As we approach the end of FY20, customers are expecting sales from retailers around Australia to clear stock before the new financial year, and for the COVID-19 conscious consumers, it is likely that transactions will be made online.

Customer Experience

There are four key elements that retailers should focus on moving forward, Cognizant head of industries business for Australia and New Zealand, Gaurav Sharma told Retailbiz.

“The first is convenience, as exemplified by services such as click-and-collect. Many retailers have already included contactless, curb-side pickup, and home delivery and these are services that will no doubt gain widespread adoption.

“Next is consultative engagement. Store assistants play a vital role in brand experiences, but with more consumers shopping online, retailers must think how they can replicate that in-store vibe and experience, through virtual assistants, chatbots and AI-driven automation technologies.

“Community also plays a crucial part in driving store traffic, but with social distancing requirements, retailers should instead look to collaboration and communication technologies.

“Finally, trust is key to maintaining and fostering relationships with customers. Right now, there is a heightened sense of fear and scepticism when it comes to product safety. For these reasons, retailers must focus on providing customers with traceability solutions, packaging innovations and clear communication.”

Article by Emily Bencic

Key industry leaders have weighed in on how Australian retailers can manage increased demand from this week’s Click Frenzy online sales event, from app performance management to increased security awareness.

Providing a seamless web experience

Cognizant head of industries for Australia and New Zealand, Gaurav Sharma said Australians are already spending more time online than usual, and as Click Frenzy drives traffic to websites, retailers must facilitate smooth e-commerce experiences.

“This requires a renewed focus on both customer experience and accessibility, as well as website resilience and ensuring correct load-balancing and backup for back-end systems to facilitate a seamless customer experience,” he told Retailbiz.

“What inadvertently gets overlooked, however, is experience and accessibility for every shopper. Most online stores today highlight the fundamental inequalities in our current digital world, in which e-commerce experiences are built for a user-normative experience.

“In these current economic conditions, demographics for online retailers are expanding to include people who would have never shopped online and therefore may not be familiar with e-commerce so it’s essential that retailers create an online customer experience that is accessible to all.”

Article by Emily Bencic

The complex nature of apparel and footwear product manufacturing processes has resulted in a lack of trust along the supply chain. Consumers are increasingly seeking transparency about the origin of their products. Their buying decisions are now influenced by factors such as how and where items are produced, under what working conditions, and whether components are ethically sourced.

The lack of traceability in these supply chains is the root cause of consumer concerns and more could be done to address the issue of trust in apparel brands.

Shining a light on the apparel and footwear supply chain

Due to the nature of products and consumption patterns in the apparel and footwear industry, supply chain product traceability is a low priority. The rapid growth in apparel and footwear manufacturing has not faced a commensurate surge in regulatory scrutiny. As a result, serious social and environmental issues have surfaced in the supply chain.

In fact, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) estimates that many of the 170 million children engaged in child labour work in the apparel supply chain.

Supply chain issues remained opaque for many years, thus obscuring accountability, until recently. Consumer awareness, relentless activism and engagement are forcing brands to raise their consciousness on these issues. It has become imperative for these companies to lead the change by embracing supply chain transparency as a strategic objective. Doing so can improve risk management, process efficiencies, and most importantly, support the development of ethically sourced products.

However, the challenge of traceability is still at hand in the industry and although databases exist in the supply chain, they are often fragmented and do not provide a single view of product provenance. For these reasons, centralisation of data is incredibly difficult and the solutions and technologies currently in place are incapable of keeping pace with this increasingly fragile ecosystem.

Because of this, all participants in this ecosystem — retailers, raw material producers, manufacturers, agents and suppliers, certifiers and auditors — will need to work together to develop new and innovative ways to improve traceability in the supply chain.

How blockchain improves traceability

Certification is the most important aspect of provenance, which proves every material input and process adheres to acceptable and ethical standards. Think of all the raw materials that go into making a piece of clothing. It starts with the fibre, which could be sourced from a plant, animal, or crude oil. Then, it is processed until it can be spun and then woven into a fabric. From there, bleaching and dye are applied. All of this often happens across different factories and geographies.

With current supply chain traceability methods, it is difficult to track whether each of these materials has been sourced ethically, and more importantly, certified. One emerging solution is distributed ledger technology (DLT), more widely known as blockchain, which can provide greater transparency, traceability and auditability across the apparel and footwear supply chain. It can also provide consumers with a lens for ethically sourced products.

So, how does it work? Blockchain is a way of record-keeping that doesn’t require third-party oversight. Essentially, every member of a DLT network has the power to authorise changes in the records, rather than relying on a third-party authority. Additionally, records of transactions or changes in the network can’t be deleted, because all members of this network have a copy of this record. Because of its nature, a DLT network enables full transparency, traceability and audibility.

A blockchain/DLT solution fits the apparel and footwear supply chain well since it’s the perfect environment to track suppliers spread across various geographies that process and transact as untrusting entities along the supply chain.

With a blockchain/DLT solution, end-users, regulators and supply chain participants can drill down and obtain greater levels of detail on the origins, purity and authenticity of the product, while also providing traceability in the event of product recalls. The elements of a distributed ledger can also increase process efficiency and lower the costs of producing the final product.

The sustainability mandate for retailers and manufacturers

Our relationship with products and how they are produced are changing and blockchain presents an opportunity to simplify the ethical sourcing of materials and ingrain transparency in the apparel and footwear supply chain.

Moreover, the product journey has been neglected when compared to the customer journey. To meet their social responsibility mandate, retailers and manufacturers must improve supply chain traceability and certification to make sure it is ethical and sustainable.

Gaurav Sharma is Head of Industries Business for ANZ at Cognizant

End-to-end product transparency has fast become a key factor for millennials when deciding whether or not to purchase from a brand. A recent McKinsey study revealed 52% of millennials do research for background information on a product before making a purchase. Because of this, product traceability has become ever more important for retailers wanting to gain and maintain trust with their customers, but this comes with its own challenges.

For example, under the Modern Slavery Act 2018, large businesses and other entities in the Australian market with annual consolidated revenue of at least AUD$100 million must be able to identify and address their modern slavery risks, and maintain a responsible supply chain.

The problem with traceability today, however, is that each segment of the supply chain performs it in its own way, typically on systems that don’t speak to each other — some are even still using paper. Because of this, retailers rarely have a holistic view of the product journey and cannot deliver on transparency to their customers or meet reporting requirements.

Fortunately, there is a solution. Blockchain can provide a single source of truth for retail organisations, facilitating greater transparency throughout the supply chain. However, businesses often do not know where to start with blockchain.

In light of this, here are five steps retail businesses can take to shift their supply chain to a blockchain-based model.

1. Set the precedent

Before implementing blockchain in the supply chain, it is essential to articulate the business rationale, as well as the downsides to maintaining the status quo. Stakeholders should address some key questions at the outset, such as ― How does your organisation define visibility and traceability? What is the impact of not being sustainable on profitability, revenue and customer sentiment?

­­Gaining a perspective of the environmental and social footprint of products will be essential to establishing tangible environmental and social objectives, measures and benefits.

2. Assess and evaluate

Assess the current state of the supply chain with an eye for improvement. More often than not, best practices, operating procedures and technology components can be enhanced and scaled at this stage to meet present and future needs.

This stage presents an ideal starting point for retailers to develop concepts and model the information flow and technology landscape of the supply chain. Start by identifying merchandise and material categories as pilots that can be initiated with a few suppliers across a mix of geographies.

3. Prepare and model

Traceability initiatives rarely succeed unless all stakeholders are woven into a string of processes where expectations, objectives and value are clearly articulated. There is no better way to achieve this than creating models that give form and structure to define processes, input information and integrate systems.

Retailers should model their sourcing supply chain with a focus on supplier selection, material process and consolidation, procurement operations, and cost optimisation. They should also look to develop an information model that allows them to record, measure, and report transparency and traceability, as well as a technology model that portrays the flow of information, from raw material provider to customer.

4. Build and operate

Cross-industry product traceability is exceedingly complex with its constantly shifting supply chain environment. Blockchain/DLT (Distributed Ledger Technology) can be used to capture and manage digital identities, as well as input to output states, in production — a logical extension to the operations and process model. It also provides certification and auditability to verify the end-to-end supply chain process.

The desired build should allow a hierarchical representation of product-level provenance data that can be easily captured. Moreover, prioritising the features that are most critical for the use case will yield the most return on investment for businesses.

5. Measure and communicate

Traceability across the supply chain presents unique challenges. Data must be collected not only from a retailer’s direct suppliers, but also across sub-suppliers until the raw material providers have been found.

Because of this, retailers need to not only measure the value of the supply chain, but also visualise it for the benefit of all stakeholders, internal and external. Delivering provenance information to all stakeholders, including customers shopping online, will be key to displaying full transparency of a supply chain.

Looking forward: The future is transparent

Digital thinking and technology have made exceptional customer experience a must-have, but it comes with significant investment. Compared with the customer journey, the product journey has received far less attention and investment. To balance the ledger, blockchain/DLT can deliver enhanced product authenticity at a reasonable cost.

The future of customer expectations rests on ethics and transparency, and businesses need to take note. The supply chain is immensely complex, but getting it right has extraordinary benefits to brands and reassures trust in customers, retailers, manufacturers, and providers across the entire ecosystem.

Gaurav Sharma is Head of Industries Business for ANZ at Cognizant

In 2017, the Australian Government reported that the cost of food waste to the economy is estimated to be around $20 billion each year, with 2.2 million tonnes of disposed-of food belonging to the commercial and industrial sectors.

Since then, the government has implemented a strategic framework that aims to halve Australia’s food waste by 2030—a goal that aligns with the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal 12 for sustainable consumption and production patterns.

While this has certainly set the stage for a more sustainable nation, Australia’s retail sector can be doing more to help achieve this goal with the aid of new and emerging technologies.

Retail’s role in sustainability

Every year, 232,000 tonnes of food is wasted in the retail sector alone. There is clearly a lot of room for improvement. Each business has a responsibility to increase its sustainability, and there is an economic incentive to reducing food wastage, which concurrently shrinks profits.

The action retailers can take is two-fold. First, optimising the life cycle of perishables in the supply chain can greatly reduce wastage. Secondly, enhancing the logistics of the supply chain can greatly reduce the chance of food perishing in-transit, and reduce carbon emissions.

The good news is that emerging technologies in the sector are providing opportunities to do this. The better news? The solutions are of mutual benefit to retail organisations, the government’s sustainability goals, and the economy overall.

How new technologies can help

A large retail chain in the U.S. has substantially reduced food wastage as well as operating costs by automating alert and energy management using the Internet of Things (IoT). With real-time notifications, and automated handling of work orders, the retailer has increased the shelf life of food by reducing the time taken to create a work order from nearly two days to a few hours, and response times from several hours to a few minutes. The technology has enabled the retailer to efficiently handle a high volume of alerts on abnormal system behaviours, and initiate timely action by better predicting failures.

As Australian retailers become more familiar with the concrete applications of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and IoT, it is important to understand the benefit of combining these two technologies. The convergence of AI and IoT can help track the life expectancy and health of fresh goods both in-store and in-transit, and alert operations personnel in real time to issues such as the refrigerator door being left open, or the need to change HVAC settings based on temperatures and lighting. Through automation, these alerts can be ranked based on severity and automatically sent to the appropriate personnel, such as supply chain supervisors or technicians.

This can be achieved with a single IoT platform, powered by AI, allowing retailers to aggregate and analyse information from every point “at the edge”, such as different building systems, haul trucks, and all the equipment used in between. From this single source of truth, retailers can quickly identify and action problems in their food supply chain.

For example, a major problem in the supply chain is legacy refrigeration systems. These systems typically have slow response mechanisms that can take hours to notify operations teams about an issue, and most lack an early warning system for the health of perishables or the refrigerator itself. Analytics can solve this and provide early warnings in real time.

Optimising the perishables lifecycle in the supply chain

Apart from addressing the quality control aspects of a supply chain, retailers must also look at how they can enhance logistics efficiencies associated with hauling perishables across the country.

One emerging technology that is starting to gain traction in other sectors is autonomous trucks. Australian truck drivers are limited to a maximum 12 hours of driving before needing to rest overnight—automation in the supply chain removes this and instead expedites the process of transporting perishables and getting them to their destination faster. Autonomous trucks also remove the risks of driver fatigue.

In light of concerns around automation replacing jobs, there is an opportunity for long-haul truck drivers to be retrained in other areas of supply chain logistics. In fact, a recent report by Faethm suggests automation could create some 5.3 million jobs within the next decade.

Emerging technologies offer food for thought

While the nascent technology of autonomous driving has some way to go before it is fully integrated into retail supply chains, it does serve as food for thought to retailers looking to enhance efficiencies across the supply chain.

More immediately, businesses looking to play their part in reaching the government’s 2030 goal can look to AI and IoT to monitor and safeguard the life expectancy of fresh produce, thus reducing food wastage, combatting lost revenue, and satisfying shoppers with stocked shelves.

Gaurav Sharma is head of industries business for ANZ at Cognizant

Leveraging consumer data is critical to maintaining and building a customer base as outdated methods of customer profiling quickly become obsolete.

Data says a lot about a customer’s purchasing behaviour, but brands need to also recognise the power of what is being unsaid by existing data. Focusing on filling these gaps is the real secret to creating authentic relationships with customers, because this positions the brand powerfully in knowing and meeting needs and wants without customer’s necessarily expecting it.

As the Australian retail industry becomes increasingly competitive, the ability of an organisation to engage with customers by delivering seamless experiences will be the key to giving retailer’s a competitive upper hand. More and more multi-nationals are setting up shop on Australian shores, and are bringing with them highly sophisticated technologies and techniques to delight customers.

A recent survey found only five per cent of Australian businesses have ‘Customer-360’ initiatives as their data-focused priority for the near future. This is a figure that requires significant improvement in the changing context of the Australian retail landscape. In order to keep up with the pace of change, local businesses need to invest in leveraging data to gain a deep understanding of their customers. This understanding will arise from multidimensional customer profiles, which are essential to deliver the experiences customers now demand.

Amazon is a key example of an organisation that is pioneering customer profiles for business growth. It’s been estimated that as much as 35 per cent of its bottom line is due to its recommendation engine, a portal which generates purchase ideas for customers based on buying behaviour, preferences, and anticipating wants and needs.

Using data to build customer profiles will converge the numerous channels by which a customer interacts with brands — social media, online, entertainment and leisure preferences, as well as physical movements — and integrate them to illustrate the full customer journey and profile, personalised to each individual.

Out with the old, in with the new

A traditional approach to customer profiles that neglects to focus on recommendations, or that doesn’t adjust its journey based on the preferences of individual customers through leveraging data, is incomplete and quickly becoming obsolete. This is not an abstract business concept, but a problem that has real-world implications. For example, retailers such as Blockbuster and Borders incorrectly conceptualised their customers, and through not taking on the appropriate form for market context, ultimately didn’t survive the high-stakes game of customer engagement. A data-based technology such as predictive analytics can aid in examining and anticipating future customer behaviours, wants and needs.

Working in tandem with predicting future behaviours, businesses must also focus on creating customer profiles using different types of data holistically. Organisations should be tracking aspects of their customers’ digital footprint such as social media activity, browsing habits, mobile application downloads, past purchases, entertainment preferences, and so on. Understanding customers’ digital footprints is vital as businesses will have the opportunity to build individualised strategies around these unique insights. Doing so will enable businesses to form a true view of the customer.

The role of big data for customer profiles

In addition to relying on outdated data, companies too often only use a fraction of the data in their possession. The ability to condense and intelligently leverage this data to personalise outreach to customers should be a top priority, as global incumbents enter the Australian market.

Data typically exists across siloes, which involves both online and offline aspects of the customer journey. Location intelligence is one example of how data can improve customer profiling. Retailers can now geo-target customers with automated offers based on location and previous purchasing behaviours, demonstrating the correlation between online buying patterns with an increase in foot traffic.

Leveraging such real-time, multidimensional profiles that capture all footprints customers leave will ensure retailers will be able to make clear sense of their customers’ data, derive meaning from it, and act upon it.

Balancing privacy concerns with business objectives

There are challenges that businesses have to be aware of after implementing a data strategy to create customer profiles. Specifically, these challenges lie in customer privacy and regulatory issues. Customers are aware of what their personal data can be used for and oftentimes issues become apparent when large companies use and have access to supposedly private data with little perceived reward to the customer.

However, studies have shown that customers’ resistance to data collection becomes negligible once they receive clear benefit from the interaction, or when they are interacting with brands they trust. A recent study of millennials by Columbia Business School found 75 per cent of respondents were willing to share data such as mobile phone number and date of birth with companies in exchange for a product or service they value, or with a brand they trust.

Customers are eager for increasingly authentic relationships with their favourite brands, including greater convenience and better targeted offerings. Data analytics allows businesses to give these sought-after experiences to customers, promoting loyalty and establishing a competitive advantage in the tight race for shoppers’ dollars. It is up to companies to leverage the data systems available, developing strategies to engage with and understand their consumers, and build multidimensional customer profiles which improve the relationship between company and consumer. The natural exchange of data will then continue to be of mutual benefit.

By Gaurav Sharma, Head of Products and Resources, ANZ, Cognizant

Blockchain is the shared infrastructure and distributed ledger technology that looks poised to shake up many industries, including the retail sector, in the coming years. Its ability to streamline operations and enable a more efficient supply chain positions it well to alter the retail industry as we know it. In fact, 87 per cent of retail decision-makers surveyed by Cognizant recently said they believe blockchain is important to the future of the retail industry.

However, most retail brands still find it challenging to understand how blockchain can transform business processes. This is due to the sometimes complex nature of the technology itself, as well as a general hesitancy to embark on the blockchain journey: from choosing a platform to understanding its retail applications.

Blockchain has already widely infiltrated industries such as banking and financial services, and retailers who do not take stock of this burgeoning technology will soon find themselves left behind.

Blockchain explained through retail

Given its ability to deliver low-cost and secure sharing of information and value, blockchain will be the next frontier in transforming the retail sector. This means it will become crucial for retailers to educate themselves on exactly how blockchain can help address various organisational pain points. Just one of the many use cases of blockchain can be described using a retail scenario: that of the sourcing and purchase of diamonds.

With environmentally-conscious customers increasingly demanding sustainably-sourced diamonds, there has been an increase in the demand for product authenticity. With blockchain, a diamond’s origin and the journey it takes to the consumer can be more transparent, given the improved traceability of the value chain. The secure and synchronised record of transactions, and the public verification of all this online data that blockchain provides, means that proof of compliance is always managed in highly secure, yet visible, ways.

This visibility of the origin of products is just one way that blockchain will aid in delivering better customer experiences, in addition to many operational benefits.

Exploring the benefits of blockchain

There are multiple operational and customer-facing benefits to using blockchain in the retail industry, which often has disparate data siloes, far-flung sales and partner ecosystems, and problems with accurate reporting of sales volumes. Here are some of the ways it will improve retail businesses:

Supply chain transparency will be improved, particularly regarding sustainably-sourced products, including fish or organic consumables. Blockchain technology allows the transparent recording of compliance issues regarding such products, in addition to ensuring regulatory compliance across the supply chain. Such transparency will also be increasingly important to a discerning buying public.

The public ledger that blockchain involves will reduce instances of counterfeit products and fraudulent transactions. All products are publicly registered on the blockchain, and should duplicates appear, it makes counterfeiting more easily identifiable than ever before. The encryption of transactions through blockchain also provides security to consumers against fraudulent transactions.

Partner performance will become more efficient as ‘smart contracts’ automate the supplier/vendor contractual agreements. In fact, automation is an overarching benefit of blockchain that will see many manual processes become digitised, freeing up employees to focus on issues such as customer engagement.

Closing the talent gap

Retail organisations wishing to tap into the benefits of blockchain will need to develop additional skills and expertise in blockchain. In particular, technology skills such as cryptography, software engineering, and network infrastructure will be crucial to successfully integrating blockchain into an organisation.

Although retail is not an industry typically associated with highly-developed technology skills, it is undergoing a rapid perception shift. This is due to the digital transference of our shopping habits that will see the Australian ecommerce market worth an estimated $32 billion by the end of this year. Additionally, with the imminent arrival of international online behemoths such as Amazon on Australian shores, the need for technically-skilled workforces within retail will continue to increase.

Retailers should seek to use a mix of internal strategies, such as innovation labs and training, in addition to external strategies such as partnering with blockchain companies and new hires, to close the talent gap on blockchain.

The most successful retail businesses, alongside employing internal and external strategies, also need to understand that being nimble in these approaches will ensure they work. Taking an entrepreneurial approach to blockchain technology is vital to keep up with its fast-changing nature.

Being nimble will involve starting small, accepting there may be failures along the way, identifying what strategies will work for your business, and learning to scale quickly. As blockchain looks very likely to restructure the hyper-competitive retail industry in Australia, a nimble approach will aid the successful realisation of blockchain’s potential.

Gaurav Sharma is head of products and resources in ANZ at Cognizant.

Employee safety is a major concern for Australian mining corporations. Even today, with arguably the best mining safety regulations in the world, there continues to be serious injuries and sometimes fatalities. Fortunately, the industry is in a good position to address these concerns with the help of technological advancements in automation.

The benefits of automation stretch beyond safety

McKinsey estimates that digital innovation in the mining industry can be worth $370 billion per year worldwide in 2025. A key element of digital innovation is automation ― automation of operating equipment, technology functions, and business processes. Already Australia is a world leader in mining equipment automation, including automated trucks, drill rigs, trains and port operations.

Implementing automation across various facets of the mining industry can improve safety and improve productivity. While autonomous mining equipment requires companies to inject significant capital, it is balanced by lower operating costs.

Automating mining equipment including haul trucks can mitigate the danger of driver fatigue and boost the efficiency of long-haul transportation, adding much more value to the supply chain of the industry. Sensor technology is now so advanced that autonomous trucks could sense even the smallest of hazards — like a bird flying in front of it — and react accordingly.

The future has already arrived for autonomous driving in the sector

Autonomous operations are now a working reality within the Australian mining sector. One of Australia’s leading mining corporations is a world leader in autonomous mining equipment technology. Since deployment, the company has had zero injuries, highlighting the major safety and productivity benefits that autonomous mining trucks provide.

Are autonomous trucks the canary-in-the-coal-mine for other mining jobs?

While there is a concern that autonomous trucks will replace jobs in Australia’s mining industry, the good news is that they will also create new ones. From autonomous maintenance leaders and drone jockeys, to man-machine teaming managers and field support, there will be a need for humans in the autonomous future of Australia’s mining industry.

The rise in automation represents an opportunity for business leaders, technology strategists, and public policy proponents to assess how to successfully manage the transition to an autonomous mining industry. In doing so, Australian mining companies should work closely with their employees to provide opportunities for new roles, redeployment, retraining and upskilling.

The wider implications of automation in mining

While full autonomy is the end-goal, many mining companies are taking a semi-autonomous approach to many manual tasks to improve safety and productivity. In recent years, various countries have seen legislation to demand collision avoidance systems on haul trucks and fatigue monitoring solutions for driver fatigue. While some of these may parallel trends in the automotive industry, a mining environment has its own safety and heavy equipment challenges.

A number of new and innovative safety solutions are being deployed in semi-autonomous environments that allow for the real-time detection of hazards with manual and automated systems to minimise the risk. This real-time detection is linked back to the emergence of remote operating centres where multiple ‘digital’ aspects of an operating mine are monitored and controlled.

As networks and systems evolve, there is a real opportunity for machine learning and artificial intelligence to take control and optimise aspects that were handled manually in the past.

While there’s probably still some way to go before machines replace all hazardous jobs in the industry, the rise of autonomous mining equipment certainly provides a framework on how mining corporations can augment dangerous tasks with AI counterparts. In the past, automation has relieved mining workers of mundane tasks, such as reporting anomalies and flagging non-compliances via digital analytics platforms, freeing them up to do higher value tasks and reducing costs as a result.

Digital technology certainly presents a myriad of opportunities for the mining sector to innovate old processes. Building out new roles — supported by upskilling — will be key to managing this paradigm shift.

Gaurav Sharma, Head of Industries Business for ANZ, Cognizant

A synergy is developing between the digital world of the Internet of Things (IoT) and the physical world of industrial manufacturing. This synergy between physical and digital has stimulated factories and production to start their evolutionary journey towards a future characterised by the widespread use of cyber-physical systems.

This is known as Industry 4.0, and is beginning to be implemented across Australian industries. For example, the innovation hub at Flinders University has been built to specifically demonstrate Industry 4.0 technologies.

With IoT technologies set to bring a potential $116 billion to the Australian economy by 2025, now is the time to implement this technology into manufacturing.

Industry 4.0 marks the first time in which digital technology has integrated into nearly all levels of manufacturing, allowing cognitive machinery to perform both intellectual and physical tasks. IoT is gaining momentum in manufacturing, due to its enabling of smart processes, elimination of waste, and reduction in production time, amongst other benefits.

Manufacturing companies must take notice of the increasingly impactful IoT trend in order to remain competitive, and stay in touch with global manufacturing technology trends.

How IoT is gaining momentum

The IoT is gaining momentum due to the greater efficiencies it allows the manufacturing industry, alongside improving customer experience, enhancing safety, and developing new business models.

Manufacturing brands have come to realise that in order to lead in this industry, ensuring end-to-end systems are critical. This allows for the monitoring of facilities and equipment performance, as well as providing the information to make timely and critical business decisions based on machine-led data.

As outlined by the World Economic Forum, companies must have a strategy that addresses four key components of the digital age:

– Customer expectation

– Product enhancement

– Collaborative innovation

– Organisational forms

Organisations that are implementing IoT to address these four components necessary to succeed in the digital age are moving forward with momentum into Industry 4.0.

IoT as an enabler of smart processes

The IoT is also gaining momentum due to its ability to enable smart processes in manufacturing, further allowing improved decision making on real time information.

A great example of this is in the oil industry. Typically, oilrigs have submersible pumps that lift oil to the surface to be consumed for fuel. However, to operate without fault, the pumps need to regularly adjust depending on pressure, temperature and oil prices, which calls for an expensive and dangerous trip for an engineer to a remote location.

As such, one leading oilfield services provider sought to reduce such trips, and lower expense through optimisation of the function of these pumps and Cognizant transformed its operation into a remote service model.

Through an IoT approach, the oil field began operating under a smart process. The IoT enabled the gathering of pump information via sensors and then analyses collected data in order to determine and program necessary changes. This resulted in more efficient recalibration of pumps in remote areas, improving response time and decreasing downtime.

The numerous benefits of IoT

It is undeniable that one of the IoT’s benefits is the efficiencies it enables. However, introducing the IoT into manufacturing also reduces production time, increases safety and develops jobs. It also pioneers brand new industries and ways of thinking.

In the minds of many IoT advocates, the advantages of Industry 4.0 outweigh the risks. For example, the IoT can be used to relieve human workers of strenuous aspects of manufacturing and industrial work, as cognitive computing could be used to lift heavy pieces of machinery. As a result, plants and factories could see a dramatic reduction in work-related injuries.

Similarly, cognitive machinery could and should be implemented to handle physical workloads involving high temperatures and toxic chemicals. As the maintenance of new cyber systems is required, job training for this area would see an increase in demand for skilled workers.

The IoT will also be hugely impactful in a burgeoning sector of manufacturing — connected cars. Development in the connected cars sector can be seen both globally and domestically, with Telstra acquiring Australian company MTData in order to develop its connected vehicle services, part of the company’s IoT offerings. This trend is only set to grow as large conglomerates latch on to the connected cars trend.

From the oil industry to connected cars, the virtual and actual worlds are speeding towards each other at a fast clip. The IoT continues to develop at lightning speed, pushing manufacturing into the fourth industrial revolution. Through the implementation of IoT in manufacturing, smart processes are enabled, and the future of technology is in an exciting evolutionary journey.

Gaurav Sharma is Head of Industries in ANZ for Cognizant.

Earlier this year, the New South Wales government announced its plans to introduce legislation for connected and driverless vehicles.

The legislation will aim to facilitate the safe and legal trials for connected cars on New South Wales roads, with the approval committee predicting that “autonomous vehicles will be a part of the future transport system.

As new technology continues to modify and improve the driving experience, the New South Wales Government’s move reflects a global trend towards utilising the vast amounts of vehicle, road, and traffic data to create smart solutions that address a variety of issues around driver safety, fuel efficiency, and road congestion.

Over the last few years, automotive electronics and wireless technologies have altered the way we drive. For example, Satnav is now ubiquitous.

Australia’s connected car future is just around the corner ― but what does this actually mean for drivers?

As technology becomes more sophisticated and moves beyond in-vehicle infotainment, customers’ increasing expectations of what their car should be able to do will change the Australian market.

Personalised experiences will drive car-buyers

The basic features of a connected car, such as access to hands-free mobile, built-in GPS systems and infotainment for music and audio-visual, are now a part of a car-buyers’ expectations.

Personalisation will be the next frontier for car manufacturers to stand out in a crowded market, and the auto sector needs to either develop its own technology to meet buyers’ demands or look to broker partnerships with technology vendors who can provide the hardware and software needed.

Personalisation in the connected car industry will also be driven by the various convenience services that connectivity provides, such as seamless urban mobility (eliminating the multiple stresses associated with driving), as well as pioneering improved car-sharing abilities that have been at the forefront of the sharing economy.

For many, a car is not just a means of transport, but also an extension of their identity and individuality, which will amplify entertainment experiences and subscription services for vehicles that have already begun infiltrating the market.

Such technological improvements from a leisure standpoint can include push notifications to inform drivers when they are near a branch of their favourite shop, making the car fully ‘mobile-ready.’

Other drivers may prefer to spend their money on extras that ensure vehicle maintenance is effortless, and kilometre-per-litre efficiency is maximised. This could extend to uses such as vehicle-based telematics and sensor data to trigger a nearby roadside assistance provider to dispatch a service when tire pressure is sensed to be failing.

Vehicle-to-Infrastructure in the fast lane

Competing developments and roll-outs in DSRC (dedicated short range communications) and 5G cellular networks will create new possibilities in vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication. The industry ecosystem could witness a burst of numerous applications, which will help millions of cars inter-communicate about traffic and safety in real time.

In Australia, Cohda Wireless and Telstra are testing ways to create a more continuous flow of traffic by alerting drivers to road works ahead, and testing optimal green light timing.

This will be tracked through smart conversations and data exchanges that occur between the roads and our cars. In the future, truck drivers will be told a green light is about to change and if they are close enough, they will have the option to request an extension for a few extra seconds they need to pass through without slowing.

For V2I projects to succeed, however, it will take a lot of cooperation across different levels of society. Governments, businesses, and retailers will need to collaborate in order to build the required infrastructure including concept, design, and execution that will make this a feasible option.

The Internet of Things in the driver’s seat

In order to develop connected cars that will inspire and motivate drivers to purchase, the technology not only needs to be impressive but also needs to work harmoniously together. Car manufacturers and technology providers have a job ahead of them to build the new capabilities needed to accelerate the adoption of connected cars.

This includes navigating the convergence of digital, telematics, mobility, the sharing economy, social media, analytics, and importantly, the Internet of Things (IoT).

The ability for the technologies in your car to exchange and evaluate data seamlessly and without human intervention is a concept modelled closely on a successful IoT execution.

Integration with other functions including both software and hardware within a connected car is crucial to enhancing the safety and functionality of these new vehicles. It will also work to eliminate waste and inefficiencies, while optimising resources within the cars, improving the experience for consumers and the industry overall.

Technology companies, as well as car manufacturers, will continue to compete for the opportunity to produce innovative products and initiatives in the growing connected car industry. Connectivity, personalisation, V2I and the IoT within cars will become major business drivers within the automotive industry in the future.

With state governments now coming on board, as well as the emergence of new technologies to improve functionality, the connected car is set to become a permanent fixture on Australia’s roadmap.