Why Field Service will be Front and Center with the Internet of Things

The Internet of things (IoT) may sound like the newest hot thing, but it's really just the next iteration of something that's been around for a long time. In order to understand the importance of IoT, you need to understand its precursor: Machine-to-machine, or M2M communication.

M2M has been a factor in field service for more than 15 years. With M2M, sensors embedded within machines send alerts when something is functioning outside a certain set of parameters. Those alerts can be used in a variety of ways, including as a data item within a field service management solution to trigger an action such as a service call. Data is generated at labs, warehouses, hospitals, facilities - any location, really. M2M is a great way to automate maintenance activities, especially for equipment that is critical or that is in remote or unmanned locations.

Once you understand the benefits of M2M, it's easy to understand why companies have been eager to expand it beyond one-to-one communication between machine and field service software. With IoT, any IPv6-enabled device can potentially connect with any other IPv6 device - or network of devices. So, rather than one machine to another machine, IoT will scale up into one-to-many and many-to-many communication scenarios.

IoT means more than enabling more devices - it means dramatically increasing the volume of data generated. Just about every device will be able to trigger a service event. Sensors are being slapped on everything, and the impact is going to be huge. Some predict that IoT will become a $14 trillion dollar industry within 10 years.

Just about every industry is moving rapidly to capitalize on IoT, including medical products, wearables, and industrial and manufacturing devices -- all industries that use ...