TENDANCES
Imagine a convenience store with no cashiers, no registers,
no checkout lines… You can add items to your own bag and
walk out of the store without even pausing to pull out a credit
card. Sounds like a sci-fi fantasy or the store of the future,
right? The technology inside Amazon Go, which enables a
shopping experience like no other, has been coined by the
Internet of Things (IoT). In the broadest sense, IoT is a
network of connected devices (this includes everything from
smartphones to coffee makers to living beings) that “talk” to
each other. This connectedness enables the collection, analysis
and storage of data, which in turn make data-driven decision
making applicable to all realms of human activity.
Analysts predict that by 2020, there could be 26 billion
connected devices making up the fabric of IoT. Although
in its embryonic stage, IoT is starting to have a real impact
on how we do things. Time is saved, costs are cut, customer
experience is enhanced and waste is reduced. All in all, the
technology seemingly adds value to our lives. Why then has
IoT not reached its full potential? When will the hype turn
into true value creation?
I had the chance to speak to Johann Seewoosurrun, Partner
at AGILEUM (based in Moka), and Digital transformation
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and Analytics specialist, who provided answers to these
questions. “There are two issues that are delaying a much more
connected world,” he says, “adoption and standardisation. In
the Mauritian context and with all the talk surrounding Smart
Cities, you have to lay the groundwork for IoT. And that starts
with education. Education precedes adoption”. Regarding the
qualifier “smart” in Smart Cities, Pascal Engeamme, General
Manager of AYOTI, an IoT solutions provider based in Black
River, explains: “A city will be smart if we keep in mind who
it is destined for: the citizen. Mauritius could be a leading
exemplar of the Smart City revolution if the end-use of
connected devices is safety and happiness”.
As of now, one of the biggest hurdles is pricing. Yet, for the
cost to be democratised, the industry needs to be standardised.
Some of the local industry players have started to invest
in new capabilities and embrace digitisation (bear in mind
that IoT should be a part of a larger digital transformation
occurring within an enterprise), while others are still in
the inception phase. In order to fully capture the potential
of IoT in Mauritius, we need