CGI were invited to attend Arkessa’s Round Table of Internet of Things (IoT) experts in Cambridge on 13 March 2014. Arkessa is a leading provider of (IoT) and Machine to Machine (M2M) platforms and services, and was recently identified as a "Cool Vendor" in Gartner Inc’s “Cool Vendors in the Internet of Things” report*.

The aim of the event, was for the panel to discuss and share their thoughts on the key issues they see with making the IoT a business reality, and to share the experiences of the current projects they are working on to build the infrastructure of the future.

Topics covered included an assessment of what real business opportunities exist for those adopting IoT and what the potential security implications and challenges are for companies considering moving to this new business model. Other areas of discussion ranged from the need to build ecosystems to deliver the Internet of Things (there was a broad consensus that no one organisation can do it alone), what are the opportunities for Smart Cities and how businesses will make money from IoT technologies.

John Hicklin, Principal IoT Consultant at CGI UK was one of the participants. John comments ‘It was great being able to meet and share ideas with fellow IoT enthusiasts and understand their experiences and what they saw were the challenges to delivering the IoT revolution’

A useful series of videos have been released following the event
https://www.youtube.com/user/arkessa.

  • In the video ‘Internet of Things Security – The Elephant in the Room’ – John Hicklin discusses the dual considerations companies face, securing the data but also the dealing with the perception of security which aren’t necessarily at the forefront of thinking during the initial planning of projects – Watch video
  • ‘The evolving Internet of Things landscape: building Ecosystems’ led to a very lively discussion around the changing role companies will need to play to be in the mix. John discussed the need for many organisations to define what the ecosystem actually looks like around them. He went on to highlight the commercial challenges - who companies will collaborate with in the future and what changing business models may be needed to support those models – Watch video
  • What the market model is and who you sell to was a major theme in ‘Where are the business opportunities in Smart Cities?’ Watch video
  • Other videos drew comparisons between the Industrial Revolution and the potential for the Internet of Things to bring a major transformation to the way we do business - ‘Is the Internet of Things the New Industrial Revolution' – Watch video
  • However, the most animated discussions were around how companies will make money from it – ‘How will businesses monetise the Internet of Things?’ – Watch video

Andrew Orrock, CEO of Arkessa commented “It was a delight to host such a distinguished group of IoT experts and partners of Arkessa, to debate how IoT can help transform organisations and to discuss the opportunities enabled by IoT amongst the ecosystem capable of delivering it. As a CGI SME Accelerate Partner, Arkessa and CGI are delivering innovative enterprise M2M and IoT solutions that bring real business value to customers and which demonstrate the benefits of enterprise IoT to the wider IoT community”.

*Gartner “Cool Vendors in the Internet of Things, 2014”; Alfonso Velosa, Jim Tully, Bettina Tratz-Ryan, Ganesh Ramamoorthy, Satish R.M; 25 April 2014.