In the Financial Services sector the digital platform market is fairly mature but continues to be disrupted by new technology trends like 5G or Blockchain;Increasing usage of online banking applications is expected to be one of the key factors driving the growth of the digital financial services market during the coming years;Major financial players control the market but will be challenged by uprising FinTech’s soon;

Strong market growth over the coming years driven by insurance, payments, wearables and identification segments;Nearly 50% of all IoT sensors deployed worldwide could be of use for Financial Services Institutions for insurance, financing, accounting or payments processes

Market growth in Europe is significantly driven by an increasing number of banking and financial institutions and key players are focused to develop and launch advanced devices based on digital platforms to ease operations;Specialist lenders like $734 billion-asset Standard Chartered in the U.K. are developing solutions that allow them to track customers’ inventory as it moves through the supply chain for the purposes of insurance and finance

Growth in the North American region is owed to the presence of major banks including the Bank of America, Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs among others;With continued investment from the government and private venture capitalists, the market has showcased a rising number of fintech startups that are built on digital technologies

In Africa, as part of fraud prevention and fighting financial crime, many countries are rigorously working towards providing digital identity to their citizens;The use of digital ID in Africa not only helps the fight against financial crime and fraud, it can improve financial inclusion and boost e-commerce

In Asia, India is likely to showcase rapid growth of adoption. India has implemented its “Make in India” policy and has established the center of excellence of the technology program for industries and start-ups

Australia in particular, already has a highly digitized financial system and commercial fintech sector meaning IoT/ digital platform project acceptance is high and government initiatives support this trend

Main technology trends revolve around mobile banking applications which are based on IoT software;Features of such mobile banking applications include e-wallets service, self-assisted services, virtual assistants and highly authenticated security systems to secure funds from cyber-attacks

In the South American market, Brazil is showcasing rapid growth in the financial services industry and the Brazilian National Development Bank is offering financing for the country’s digitalization plans;This trend is likely to create vast opportunities for the technology and boost demand soon

In the past, Insurance companies often had little information to base their customer risk calculations on. Technology, enabled by the multitude of sensors in connected cars and homes makes it now possible to review their pricing models and develop new business models. The German Insurance HUK-Coburg is already offering their customers 10-30% off their car insurance if they agree to have their driving patterns tracked via their Telematik Plus offering. A custom app is further gamifying responsible and ecological driving and acts as a sales channel for add-ons like accident recovery insurance.

New Business Models – Insurance

With traditional banking cards being inherently vulnerable to fraud, biometric identification and the continued penetration of connected devices with embedded payment functions is allowing consumers to safely and without contact, pay for their daily items of need via car, home, watch or phone. Most widely used in smart watches and phones, tokenization allows them to securely exchange information via NFC after they have been identified via their face or fingerprint, challenging the need for traditional payment cards and account numbers as proof of ownership.

Payments – using any 'thing'

CRM systems are powerful tools for a business, especially for the sales team. Nevertheless the information is only valuable, if entered correctly and complete. To avoid lost opportunities and bad forecasting, Cigna introduced a digital adoption platform, that delivers continuous guided learning right in the employee's workflow that can help to reduce entry errors. The direct impact is a reduction in helpdesk calls, fewer requirements for new software training, and therefore huge financial savings.

Correct usage of systems

Financial services include depository institutions, non-depository credit institutions, holding (but not predominantly operating) companies, other investment companies, brokers and dealers in securities and commodity contracts, and security and commodity exchanges.

Financial Services

In the Resources sector, digital platform market maturity is highly region dependent;Especially Africa, South America and APAC are currently still a small but fast growing market;In the rest of the world, major IoT and platform solution providers work together with smaller resource players, while the biggest mining and oil companies also drive innovation themselves

South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya are the key market drivers in Africa with an ever-expanding population, large oil & gas reserves and incentives to create a cleaner ‘high-tech’ image around their extraction

In the Resource sector Europe is one of the largest digital platform markets, with the main growth opportunities coming from eastern Europe and Russia in particular;Many companies in the European Energy sector are now pursuing digitalization strategies as they are lagging behind the IT infrastructures of their North American counterparts

The Australian market is already relatively mature, with many global mining players like BHP or Rio Tinto using IoT technology to operate drills, trucks and trains autonomously across the remote Australian countryside

The region has a large number of oilfields, especially in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, and Colombia but is held back by lack of affordable IoT solutions which negatively affects growth

As the Resource sector has always struggled with access to real time information across remote locations and assets, IoT sensors are now bringing revolutionary insights and reliability to Resource companies

In Western Asia, Saudi Arabia and UAE are the key market drivers with an ever-expanding population, large oil & gas reserves and incentives to create a cleaner ‘high-tech’ image around their extraction;Further demand for digital platforms will be driven by China, Japan, South Korea and India, and particularly the downstream sector (refineries, etc.) as economic growth creates bottlenecks in the supply of petroleum products

Edge computing is seen as a large growth driver, as the on-location processing power and low network traffic of edge-computing tech can fill gaps in remote locations that cloud computing can’t;In the communication segment RFID or GPS technology is used to track assets and monitor them in remote locations across the supply chain;In the sensing segment, wireless sensor networks can be used for flow measurement, valve actuation or on any extraction machine to collect data for advanced analytics (predictive maintenance & digital twins);Data management is another large segment, as the multitude of sensors and devices on drills, pipelines, containers is creating vast amounts of data that needs to be collected into one consistent format, stored securely, and analyzed to have a better understanding of their operations

In North America, headquarter of many global energy and resource companies, digital platform development and adoption is continuously increasing;The increasing production of shale-oil, new greenhouse-gas emission and health & safety regulations are driving the demand for IoT technology in this region

Digital monitoring and predictive maintenance platforms can be used in the resource industry to reduce downtime and optimize equipment performance. These platforms use sensors, machine learning algorithms, and other advanced technologies to monitor equipment and detect potential issues before they lead to equipment failure. By proactively addressing these issues, resource companies can reduce their environmental impact by minimizing waste, energy consumption, and emissions associated with equipment downtime and repair. An example is the Danish green energy company Ørsted, that adopts a digital strategy including advanced analytics and AI. The used software helps the company turn data from its 1,300 offshore wind turbines into insights for predictive maintenance that saves time and resources.

Digital monitoring

For Oil and Gas companies, safety surveillance of their upstream (wells), midstream (supply network) and downstream (retail) operations had to involve manual labour and 90% of video footage was left un-analyzed. IoT Cameras with advanced object detection capabilities and edge processing power can be deployed to give immediate alerts on workers missing safety equipment or smoking around critical infrastructure, without a high-res video feed having to be sent to the cloud first – reducing response times, network and storage costs.

Machine Vision for Safety

Mining companies are often faced with high electricity costs and limited worker safety, and are therefore looking at integrating digital  mine management systems to optimize operations. Newmont, the world's largest Gold mining company, has used technology to equip one of its Canadian mines with an intelligent underground ventilation system that is using a network of air quality and temperature sensors as well as RFID tags on machines and personnel. Fresh air flow is then only directed to areas where personnel is working by a centralised digital interface on the surface allowing Newmont to reduce electrical consumption by 40%, reduce fan maintenance costs and improve worker safety significantly.

Ventilation on Demand

Resources includes all industries focusing on extraction, exploration, drilling and other activities related to naturally occurring materials such as renewable resources (e.g. timber) and limited resources (e.g. oil, gas, rare earth) that are the basis for subsequent processing industries.

Resources

In the Transportation sector, the digital platform market is relatively consolidated with leading transportation players holding significant market share;However, industry incumbents but also niche players and software startups are profiting from market growth;Highest growth opportunities are in Remote Monitoring, especially in air, maritime and rail transportation, while road segment is most mature

In South America, Brazil, Argentina and Chile are the largest digital platform markets, each driven by the growth of complementary industries like mining or e-commerce – a sector that is growing rapidly and is more and more depending on IoT use cases like supply chain tracking or warehouse optimization;

In Africa the largest digtial platforms in transportation markets are South Africa and Nigeria, where technology development is driven by government initiatives to foster economic growth; 

Markets in Europe are most strongly driven by the civilian railway industry, while in Asia the shipping industry is the biggest digital platform market driver. Likewise, in North America it is the trucking industry that is driving the market forward, to optimize and digitize their supply chains, a trend which is intersecting with the continuous decrease in IoT sensor costs;

Main Asian market driver is the shipping industry, where operators are building digital platforms to bring together edge devices installed on containers, temperature/ humidity sensors, cloud analytics and alert procedures;Strong market growth is expected here with smaller operators aiming to build a technological advantage over their larger European counterparts 

Highest market opportunities lie in the Services segment of the Transportation sector;Decreased hardware costs (sensors & controllers) which are retrofit to old infrastructure are key driver for growth;With for example new Hitachi trains in the UK generating 48,000 data points per second while travelling through remote areas at high speeds, connectivity is perhaps the key challenge in the IoT in Transportation market;Overall, the market is fueled by demand for big data & analytics solutions

North America has been leading the adoption of digital platforms in the transportation market, mostly due to haulage companies equipping their trucks with tracking beacons to comply with compliance regarding digital location logs;

State-owned rail operators are driving infrastructure investments and are looking at predictive maintenance as a cost saving measure (e.g. Hitachi is delivering trains-as-a-service for two operators in the U.K., a business model that is enabled by over 3500 IoT sensors on board);

In Australia, the digital platforms in the transportation market are driven by spillovers from the resource market, as demand is driven by automated trains and haulage trucks in mines on remote locations around the country;

The shipping business can be a dangerous environment, especially for port staff carrying out manual inspections on cargo. IoT Value-add: To combat this, the shipping company Maersk has partnered with Ericsson to install real-time IoT monitoring across its over 300,000 containers. The satellite-connected sensors can not only transmit vital stats such as temperature, location and power supply, to offer real-time information as issues develop, but also lead to increased safety for port staff, as containers now require less manual inspection.

Smart Supply Chain

The rise in e-commerce and consumer expectations of next-day delivery have put significant strain on warehouse operations, where efficiency metrics such as hourly throughput can be directly impacted by the optimization of people and equipment flow. DHL is using connected package scanners and forklifts inside of its fulfillment centers to get a live view of their processes. The location data points are used to create warehouse heatmaps and alter forklift and people movement/traffic flows for greater efficiency as well as workplace safety. This data also allows DHL to monitor asset utilization and optimize inventory update.

Smart Warehouse - DHL

Mining companies often operate on thin margins dictated by market resource prices, therefore optimizing productivity is imperative for success. The mining company Rio Tinto owns an over 2000km long railroad network in Western Australia where it is running more than 50 autonomous trains that are equipped with a multitude of telemetry sensors. Rio Tinto has seen much fewer safety incidents, increased productivity (one hour saved per 40 hour journey) as well as environmental benefits from the trains learning from the onboard as well as topography sensors to drive more consistently and therefore efficiently.

Autonomous Mining Trains – Auto Haul

The transportation industry includes passenger and freight transport. It is a a cross-industry field which includes road, railroad, water and air transport. Besides transfer services, it also includes handling and maintenance as well as supporting activities, e.g. canal operation, airports or  terminal services.

Transportation

In the manufacturing sector, the market for digital platforms is technologically quite mature, but far from saturated in terms of actual adoption; The majority of IoT research and development in recent years has been focusing on this sector due to its low barriers to entry and clear monetisation pathways, with gradual adoption of this new technology in even mid-size manufacturing companies, driving the market growth over the coming years

In North America, headquarter of many global manufacturing companies, digital platform development and demand is expected to continue to grow, driven by manufacturers discovering predictive maintenance as a key revenue stream, a large body of academic research advancing what is technically possible and global technology companies moving away from pure building block suppliers to full stack platform vendors

In Europe, the manufacturing-heavy industries of Germany, France, Spain and UK are driving demand for IoT technology as many SMEs are realising the potential of digital platforms to enable new product-as-a-Service business models;Aiming to strengthen the long-term outlook of their dominant manufacturing industries, local governments are further driving this upwards trend through favorable regulation, grants and the development of industry standards

In Oceania, Australia in particular already has a highly digitized manufacturing sector meaning digi5tal platform project acceptance is high and government initiatives support this trend

The manufacturing heavy Asian industries are driving digital platform demand through various initiatives such as Made in China 2025, Make in India and Japan’s Industrial Value Chain;However, for foreign firms entering countries like China, regulatory and legal challenges are blocking entry for many, especially when setting up complicated SaaS solution contracts

 In Manufacturing, the primary driver of the digital platform market is the immense automation potential for already existing machinery and processes; Recent developments in edge computing are extending this trend and manufacturers that have started to equip their factories with sensors are now realising the importance of cyber security, further driving growth in the market

In South America, growth is more moderate but still stable, driven by government investments and the presence of many manufacturing research facilities;Nonetheless, current growth rates are limited by scarce labour with advanced technical skills and a slow spillover from the booming telecommunications into M2M communications

In the African market, growth is more moderate but still stable, driven by a large automation potential and desires to reduce costs but also waste along the entire value chain

In the digital platform Technology stack, the software and security layers are driving demand as more and more packaged platform and analytics software is being developed, in turn requiring higher security spending when IoT capabilities are integrated into operations;Asset performance management use cases are driving the development of connectivity technologies such as Sigfox, Bluetooth, LoRaWifi and 5G in particular, promising faster download speeds, lower latency and vastly superior capacity, meaning more devices can be connected to it at one time, allowing manufacturers to have a live view of sensors across vast factory sites; More recently, manufacturing development has moved away from cloud applications into edge computing to minimize latency but also downtime and storage/traffic costs significantly;Lastly, AR, VR and MR have the potential to increase efficiency of processes where human decision making is required (Test and adapt product designs, maintenance guidance, remote service support, staff training etc.). Around 80% of current IoT adopters evaluate AR possibilities, demonstrating the interest in these technologies and its potential

Another Digital Platform use case in the manufacturing industry is to design production processes based on digital twins of the entire factory. Through the PwC Factory Intelligence Platform, automotive supplier ZF is using the multitude of sensors and connectivity gateways to create digital copies of their shop floor, to simulate changes before implementing them in real life. This can also be used in daily operations to optimize production processes, moving them away from linear manufacturing towards connected production matrices.

Process Analytics

Another  common use case in the manufacturing industry is the emergence of product-as-a-service/ power-by-the-hour contracts, better aligning the interests of customers and manufacturers. Before, aftersales-services incentivized premature failure of the product and posed a significant financial risk for the customer. IoT sensors are enabling companies like Rolls-Royce to offer their airline customers availability guarantees and bill them by the mile in the air, as usage and health metrics are collected in real-time and analyzed to best maintain the turbine proactively.

Products-as-a-Service

In the past, General Electric technicians assembling turbines in factories in Pensacola, Florida often had to stop what they were doing, check manuals or contact an expert to make sure they were installing parts correctly. Using augmented reality glasses, visualising a digital twin of the turbine as well as manuals and tutorials, technicians can have directions directly in their line of sight or live-stream their point-of-view and talk to an expert remotely about their problem. Initial studies have shown GE clear productivity improvements of nearly 34%, a strong signal for GE to continue to develop its wearable upskilling platform.

AR in Industrial Manufacturing

Manufacturing industries include operations engaged in the mechanical or chemical conversion of materials or substances into new products, typically using power-driven machinery and material handling equipment. This also applies if the new product is neither a structure nor any other fixed improvement.

Manufacturing

In the construction sector, the digital platform market is led by key construction players like Pillar Technologies, Hitachi, Caterpillar and large technology players (e.g. Cisco, DroneDeploy, Losant IoT, Oracle) ;Remote operations applications are the largest segment in the overall market with use cases of machine control, real-time monitoring of workers, construction sites and machinery

In the construction market, the digital platform market is showing promising growth with advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) playing an increasing role in recent years (e.g. analysing information on stock levels, schedules and project-specific data such as weather or other disruptions for being better informed and being able to avoid delays;Many current applications are revolving around working conditions and safety

In Europe, a set of supporting policy actions have been adopted by the European Commission to accelerate the take-up of digital technology in Europe for the benefit of European citizens and businesses;As part of the Clean Energy package  the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive was revised to include a Smart Readiness Indicator (SRI) for buildings

Australia is home to many world-class construction operators that are testing out new technologies to enhance their digital project management capabilities; 

North America is expected to continue as the largest market for digitalisation in construction;There is growing investment in smart infrastructure and construction projects in the region, which is playing a major role in the growing adoption of IoT in the North American construction industry;

Africa is beginning to connect to the internet of things and is making progress towards building truly smart buildings in smart cities in response to increasing urbanization;

In Asia, the digital platforms in construction market is projected to register the highest CAGR between 2021 and 2025;

In South America, around one-third of the population adopted smart devices in 2019, which has led to the growth of internet-based service consumption, i.e. adoption of cloud-based services in the region;

The software segment is driving the demand for digital platforms in construction;Wearables are a popular solution to track worker location and fatigue, while AR-glasses can aid in their efficiency by giving them access to 3D Plans;Remote equipment management systems give a full 360-degree live view to project managers of the site from any angle of the machine – a lift, an excavator, etc.;Predictive maintenance systems are employed to offer site managers real-time data regarding the efficiency of construction equipment;Asset tracking tools are often GPS based and feed into a tracking platform that offers real-time location data on construction equipment and materials;

For construction companies, worksite safety is a key challenge and cost driver, thus being able to locate employees and track safety hazards across vast construction sites could offer immense value to them. IoT Value-add: The American company Triax Technologies has developed the Spot-r, a small, wearable IoT solution that is designed to monitor employee safety. It requires no training for employees, creates a live view of the number of workers on site (added benefit of timekeeping), is able to warn them before entering an unsafe location or detect bottlenecks in the custom analytics platform.

Worksite Safety - Wearables

To monitor structural health many years after a building is completed, construction companies as well as real estate developers are looking into inexpensive, connected IoT sensors and digital platforms. The Danish company Sensohive Technologies has developed a real-time solution for the remote monitoring of concrete temperature, maturity and strength: Maturix. The data is transmitted from the sensor directly to the cloud based platform, without the need for an intermediary such as a smartphone. Such smart sensors can predict the time until buildings need to be renovated and significantly increase the safety of residents

Long-term Structural Health Monitoring

Looking at the world after Covid-19, employers are challenged by ever tighter carbon emission targets as well as raised employee expectations regarding ways of working at the office. Office buildings offer large energy saving potential for businesses, therefore remodelling offices with a digital Platform strategy in mind can offer immense value. As an example, Siemens has developed a suite of lighting, heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC), room automation and building management systems (BMS). Such smart buildings are able to adapt to things like changes in the environment, usage models, footfall, and other occupational characteristics via one integrated IoT platform that optimizes energy consumption.

Smart Buildings - Energy monitoring and optimization

The construction industry refers to all operations engaged in construction that is new work, additions, alterations, reconstruction, installations and repairs. This is independent of the size of the building, the type of contract or the type of work that is done within the construction (e.g. designing, roofing, electricity, …).

Construction

As traditional retailers are turning towards new tech-enabled shopping experiences for their customers to combat disruption from the trend towards e-commerce, the digital platform market in the retail sector is still far from mature;It is lead by key retailers (e.g. Albert Heijn (NL), Carrefour (FR), Ottogroup (DE), Amazon (US), Levis (US), Target (US) and Walmart (US)) and other global technology players (e.g. IBM, Cognizant, Intel, AWS, Cisco and Oracle)

UK and Germany form the biggest digital platform users throughout the Retail landscape in Europe and are contributing most to the continent-wide growth of IoT;Number of active IoT connections in Retail in Europe are already over 2,5M devices in 2020

In the Australian market, high investments in digital platforms in retail are made, to overcome the challenge of chronic labor shortages;

Brazil is expected to contribute the largest revenue to the South American digital platform market;Growth is also coming from Argentina and large Latin e-commerce players (e.g. Mercado Libre) which can use IoT technology for routing optimization within their warehouses

Main technology trends in the digital paltoforms in retail market revolve around RFID-Tags on products to raise transparency in inventory and throughout the supply chain;Another segment is Seamless check in/ Check Out where payment is triggered by movement sensors;Light sensors are being deployed more and more in retail stores to increase product attractivity while reducing electricity costs;Beacons - Merchants can use smart beacons to track customers in-store so that they can optimize the layout of their stores;

North America is expected to remain the global leader in digital retail platforms, with multinational players like Amazon driving the IoT adoption and consumer acceptance through their e-commerce operations but also range of Smart Home products, allowing customers to shop via their voice or a click of a button;

In the African market, the leading country is South Africa, where IoT installed bases (all industries) reached 35 million in 2020;

As the retail industry continues to prioritize sustainability, digital platforms are emerging as a key area of focus. Online retailers are now exploring innovative ways to integrate eco-friendly and socially responsible practices into their digital platforms. For instance, e-commerce marketplaces are increasingly implementing sustainability certifications and badges to highlight products that meet certain environmental standards

In Asia, the first IoT based store opened in Singapore 2019, with continued development of initiatives in Japan, South Korea and China;

To continuously improve the shopping experience for customers, retailers are experimenting with frictionless, tech-enabled experiences. One of these, Augmented Reality (AR) applications, is moving away from a once nice-to-have feature to being commonplace for furniture brands or fashion retailers, allowing customers to virtually try on their next sunglasses using their webcam. The growth in online or contactless shopping over the pandemic has only amplified this trend, rewarding retailers that employ digital twins of their products. In fact, ecommerce companies like Shopify are claiming AR-enabled items on their digital platform show a 94% higher conversion rate.

The Store of the Future

In response to the continued disruption of Covid-19, many retailers are changing their supply chain management practices, such as using digital twins to model their operations as one connected system of assets, warehouses, and inventory flows. This model can then be used to simulate risks and optimise operations through scenario planning, always putting retailers one step ahead of disruptions. IoT Value-add: Early adopters have seen a reduction in inventory, while at the same time improving throughput and service levels, significantly boosting margins in the competitive retail space. An added benefit is the end-to-end visibility retailers can build over their supply chain, with carbon footprints accurately modeled at each step of the production process, enabling compliance with future regulatory ESG requirements.

Revolutionising the retail supply chain in times of Covid-19

The development of generative AI brings many business opportunities for Retail & Wholesale. The fashion industry, which is heavily influenced by short-term trends, can benefit from this digital megatrend in different ways. Generative AI like ChatGPT can be deployed along a company's business functions. In marketing, tools can be used to identify and predict trends or generate personalized content based on consumer profiles and community insights. However, due to the existing need to catch up on the topic of sustainability, there is still more potential. Cheap and convenient delivery terms contribute to the massive carbon footprint. Virtual fitting rooms and better personalization of products can reduce returns and improve the customer experience. This technology can also be transferred to other sales areas. AI can help measure a customer's size or help with direct suggestions based on the consumer profiles mentioned earlier. This greatly reduces the return of unsatisfactory items. In addition, AI can even reduce the carbon footprint of the fast fashion industry, which also reduces costs. Predictive AI can prevent stockpiling by using advanced machine learning and data analytics to forecast sales, trends and customer behavior. This reduces unsold clothing and thus reduces waste.

AI taking the fashion industry to the next level of sustainability

The Retail & Wholesale industry includes establishments engaged in selling merchandise for personal or household consumption and rendering services incidental to the sale of the goods (retail). Additionally, the industry includes selling goods to retailers (wholesale).

Retail & Wholesale

High degree of fragmentation in the smart city market with industry players, technology giants, niche players and software startups all providing customized solutions in large cities, while smaller cities are also beginning to adopt IoT solutions;Worldwide growth rates are expected to rise in the coming years due to the COVID-19 pandemic and accelerated digitalization processes and investments pushed by governments globally;From an overall perspective, APAC region is expected to grow at the highest CAGR within the next years

In Europe, small cities and villages are implementing more and more digital technologies and working together with private utility companies on smart grids while being challenged by the need to integrate modern technology into legacy architecture

In Australia, local governments aim to use IoT in for example fire service drones, which are equipped with cameras and thermal imaging to identify wildfire sources, trapped people, and the positions of firefighters in the field

Software and Services represent over 50% of the technology stack within smart cities;Hardware and connectivity are important fields as a basis for smart city solutions, e.g. LoRa or 5G;Highest rate of digital governmental services, e.g online consultations or services;Cyber Security is perhaps the most important aspect out of all IoT markets

Drivers for smart technologies in African cities are 1) the limited legacy infrastructure and systems, so that new IoT-based technologies can be implemented immediately, 2) a young consumer population, 3) a strong innovative and entrepreneurial culture, 4) a continuously growing middle-class and 5) one of the fastest growing mobile phone adoption rates;

Drivers for this digital platform market are 1) government initiatives for overpopulation and urbanization management, 2) climate change and increasing need for sustainable resource management 3) safety and security initiatives by governments and cities, 4) initiatives by municipal utilities and 5) big and small cities with strongly increasing numbers of inhabitants;

Governments in Asia strongly support the smart city development, especially with a focus on fixed visual surveillance, public transportation and smart outdoor lighting, with Singapore and South Korea being one of the countries with the widest applications;

North American market is expected to offer the biggest market for smart government solutions in early 2020s, with mobile applications as a key driver;

In South America, the increasing need for smart technology in cities supports IoT based solutions as urbanization is strongly growing and already 80% of the population lives in cities in 2020;

City lighting infrastructure has always been plagued by electricity over-consumption, with lamps being turned on despite only being used for 20% of the time (e.g. at night). With Smart Lighting, grid electricity consumption can be significantly reduced while improving safety for all citizens. Continuous data exchange between cars, people and infrastructure allows for smarter usage of road-side lights as dimming not only occurs on a day-night cycle but also brightens if passer-by crosses the road or light sensors sense a particularly cloudy day.

Smart Outdoor lighting

Traffic management is one of the biggest infrastructure challenges city officials face, with the degree to which a city is vulnerable to traffic jams being directly linked to pollution, quality of life indexes and economic productivity. Embedded in a smart city platform, a networked set of smart traffic lights can look at the city as a whole and divert traffic where needed or only block the road if passer-by are waiting. This can be achieved via cameras, sensors but also wireless connections to the cars themselves (V2I, V2V, V2X) and extended for applications like smart parking.

Intelligent traffic management

In times where renewable energy sources form an increasing share of the energy mix (whose output is hard to control), utility companies have to look at ways to store excess energy during times of peak production. With most cars standing idle for 23 hours of the day, smart city utility companies can harness this networked grid of electric vehicle batteries to deposit electricity. Energy can then also be returned to the grid to flatten electricity generation curves in response to peak demand. The Mobility House has successfully implemented this concept into the Amsterdam JCA Arena where V2G technology is integrated together with a 1-megawatt photovoltaic system on the roof which intelligently supplies the arena with power during peak usage.

Smart Grid – V2G Charging

The Public Services & Smart City industry refers to activities by public institutions such as the national government, municipal governments, national agencies, etc. which do not generally pursue a profit-making objective in this context. Here Smart City is an extensive subfield focused on activities, products, and solutions in the urban environment.

Public Services & Smart City

In the Utilities sector, the digital platform market still shows a high degree of fragmentation with industry players, technology giants, niche players and software startups all providing customized solutions; Worldwide growth rates are expected to rise in the coming years due to accelerated digitalization processes in the energy sector and governments releasing regulation favorable for technologies like smart metering

Drivers for the digital platforms market in utilities are providers and governments responding to increasing demand for renewable energy sources with immense investment, and in the case of government, favorable regulation;Many utility companies are trying to leverage value from supplementary services and data on customer behavior via IoT technology like smart meters

In Asia, China and India are the largest power consumers which are driving digital platform demand with their desire to improve grid reliability and slowly shift away from coal energy,  into renewables

Software and Services represent the majority of the technology stack within the utilities sector;Hardware and connectivity are important fields as a basis for smart city solutions, e.g. LoRa or 5G;Highest rate of digital governmental services, e.g online consultations or services;In this sector, Cyber Security is perhaps the most important aspect out of all IoT markets

In South America, the increasing need for smart technology in cities support digital platform developments as urbanization is strongly growing and already 80% of the population lives in cities in 2020

The North American Utilities market is currently offering the biggest opportunities for digital platform solutions, with many utilities and technology companies driving development in for example self-healing grid technologies;High consumer acceptance for new technologies, especially in the US where 75% of households in 2021 had a smart meter installed

In Europe, utilities companies are often challenged by the need to integrate modern technology into legacy architecture and grid technology;Government regulation regarding technologies like smart metering vastly differs from country, with for example Germany still being very hesitant, citing concerns over data privacy. Once loosened this could act as a strong catalyst for growth

In Oceania, governments like Australia are pushing to diversify their grid mix away from coal to reduce their reliance on China and bring carbon emissions in line with international regulation like the Paris climate agreement, all driving demand for grid management and IoT technology

Drivers for smart technologies in African cities are 1) the limited legacy infrastructure and systems, so that new IoT-based technologies can be implemented immediately, 2) a young consumer population, 3) a strong innovative and entrepreneurial culture, 4) a continuously growing middle-class and 5) one of the fastest growing mobile phone adoption rates

As electric vehicles are becoming more and more popular, the strain on legacy grids increases and operators are struggling to gather real-time data for their distribution management. This problem sparks one of the most popular digital platform use cases in utilities: smart metering. For utility companies, smart metering improves network planning and time series analyses and provides them with a direct channel to offer consumers value-adding services (e.g. direct usage recommendations, flexible tariffs and smart home applications).

Smart Metering

In a traditional electricity grid, the communication delay between demand and supply can lead to inefficiencies as well as unnecessary power generation. The Dutch utility company Alliander is piloting a software based system to better match supply and demand. Integrating connected consumer devices into the grid management allows them to have better insights about electricity demand and smoothe out their electricity generation curves in response.

Real-time Energy Exchange

In legacy grids, technicians first have to spend a long time finding the source of interference in the event of a blackout, leaving many customers without electricity for extended periods. Intelligent local grid stations and cables equipped with sensors and actuators can enable an autonomous and almost immediate FLISR (fault location, isolation and service restoration). This way grid flows can be channeled via alternative routes, minimizing the number of customers without electricity.

Self-Healing Grid

Utilities refer to all establishments engaged in the generation, transmission and/or distribution of electricity, gas or steam, as well as water and irrigation systems, sanitary systems engaged in the collection and disposal of garbage, sewage, and other wastes.

Utilities

The IoT in Financial Services market is fairly mature but continues to be disrupted by new technology trends like 5G or Blockchain;Increasing usage of online banking applications is expected to be one of the key factors driving the growth of IoT in Financial Services market during the coming years;Major Finance players control the market but will be challenged by uprising FinTech’s soon;

The African market offers a very young population thus more and more acceptance of connected devices but also low healthcare expenditure;Remote virtual care could offer new opportunities for rural patients in the future

In Asia, Singapore, Japan, and South Korea have been strong eHealth adopters already;China, Malaysia and India are emerging markets that are expected to make APAC the fastest growing market for the digital healthcare sector

North America continues to lead the digital platform market due to the large number of healthcare and IT-companies being based in the U.S., fostering IoT innovation with favorable legislation, research grants and investments into new technologies;The U.S. also acts as a major test bed for the digital healthcare market, with the highest usage rate of digital technologies, such as digital patient records already being standard practice 

Key technology drivers are related to remote monitoring of a patient’s health to fight against chronic diseases and support geriatric populations. Devices and solutions are manifold, from wearables (tracking heart rate, eye movement, temperature, sleep, oxygen level, brain activity), to implants (glucose level trackers or even connected pacemakers) or stationary solutions (motion trackers, weight sensing, smart lighting etc.);Stable growth also coming from services related to system integration, especially for “fleet management” of advanced medical devices;Software and Systems are also expected to show high growth due to immense Data Analytics opportunities, especially through advanced cloud systems aimed at monitoring healthcare devices from remote global command centres;Connectivity is enabled by either Wi-Fi for its strong bandwidth and security while lower energy technologies like Bluetooth, ZigBee or Narrowband IoT are used for less data-intensive devices;

The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted often outdated healthcare systems, but also sparked immense investments by governments around the world, packing years’ worth of digital reforms into a few months;The digital healthcare market highly benefited from this digital transformation, with the key growth drivers being aging populations, the rising adoption of wearable technology, growing investments for digital technologies, and the emergence of connected care.

In South America, Brazil is driving the eHealth market with raising wages, the largest healthcare expenditure in the region but also the highest number of diabetes-affected individuals in Latin America, leaving opportunities for remote patient monitoring devices and services;In general, South American Healthcare infrastructure is underdeveloped and thus offers large potential

Europe remains one of the key markets for digital healthcare growth due to its comparatively older population and the local presence of many healthcare and technology companies;Moreover, there is a rapid acceptance of connected devices and continuous initiatives by the EU to increase digital literacy, further facilitating individual interactions with the IoT and digital platforms

In Australia in particular, labor shortages are driving digital technology uptake to make better use of hospital resources and numerous government initiatives drive the acceptance of e-health in the general population.  

The immense data-flows created by IoT Healthcare Devices offer challenging opportunities for integrated service offerings, predictive maintenance but also decision support by analysing treatment effectiveness across all users. Platform services like the GE Health Cloud tackle this challenge and create a platform for interoperability of IoT enabled systems. It also consolidates past health records with live patient monitoring data in one secure and connected cloud system with integrated analytics and visualization features.

Integrated Service & Support Systems

To enable remote patient monitoring of for example elderly patients, their activity needs to be tracked and bundled on a digital platform throughout the entire day, at home or even outside, an area that is often hard to track due to limited connectivity. Philips’ suite of Medical Alert Systems is equipped with fall detection sensors, a cellular + Wi-Fi module for GPS tracking and emergency phone capabilities. Such connected wearables can reduce readmission rates and prevent shocks for diabetic or high blood pressure patients.

Telemedicine - Remote patient monitoring

For Hospitals, locating and managing equipment, staff and patients quickly is paramount for emergency response times. IoT is a key enabler for hospital efficiency, as location-based services can equip Smart-Hospitals with wayfinding (indoor turn-by-turn navigation), geo-location (where am I, where is equipment) and geo-notification (push messaging when area is entered e.g. hand hygiene) via Bluetooth Low Energy technology.

Connectivity-enabled Hospitals

The healthcare industry, on the one hand, refers to establishments engaged in the provision of medical, surgical and other healthcare services to individuals. On the other hand, the healthcare industry includes the development and production of medical devices and machinery.

Healthcare

Your situation as an Digital Use Case Adopter today and how to unlock your digital platform potential

Your situation as an Digital Platform Champion today and how to unlock your digital platform potential

Your situation as an Digital Platform Integrator today and how to unlock your digital platform potential

Your situation as a Digital Novice today and how to unlock your digital platform potential

North America

South America

Europe

Africa

Asia

Oceania

‘Hardware’ is the physical layer of the digital platform, such as sensors, servers or storage.

Hardware

‘Connectivity’ includes technologies to integrate endpoints and data into the ecosystem and to provide network access connectivity digital devices.

Connectivity

‘Software and Platform’ are required to build digital solutions and to integrate into an ecosystem to make solutions available to stakeholders.

Software & Platform

'Digital Services and Solutions' are directly related to designing, implementing or offering solutions to clients.


Services & Solutions

Advise clients to define their digital platform strategy and translate their technical IoT ideas from a business perspective

Business Consulting services

Technical implementation of IoT solutions incl. customization, development and integration of hardware and software components

Engineering & Integration Services

Provide business & consumer end-to-end platform solutions directly related to a platform/ IoT use case

Digital Solutions

Provide platform building block software (e.g. digital twins, rules engine, event management, business app integration & visualization) to process data generated via endpoints

Platform Building Blocks

Provide individual functionalities to orchestrate platform endpoints, IoT solutions and to connect internal and/or external stakeholders. This can include any kind of functionalities like a front end, IoT application marketplace, integration development environment, billing services etc.

Platform Functionalities

Provide any other types of software supprting digital solutions and ecosystems (e.g. data management, middleware, security, sensor related)

Other Software

Provide technology to connect and integrate endpoint data to enable higher level data processing for digtial solutions

Data Integration and Data Management

Provide and manage endpoint connectivity and network access (e.g. Lora, 5G, Sigfox, …)

Connectivity Services

Provide IoT communicating and computing modules, hubs, controllers, antennaes

Communication modules

Development of any type of IoT sensors which detect events or changes in its environment 

IoT Sensoring

Provide server systems (e.g. motherboards, memory, internal disk, OS, power supply, network interface, enablement infrastructure, security related hardware)

In which industry do you plan to offer digital products and/or services?