Amazon's Dash Foreshadows the Future of Enterprise IT: Business-Specific Hardware
This week, Amazon launched "Dash"; a simple device that scans bar codes (or your voice) to quickly create a shopping list integrated with your Amazon Fresh account. Amazon Fresh is Amazon's emerging "digital" competitor to the traditional grocery store, currently available in a few west coast markets. Dash is a great idea; particularly for households who find themselves with a few recurring "go-to" meals and snacks. What's the advantage of using Dash over a phone that could perform the same function? Simple; it's simpler. User engagement will undoubtedly be higher by having a device that everyone in the family can quickly use, without having a dependency on a phone being available and configured properly.
The addition of Dash to the Amazon Fresh offering is yet another example of the democratization of hardware product development; a big component of the evolving Internet of Things movement. Just as the production of software has moved from the hands of a few large companies, to small startups and individual inventors; so will the process of creating purpose-built connected hardware devices. The availability of 3-D Printing technology, open-source hardware initiatives like Rasberry Pi and Arduino, along with the commoditization of sensor technology, is enabling organizations of all sizes to quickly create new hardware products that fill a specific, niche need.
Take Oso Technologies, for example. A few engineers down at the University of Illinois had an idea to create a simple connected device that monitors the health of household plants. They prototyped the device using open-sourced hardware technologies, put the concept on Kickstarter, and within a few weeks had reached their fundraising goal and launched a business.
The same pattern can be applied to the large enterprise. Just as large corporations have sought competitive differentiation through custom software development, they can now also differentiate through custom hardware connected devices and/or purpose-built wearables.
In the Dash example, traditional enterprise retailers like Safeway or Walgreens could very well launch a competing offering to Fresh that not only enabled automatic shopping list creation with a device like Dash, but also offer in-store pickup or delivery services.
Other employers can consider purpose-built connected employee badges to collect additional information about employee logistics and traffic patterns. Rugged environments (warehouses, distribution centers, factory floors) could replace expensive, rugged mobile devices with less expensive connected devices for inventory management, scanning and routing. Hospitals could create devices for tracking patients or medical equipment. Anywhere there is an element of human workflow in the physical world, with an ultimate tie to the digital domain, there is an application waiting to be uncovered. The opportunities are endless and ultimately, will be very specific to each organization.
What's actionable today? Get familiar with the capabilities of 3D printers, open source hardware kits and low power wireless networks (like Bluetooth LE, Zigbee and NFC). Start thinking about where a purpose-built hardware device can help an existing business process increase efficiency or (ideally) increase revenue. We're actively prototyping these capabilities for our clients and even using them ourselves. Our firm has already deployed devices within our own office that track occupancy of meeting rooms and take pictures of white boards at meeting conclusions.
The opportunities for most organizations remain to be uncovered, but the future is clear: connected, purpose-built devices and wearables will drive the next generation of human workflow and enterprise business process. If existing firms are looking for a way to get ahead, this is definitely one area to start exploring.