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.