IntelliBytes

In 2004, researchers from the National University of Singapore built a framework for a semantically advanced space. Such a space was characterized by context-aware applications gathering insights about the tangible surroundings. The idea was to coalesce the material and the virtual (digitized) worlds to nurture a smart space that complemented human efforts.  Fast forward to two decades, and the idea remains the same, except for the relatively manifold expectations out of advanced technologies like IoT, AI, and edge computing to materialize innovative, integrated, and disruptive smart spaces. It’s noteworthy that COVID-19 impacted the smart spaces market – it’s projected to constitute a global value of $18.4 billion by 2026. With R&D activities fueling up, this number will keep soaring with incremental year-on-year growths. Understanding Smart Spaces An area incorporating data-acquiring networked sensors for facilitating a seamless integration between humans and machines is a smart space or a connected place. These physical locations equip occupants and solution architects with knowledge about dynamic yet efficient space utilization.  Going by that definition, a smart space can be anything from a traffic intersection to a factory or a hotel or even an office — as long as it is equipped with sensors to gather data and insights about the environment. Such insights can be used to: The smart spaces market is a booming ecosystem established around solutions that add value to the physical world. It’s a consumer-oriented niche with spaces like homes or workplaces acting as platforms to provide value for people via real-time contextual services.  As such, the entire gamut of smart space solutions encompasses three key categories, namely: context-aware computing, IoT connectivity, and cloud. These three components are imperative for a fully functional smart space that offers a myriad of applications, ranging from entertainment to safety and security services. Technologies Powering the Smart Spaces of Tomorrow IoT as a Powerhouse for Innovative Smart Spaces The Internet of Things (IoT) is among the top-tier technologies being used to improve the quality of urban living. For instance, smart streetlights, smart roads, ambient lighting, and smart parking are all IoT-powered solutions. Such an ecosystem based on IoT is considerably better equipped to handle the tasks of space monitoring, energy management, and city surveillance.  Not to mention that IoT-powered smart spaces are capable of gathering information about various aspects like location/movement, behavior, personnel/vehicle/object history, energy consumption levels, and so on. To optimize the performance of smart spaces, each piece of information needs to be analyzed against the backdrop of real-time usage patterns. To this end, a variety of intelligent devices can be used to accommodate smart spaces, including: Blockchain as a Catalyst for Disruptive Smart Spaces Blockchain is a decentralized ledger that archives transactions across a network of communicating nodes. Owing to its immutability and transparency, blockchain technology has established itself as an integral part of the IoT ecosystem, where it is customarily used to track supply chain processes. Nevertheless, its applications extend far beyond inventory-oriented use cases.  For example, blockchain’s decentralized ledger system could be leveraged to help manage property leasing and subsequent monetary transactions. In that light, its alliance with the IoT ecosystem becomes highly valuable for the development of smart cities. And the benefits don’t end here.  Researchers from IIIT Kerela outline that blockchain’s “non-fungible token system avoids discrepancies or disputes in land usage patterns and ensures fair distribution of income to all the involved stakeholders.” After all, the success of smart spaces would depend on the overall efficiency of the system. Edge Computing as a Workhorse for Smart Spaces Edge computing refers to a distributed computing model where routing and data-processing tasks are shifted from a central server to end-user devices. In a nutshell, the idea of edge computing is to completely offload the required computational power from an overloaded or central point.  In this regard, edge computing, when considered a driving technology for smart spaces, can be used to speed up decision-making processes by cutting down the amount of data that needs to be processed at the cloud level and reducing the latency.  A prominent example of the aforementioned can be observed in the office space. For instance, an office is equipped with computer vision and an edge computing platform that is designed to collect data from surveillance cameras, motion sensors, and other IoT-enabled devices. As a result, the solution delivers real-time data analytics and insights about the space — both in static and dynamic forms — something that tenant companies can leverage to improve their processes. Another example of this concept is the installation of vision-based intelligent traffic lights. With smart traffic lights, there’s less need to send data to the cloud for processing purposes, which frees up bandwidth and enhances the performance of the network. An extension of the same could be analyzing traffic congestion and subsequently eliminating high congestion costs.  In a Nutshell Smart spaces are here to stay, and the combination of the IoT, cloud, AI, edge computing, and blockchain technologies would add further innovation to these highly efficient environments.  To know more about how to implement smart spaces in your real estate projects, feel free to get in touch with our experts.

Given the pace of change today, there is a pressing need to fast-track digital transformation journeys to drive innovation and create new value for all stakeholders. The more complex the operating environment is, the more effort needs to be put in to transform it to their advantage. For organizations in the intelligent buildings, manufacturing, healthcare, or transportation sectors, transformation is particularly challenging because of the presence of controlled environments. The complexity of real-time data analysis Industrial and building automation companies that work with IoT applications and other intelligent technologies need to be able to carry out detailed micro-analysis of their environments across data centers, warehouses, retail outlets, and more. But despite the pressing need for real-time data analysis, they are not able to deliver the intended results because their existing macro-level environment monitoring devices are not adequate for environmentally controlled spaces. Not only do these devices lack modern analytics capabilities, but they also do not use configurable gateways or cloud platforms that can help unearth deep insight into business operations. Lack of such insight means organizations end up having little or no understanding of different aspects of their controlled environments such as temperature, pressure, air quality, and humidity. This often leads to poor or inaccurate decisions being taken on the ambient environment, which can not only disrupt business operations but also put the workplace at risk of a disaster and the workforce at risk of injury. For instance, in large environmentally-controlled data centers which house thousands of servers, real-time data analysis is extremely crucial. Operators need to have high level of expertise in fix (or prevent issues) to maintain uptime as per SLAs while also minimizing disruptions. But without the right tools in place, they do not have the capacity to address these issues. Lack of insights into operations and little or no way to correlate issues makes it impossible for them to understand the impact they can have on the overall performance and availability of services. Similarly, in cold storage logistics, companies need to be able to deliver perishable food and medical products in the best condition possible. Yet, due to the constantly changing regulations and the volatile nature of the industry, in the absence of the right analytics, most companies end up wasting goods that amount to billions of dollars in losses. These issues arise mainly due to an inability to maintain temperature, faulty equipment, mishandling, inadequate packaging, and more. For blood banks, refrigerated warehouses, and cold storage rooms, these issues can result in far-reaching consequences. Monitoring cold storage logistics via real-time data analytics provides them with more granular insight into what’s exactly happens in their cold chain, that eventually leads to devising better strategies to run more effective cold chains. The criticality of real-time analysis Business decisions that are taken in controlled environments need to be extremely accurate and precise. Therefore, organizations must plan to invest in modern tools and technologies that allow them to maintain regulated environmental factors to meet operational needs.  Here’s why real-time data analysis is critical in controlled environments: The real success of intelligent buildings stems from their ability to offer an advanced level of insight and control – which is only possible through real-time data analysis. The right data analytics systems can not only pave the way for more efficient operations, but they can also help in optimizing resource management, enabling better space utilization, as well as greater productivity. Using smart devices, analytics, sensors, and the cloud, can also help optimize energy requirements – a key priority for businesses to keep up with the green wave. At Intellore, we believe in transforming the foundations of intelligent buildings. Therefore, we offer a range of data analytics services to deliver new levels of insight and control, so you can get the most out of your controlled environments.

As an inherent part of its sales process, Intelllore as a “Technology Services” provider, is often in front of its customers in a consultative role, advising them about their digital transformation initiatives. Over the past 3 to 4 years, many companies have taken the first step in their digital transformation journey and did earmark a small portion of their R & D budget for the same. However, when we interacted with these companies a year or two of after kick-starting this initiative, there was a common thread – most of these projects did not move beyond the POC (Proof of Concept) phase.   Here are two representative examples – One of the companies had an established product and before moving to “product-as -a service” were launching a cloud-based “remote-monitoring software” to go along with this product. They were able to sell only 2 software licenses and had to give this software product free to many customers. Another company, a leader in downhole drilling products and systems, could not sell “value” in their after-market services. Their biggest pain-point was that none of their customers paid for their services and firmware updates. Their mission, to digitally transform the product to monetize their services. The company is struggling even to define and launch the POC project.   When analyzing this VOC (Voice of Customer), we are reminded of the famous book “Start with Why:  How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action” by Simon Sinek, a British-American author, motivational speaker, and organizational consultant. Companies with inspirational leadership identify a purpose and follow it. The actions they take and what they make is secondary to achieving their mission. Sinek calls this leadership process the “Golden Circle”: It starts with a vision (the “Why”), then moves to implementation (the “How”), and then conquers the product or service (the “What”). Unfortunately, many companies and leaders have this pattern backward. They first focus on what they do and how; then they try to differentiate their product based on price, quality or features.   The excerpts below, from Simon Sinek’s book, aptly analyze why the digital transformation initiatives (projects) in many companies did not move beyond the POC phase.  If a company sincerely believes that “Digital Transformation” is the way ahead, their internal and external message has to start with WHY, a purpose, cause or belief that has nothing to do with WHAT they do. What they do – the products that they make, no longer serves as the reason to buy, they serve as the tangible proof of their cause. People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.  Organizations use the tangible features and benefits to build a rational argument for why their company, product or idea is better than another. Companies try to sell us WHAT they do, but we buy WHY they do it. When communicating from the inside and out, the WHY is offered as the reason to buy and the WHAT serves as the tangible proof of that belief.  Recently, Apple Computers created history. Their market capitalization touched 1 Trillion dollars. Apple’s competitors lost their cause, they turned from companies with a cause into a company that sold products. And when that happens, price, quality, service and features become the primary currency to motivate a purchase decision. At that point a company and its products have become commodities.  If a customer feels inspired rather than manipulated to buy a product, they will be able to verbalize the reasons why they think what they bought is better. It is the cause that is represented by the company, brand, product or person that inspires loyalty.   Instead of asking “WHAT should we do to compete?” the questions must be asked, “WHY did we start doing WHAT we´re doing in the first place, and WHAT can we do to bring our cause to life considering all the technologies and market opportunities available today?”  Those who know WHY need those who know HOW. That’s where Intellore comes in the picture and our tagline “Your Vision, Our Mission” says it all – Your Vision (The “Why”), Our Mission (“The How” and “what”)!