What’s wrong with this picture?

  • 27% of companies interviewed for an Inmarsat study already experience smarter decision-making after deploying Internet of Things devices and networks.Just under 50% expect to see it in future from investments they are making now.
  • There will be more than 20 billion IoT devices in use by 2020, says Gartner, with manufacturing and utilities leading the way.
  • But – in the mining sector, only 2% of companies interviewed by NSR had fully deployed IoT solutions, even though 84% of the executives believed that it would revolutionize their operations and create a competitive advantage.Sixty-nine percent reported that they would begin trials of IoT – sometime in the next two years.

Two years is a long time, and there is not much time to lose.  IoT is a multi-faceted technology that takes time to get right – but it then creates an accelerating wave of improvement that can rapidly leave competitors behind.  Improvements in cost control, in the productivity of assets and people, in health, safety, environmental compliance and profitability.

In our white paper, Gain a Critical Edge in Mining with Practical IoT, we offer five ways to get started now and ensure success in IoT for the mining sector.  Some may surprise you.  For example, mining companies will see the biggest gains from improvement in operational and extraction efficiency.  But most begin with health and safety, and we suggest that’s a good place to start, from lone worker tracking to keeping crew out of dangerous areas.

It may also be surprised by the number of vendors and technologies that IoT will put into the loop.  As platforms, devices, services and service providers multiply, projects can go off the rails.  Mining companies should start thinking now about how to rationalize service providers and data deliverables, preserving access to best-of-breed solutions.

IoT devices connecting sites, people and equipment from across the globe provide data that allows high-quality decision-making across the organization, from highly strategic location choices to operational and maintenance schedules and real-time performance analysis. That sounds like competitive advantage to us.  How about you?