Review of the latest technology Machine-to-Machine(M2M)

M2M: A review of the latest technology that is transforming businesses 

• Machine-to-machine communication, or M2M, is exactly as it sounds: two machines“communicating,”r exchanging data, without human interfacing or interaction. As businesses have realized the value of M2M, it has taken on a new name: the Internet of Things (IoT) 
• IoT and M2M have similar promises: to fundamentally change the way the world operates. Just like IoT, M2M allows virtually any sensor to communicate, which opens up the possibility of systems monitoring themselves and automatically responding to changes in the environment, with a much-reduced need for human involvement. 
• M2M and IoT are almost synonymous—the exception is IoT (the newer term) typically refers to wireless communications, whereas M2M can refer to any two machines—wired or wireless— communicating with one another.

M2M technology is transforming businesses

·       Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communications allow businesses to transfer data from one device to another. This complex technology has taken the business world by storm, helping companies to improve operational and management efficiency across the board.

·      While M2M is still in its infancy, the expanding industry is already having an impact across a variety of sectors that are investing heavily in this technology, including transportation, industrial production, healthcare, automotive manufacturing and government.

·    As the popularity of this technology continues to soar within the business community, more companies are deploying M2M communications to help boost their employees’ productivity  and efficiency during their daily activities

Several industries to reap benefits from M2M technology

·   In today’s connected world, nearly all industries can benefit from M2M technology - from large global manufacturers who want to track the status of their products, to construction, engineering and agriculture sectors that use M2M devices to monitor expensive equipment.

·      M2M is making an immediate impact in various vertical industries today. For example, shipment companies are using this technology to track expensive cargo throughout its journey, such as high-value seafood. In this instance, the containers are fitted with an M2M device to monitor location and temperature - ensuring that the company engineers are able to take immediate action if a refrigeration problem does occur along the route.

·    Similarly, expensive machinery such as tractors and cranes are often fitted with M2M devices to track and monitor location, as well as collect data on the performance of the machinery to help the manufacturer eliminate inefficiencies found in the current models when developing new products.

·   These tools also offer manufacturers an opportunity to up sell additional services, such as a preventative maintenance service. By collecting data from the inbuilt M2M devices, manufacturers are able to identify any underlying issues in the machine’s performance - this not only diminishes the number of breakdowns but it also means that technicians spend less time diagnosing the problem.

·      The automotive sector has also uncovered the benefits associated with M2M communications, resulting in a new generation of wirelessly connected vehicles that are able to carry out activities such as remote engine diagnostics, automatic downloading of system upgrades, and permitting vehicle owners to receive navigation and traffic information.

Why M2M technology has taken years to develop

·      To the outside world, the M2M industry is perceived as fragmented and siloed. This is because M2M solutions are specific to each industry; therefore it is extremely difficult to develop a uniform solution to fit all the individuals’ needs of each vertical industry.

·     On most occasions, M2M solution providers need to develop a customized solution to fit the requirements of that specific market. This has meant that historically there are high entry costs, in turn discouraging some organizations from deploying M2M solutions.

Already increased demand in M2M technology

·     The market has grown exponentially over the last few years, with the GSM Association predicting that global M2M connections will grow from 5 billion in 2014 to 27 billion in 2024.

·     AT&T’s M2M business customers have tripled in the past year with 17.23 million connected devices on its network

M2M technology in the next five year

• The next five years will see a sharp increase in M2M revenues. According to global analyst firm, Ovum, the M2M market is set to treble over the next few years with M2M service revenues set to grow to $44.8bn in 2018, from the $13.6bn figure recorded in 2012. By 2019, three key industry verticals will invest heavily in the technology: energy & utilities, healthcare and manufacturing.

Recent M2M trends

• An increasingly large number of enterprises are paying more attention to security as opposed to just ROI and financial figures. There is also a growing demand for big data analysis.
• Organizations want to use this data to enable them to achieve better business results and subsequently, M2M devices are playing a key role in this data mining process.
• More and more organizations are becoming key market participants with various automotive manufacturers. For example, GE is providing M2M solutions for their customers;

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10 Fastest Growing M2M Solution Providers 2016

                           
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Technology in Fashion Retail

Gunning for Fashion Retail’s Holy Grail – Omnichannel

• Fashion retail is fast approaching a tipping point.
• The blending of the digital and physical worlds has prompted the coining of a new terminology- the ‘digical’ world. But consumers still want more.
• The year 2015 was dominated by omnichannel retailing and the digital wallet. This year, however, retailers are focusing on speedy delivery, beacons, RFID tags and other emerging technologies.
• While ROI is definitely a key factor in the deployment of these innovations, these technologies are also paying attention to improving customer satisfaction, especially at a time when retailers, from e-commerce to brick-and-mortar, are losing ground on the biggest disrupter of all: Amazon.

Below, we take a look at three retail technology innovations in the fashion industry making a difference in 2016.
1.Social commerce

•  Generation Y wants to be able to shop straight from social media if they see something they like, and so “Buy now” buttons are gradually being plastered on all major social media platforms  
• Companies are also using new technology to display their brands on social media platforms and receiving a large number of hits using data analysis and market survey techniques.
• A large majority of 18 to 24-year-olds have decided to buy something after seeing their friends wearing it online – and almost as many in each age group share “selfies” from shop changing rooms in order to canvass opinions before deciding to buy themselves. 
• Around a quarter of shoppers, overall follow fashion brands – and those that do are highly engaged, even in the 45-54 age group.
• Being able to move from inspiration to purchase in a single click will obviously have a dramatic impact, turning more of this activity into business – and more importantly giving fashion marketers a much clearer view of their social ROI, as well. However, retailers need to harness the impulse to share while considering the best way to stand out on brand-neutral social spaces.

2. Tailored messaging and recommendations

• Good tailoring is arguably now as important to fashion marketing as it is to the clothes themselves. With so many brands active across all channels online, the noise – whether on social networks or in customers’ inboxes – is getting deafening. 
• Clever personalization, which can be as basic as prioritizing the most relevant products and images in digital marketing, or automatically greeting the customer by name.
• Brands are holding detailed, personal information on each consumer, collated across multiple online sources. This gives businesses a great opportunity to get creative and customize content in a way that’s genuinely helpful or intriguing, without being detailed enough to appear intrusive.

3. Blending online and offline

• The overall experience of visiting a store, seeing products first-hand and talking to a human being will always be critical. While advancing technology cannot replace the store or the art of customer service, it does mean that shops need to work harder to keep up.
• Millennials today want a greater level of creative service – product reviews, advice on items and trends – than they experience now. To them, the distinction between online and offline is meaningless, and so retailers are faced with a dual challenge: making the depth and variety of information online available in-store, and extending warm, human customer service into the online realm.
•  This ‘digical’ world of blending the two worlds is fast becoming a huge differentiator for the retailers doing a smart job of it.

The effect of the millennials

• To a digital native, there is no good reason for their experience to be any better or worse in store than it is online. Customers have significantly higher expectations around service and technology in 2016 than ever before. 
• With every passing day, these demanding younger customers get older, and a large number of them potentially move into the target market of major fashion retailers.
• It is an inevitable trend, and when you add the changes happening in the wider online environment, it is likely that fashion retail will come to see 2016 as a watershed year.

Finding retail success: switching from bricks to clicks

                      

Integration of online retail with in-store has become imperative in the world of today.

• The online retail market is a crowded and highly competitive one. There is increased competition from pure online e-tailers which have been set up for digital commerce from the get-go while ‘heritage’ brands are fighting with other multi-channel retailers.
• There have been instances of retail brands transitioning from high street to online around 2012, but their online presence was short-lived. The primary reason for this downfall was that such brands had no unique offering to the market.
• Integration of online and offline sales portals is the major challenge of successfully running a brick & click store. Inventory, in particular, must be kept in sync to prevent overselling or underselling. If a single inventory is drawn from, a non-available item could be accidentally sold, but if separate inventories are used, an available item could needlessly sit in stock.
•  In general, use of a single POS system for both online/offline components of the store is the best solution. It needs to be an automated, real-time system that syncs inventory across all channels if it is to streamline and simplify accounting processes.

So, what are some other important things that retailers need to do to ensure success in the long-term?

Firstly

• such brands need to embed a cultural focus on data. The beauty of e-commerce allows companies to know everyone who comes into the online ‘store’ and can track their behavior as they browse and buy.
• It is also possible to design options to suit each shopper as they browse stores, creating a suitably tailor-made offer for every customer on a one-to-one basis. Retailers in this position should take note from other retailers who have survived similar transitions and learn from their approach in this area. 
• From real-time targeted promotions to improved email-tailoring as well as efficient use of social media, transitioning businesses need to make the most of every shopper touch-point with a clear focus on personalization if they need to have a realistic go at the heels of the more established online retailers in this area. 
• There is a word of caution here though – if there is too much focus on historical data, the shopping recommendations become self-fulfilling. It is crucial to understand the trends and utilize them to predict future purchases, rather than fruitlessly propagating advertising to promote the products the customer was intending to buy in the first place.

Secondly

• They need to ensure they are evolving the brand to remain relevant in today’s world, what with Millenials being a large portion of today’s target consumer. The collapse or closure of many retail stores primarily stemmed from a failure to update stores and adapt to changing customer requirements in the face of competition. 
• For example, understanding its online retail site was outdated and not in tune with the modern shopper. Retailers looking to grow and evolve with the market will need to ensure they refresh and revive established brands while maintaining its unique propositions to survive.

Third

• There must be a readiness to adapt to changing shopper needs and this must be done on a regular basis and with pace. 
• Being agile isn’t about getting it right the first time, rather it is about taking advantage of the fact that the digital space allows retailers to test and in turn learn from mistakes faster. It is imperative that retailers must trial new initiatives, get them live within a matter of weeks, figure out whether or not they are performing, and then adjust accordingly. 
• Those retailers who have successfully straddled the omnichannel delivery system have been able to adapt this ‘fail fast’ mentality in their initial experimentation programme.

Finally 

• switching from bricks to clicks is about getting the basics right. The reasons many e-commerce websites fail is because they make it harder for people to shop. 
• The foundations of the business’ site have to be up-to-date and utilize the latest technologies correctly in order to create a frictionless shopping experience. 
• When homepage banners direct to the wrong product pages or sites are not adapted for mobile platforms, shoppers simply give up and take their business elsewhere.
• There is hope for fallen high-street retailers as they transition online, but to survive the fierce competition and fast-paced e-tail world, they need to look to leaders in the industry (and beyond) for best practice.