recognized by the general public and
has been in use for several years. From
smart phones and watches to chips that
can track vehicles and cargo, the commercial and personal aspect of some of
the technologies associated with Io T are
into the second and third generation of
the underlying technology. Not exactly
long in the tooth, but in common use for
several years.
IoT technologies are also commonly
used in the insurance industry. The technology is solving some vexing insurance
issues, but it isn’t quite here just yet. The
opportunities for matching new IoT
technology to insurance are really limited only by the imagination. Some IoT
technologies are gravitating toward governmental applications such as the Smart
Cities program, others are focused on
manufacturing and logistics, while still
others are developing technologies for
the consumer or personal technologies
market. Insurance, because of its position
in the overall economy, can take a tech-
There has been a recent spate of articles in various publications about the “Internet of Things” or Io T. At first blush, the non-techies’ eyes glaze over when new and
emerging technologies are the topic of
conversation. Techies, as we know, have
been into the Io T for several years. But to
either group, there is somewhat of a misunderstanding as what the Io T really is.
A “thing” in the IoT can be a person,
animal or object with a unique identifier
that has the ability to transfer data using
technology such as an individual with
a heart monitor, an animal with a tran-
sponder chip or even the sensors in a car
that tell a driver when the tires are low on
air. Initially, the Io T has been closely asso-
ciated with machine-to-machine (M2M)
communication used in the oil, gas and
utility fields, as well as manufacturing.
M2M communications are often referred
to as “smart” because they transmit infor-
mation without human interaction such
as through bar codes and QR codes.
The Internet of Things is one of the
fastest growing aspects of information
technology and, the McKinsey Global
Institute estimates “the potential economic impact of the Internet of Things
to be $2.7 trillion to $6 trillion per year
by 2025” through six different applications the company has sized, with the
largest impacts being in healthcare and
manufacturing.
In some cases, the IoT is fairly well
The Internet of Things
What the Heck is a Thing?
By John Sarich