoT offers a great entryway to test the waters with smart building technology. Start with a clear problem that you’re looking to solve. 

Adam refers to it as “in the air and in the ground”. Working to concretize a large overarching transformation strategy but recognizing that a grand vision for transformation is not something that happens in 3, 6, months, or one year. 

Start with small proof of concepts (POC), small deployments to fix a very specific problem. And then, as you learn more, continue to scale, aggregate that data, and use that insight to drive better outcomes.

Ask yourself before and through your deployments: 
• Is there an ancillary impact on other departments? 
• What are the expected benefits I should receive? 
• What can I do with that data in terms of driving automation, creating better customer experience manage risk?

Takeaway 2: Align stakeholders' objectives around customer experience 

IoT deployments need to fulfill different objectives from multiple departments and stakeholders. To cut through the noise, frame your desired outcome from the lens of customer experience.

For example, your reflection on any public space you’re responsible for is often driven by the condition of the washroom or whether it has the different consumables that people are looking for. So it becomes a matter of understanding traffic to have washrooms service in a timely matter and to preserve the assets you have in your control. 

For large organizations with silos, translate objectives in terms of delivering a fan experience, something every department can intuitively grasp. So it’s not much different than any other sort of customer experience exercise: focus on the biggest problem that exists and solve it through innovative technology and data. 

Takeaway 3: Seek qualified experts to guide you through IoT implementations, cybersecurity, and vendor selection

Large organizations such as Rogers are increasingly involved in accelerating innovation through venture arms devoted to understanding what smart building technology is evolving and which ones can be incorporated into future buildings to drive sustainability, efficiency, and customer experience outcomes. 

They have a very rigorous security and privacy vetting process to evaluate all potential partners before deploying them. 

Seek their advice before paying for an IoT solution. Their expertise provides you a shortcut when it comes to your due diligence process to understand privacy and security and selecting a vendor with a proven track record.