While the world was slowly beginning to embrace the idea of a remote workforce in the years leading up to 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic certainly accelerated remote work in a way not many people saw coming. The ability of many organizations to quickly shift to remote work proved to be beneficial in maintaining business operations during an uncertain time.
The success of this shift to a remote workforce has proven to have benefits beyond just the current pandemic, with Gartner recently reporting that nearly 41 percent of employees will continue to work remotely for at least some of the time, which is an increase from 30 percent reported prior to the pandemic. In some industries, IoT technology is supporting a remote workforce as well as business continuity and operational efficiency.
IoT technology has the ability to enable technicians to monitor and maintain equipment without being physically present, making remote work — at least partially — possible in a field where it once seemed impossible. Sensors connected to cloud software allow for reporting and actionable data to monitor condition and usage, and if any breach in threshold is detected, technicians are alerted.
Field service maintenance and updates can be inefficient and costly, particularly when one issue requires multiple visits. Industrial IoT solutions can automate processes like this by connecting field service technicians via tablet, wearable, or smartphone to backend systems. This enables scheduling and coordinating preventative maintenance and emergency repairs with ease, no matter their location.
IoT solutions for supply chain management can help businesses achieve high-level visibility and actionable insights through data analytics. With sensors, algorithms, cloud software, platforms, and more, the ability to track assets along the supply chain means less need for physical presence, supporting a more remote workforce in supply chain management.
The pandemic demonstrated what happens when supply chains are encumbered by high demand, leaving logistics managers searching for technology solutions. With vaccines for COVID-19 currently in distribution across the globe, comprehensive supply chain visibility for this temperature-sensitive and valuable asset is more critical than ever.
The growth of technology adoption in healthcare in 2020 isn’t surprising, but the investments are still significant. According to Fierce Healthcare, health innovation funding for the first half of 2020 alone hit $9.1 billion and is expected to grow from there. IoT technology for connected health is powering innovative solutions that support remote work through segments such as remote patient monitoring, decentralized clinical trials, and wearable health tech such as mobile personal emergency response systems (mPERS).
Deploying IoT solutions to support a remote workforce requires a trusted partner that understands the complexity of IoT. For the greatest outcome and ROI, it’s important to consider a partner that can manage the granular details that make an IoT ecosystem run smoothly, with the ability to adapt and scale as the business case evolves. KORE is an industry leader with nearly two decades of experience in assisting enterprises and organizations maximize ROI on their technology investments.
To learn more about how IoT can enable the solutions required to keep organizations operating a remote workforce far beyond the pandemic, download the eBook “2021: The Remote Workforce and IoT Post-Pandemic.”
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