Covid19

admin
July 13, 2020
IoT

How Can IoT Improve Supply Chain During COVID-19?

The spread of COVID-19 has restrained the speed of businesses and interrupted the functioning of logistics and transportations. The current dilemma is how to sustain in the situation and to stop the economic meltdown while staying healthy.

Many companies and manufacturing industries are struggling to supply the goods to the customer or market. Recent studies conducted by Adobe stated that online purchase of hand sanitizer, masks, gloves and anti-bacterial sprays was raised by 817 per cent in February 2020. The sudden shift from window shopping to online has created a new challenge as well as an opportunity for all the businesses. Most of the businesses are opening an online platform for shopping, but without good and reliable logistics and transport, nothing is worth doing.

To stay economically healthy in the business, retailers need to assure that they are providing an excellent quality customer experience. Retailers need to inform about the shipment status and its expected delivery date of the product to the customer.

From packaging to delivery, proactive communication about the status of a product can only be achieved by the involvement of IoT and sensors.

Adopting sensors integrated with IoT devices can help retailers in keeping a track on the shipment to know its status and to inform the same to the customer. But before we understand how holistically Iot will aid in supply chains, let’s check what are the challenges in supply chain management.

Challenges in supply chain management:

Today, the supply chain has become the heart of any business, if it is not available, then forget about the profit and fulfilment of demands. However, with the globalization, lack of technology adoption and rise in eCommerce, supply chain complexities are increased.

Here are a few challenges which are disrupting in smooth supply chain flow:

  1. Lack of coordination and communication between people at different places involved in supply chains like producers, brokers, transporters, processors, retailers, wholesalers and consumers.
  2. Lack of fast last-mile delivery and compliance to meet the operational needs required for direct-to-customer fulfilment.
  3. Improper manual and slow data reconciliation process.
  4. Lack of transparency and improper record maintenance across the supply chain.
  5. Poor stock management and no record maintenance of stolen, lost, shortage of products and inability to maintain minimum stock level etc.
  6. Lack of visibility in supply chain inventory and security across all the channels in the supply chain.
  7. Unsatisfied customers because of late deliveries without information.

Well, COVID-19 has proved the need for improvement in the logistics and adoption of the latest technologies for getting the best results. IoT offers a lot to the logistics to overcome challenges, improve transparency and ensure on-time delivery. Let us check how IoT can add advancement, proactive communication and transparency in logistics:

Precise Location Tracking:

Today, when the virus is spreading everywhere, the shipment has become more significant as people are staying home to stay healthy. The expectation of the customers to get the delivery on time has raised to a much higher level. By switching to the Internet of things enabled devices, companies can have insights into shipment and its status, which they can share with the customers. Companies can share the location of the consignment and the estimated delivery date of the packages.

Read More: How COVID-19 Explains The Need for IoT Based World?

Not just this, data received by IoT devices also helps retailers in scheduling optimized shipment routes for faster delivery, improved functioning and providing the best customer experience.

IoT enabled devices even helps in identifying warehouse delays and assists in addressing weak links while pushing overall efficiencies. Today in this virus affected the world, such data can be proved as lifesaving. Suppliers can trace the routes where shipments are facing snag and causing late delivery. They can avoid the road in future and opt for another way to make sure the delivery of essential products on time to customers.

Shipment Conditions Monitoring:

Apart from tracking consignment, delivering product in good condition is also essential. By acquiring, computing and providing updates on the environment state of a shipment can add confidence that the package is at a good state. This part is particularly important for providers of fragile or perishable products, as containers depart from supplier to seller to customer.

For clear vision, let us take an example of shipment containing food/dairy packages. A food/dairy shipment requires proper temperature throughout the journey to maintain quality; otherwise, it would just not spoil the reputation of the brand but would lead to serious health issues.

Through IoT-enabled sensors, a retailer can keep a check on container conditions to make sure no compromise with quality. In fact, if some issues appear, the retailer can take immediate steps to resolve the problems.

Global Connectivity:

Tracking and monitoring consignment is possible through Iot devices that are connected to a global network and can provide insights to retailers and customers to stay aware of products’ status.

Companies should switch to a 0G network to provide them with global connectivity. A 0G network is an exclusive low-bandwidth wireless network designed to connect simple, low-cost and less power consuming IoT devices to the internet. It is used to transfer a small amount of data across long ranges. It is different from others as it can transmit data such as location or temperature at a lower cost without compromising with quality.

On the other hand, due to less consumption of power, battery life is longer and lasts till the shipment journey ends. Thus it provides real-time data of the package location.

Excellent visibility provided by IoT across the supply chain offers an opportunity for enterprises to adopt the path to operational efficiency, aids in providing better customer experiences and a healthy bottom line.

Though COVID-19 has interrupted in the growth and development, it has given an opportunity to explore and adopt the most beneficial technology for improving efficiency and increasing benefits. Most of the companies are embracing IoT to churn profits. IoT provides insights to adjust the changes caused by a virus while offering excellent services at less price.

If you are looking for an IoT development company, then your search is ended. Contact Prompt Softech to get the most advanced and reliable IoT services.

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admin
June 29, 2020
IoT

How COVID-19 Explains The Need for IoT Based World?

The irruption of the Coronavirus in our life, either technological or non-technological, has disrupted the regular flow. It has not just shown our incapabilities in healthcare but has challenged us on the technical table.

We thought that the present giant technologies are the best like anything. Still, the sudden fatal interference by COVID-19 expressed the need for more virtual and reliable interconnection for day to day tasks.

Do you think post-pandemic, IoT along with other technologies would aid in boosting the lost economy while ensuring full security? Let’s wear the future showing shades and check how the tech-world would be after the end of the pandemic.

1) Touch-Screen: A scary-old fashioned technology:

Today (COVID-19 crises), touch word has now another obvious meaning-‘avoid it’.

Post-Pandemic, contactless interfaces, and interactions would be the new ‘must adopt’ tech trend. Yesterday’s touch screen trend which had once made us crazy would be limited. COVID-19 has made us ultra-aware of every touchable thing which could transmit the disease.

After pandemic, there would be a digital revolution and technology would prioritize more machine vision interfaces and voice interfaces.

We have already seen different payment options available without any physical touch. However, now consumers would prefer more options to pay for goods and services without any physical touch.

Machine vision offers autonomous checkout at some stores and has been used to apply social media filters. In the coming days, Iot along with sensors would expand its capabilities, and we would get a more reliable and accurate voice and machine vision interface that could recognize gestures and faces limiting the physical contact. Most of the industries would adopt it for fulfilling different purposes and needs.

2) Adoption of better infrastructure:

Well, the lesson we all should pick from this COVID-19 period is to strengthen digital infrastructure. In the COVID stress, people adopted work from home and searched for digital solutions to sustain their daily requirements and needs. There were few digital solutions to organize meetings, project management, workout, and many other necessary things.

Thus, COVID-19 disclosed the opportunity for both the employee and employer by allowing work from home in the future. Iot would interrupt in between the changes and would provide a better solution to follow the work from home.

Read More: Why IoT (Internet Of Things) will Be a New Normal?

3) Better Monitoring Using IoT and Big Data:

The health sector, which is struggling to deliver its best in the pandemic, needs rejuvenation through technology. In this pandemic period, we unveiled the importance of data. We learned that IoT and Big data could be proved as the savior for monitoring and curbing future pandemics.

Health apps could be used for warning the future pandemics by tracking the person who shows the symptom. GPS data could determine the possible infected people who have been in touch with the symptom showing a person. But one has to ensure that privacy is not disturbed at all to prevent any data misuse while endeavoring for benefit.

4) AI-Enabled Drug Development:

The development of a safe and effective drug could help in treating and curing the disease before it could blanket the whole nation. AI is considered as a right partner in drug development because it can help in analyzing the patterns and behavior of the virus as well as balance the human endeavors.

5) Telemedicine:

The COVID emergency has set up a new online treatment culture for already existing patients dealing with different health issues. You might be coming across such services. Hospitals are reminding their regular patients for consultation through video calls for restricting crowd in hospitals to stop virus spread. The dependency of healthcare on the online services has increased now and hopefully, would continue post-pandemic.

6) Elevation in Online Shopping:

To be honest, most of the people are now scared of visiting the market and shopping malls for the sake of dresses and other essential things. The spread of Coronavirus has unleashed an unstoppable opportunity for e-commerce businesses. From groceries to the cleaning, from grooming to the clothing, today everyone is dependent on the online stores. Businesses which provide online option weaved benefit while companies offering no online platform is dealing with a significant loss.

Post pandemic, many businesses would rush to add online services to make their business more versatile and profitable. Not just this, there would be a good elevation in the logistics and delivery systems to meet the demands even in critical times like pandemic.

Read More: How will IoT Transform Transportation in the Coming Years?

7) Robots will be in fashion:

Today, businesses and health care are realizing the importance of robots in this crisis. Robots are not vulnerable to viruses, and they can also serve in the most mannered way.

Post-Pandemic, robots could be employed for delivering groceries, for performing vital roles in hospitals, or for running factories. Companies have jotted down the importance of Robots and would be preferring them in the future to assure smooth services in any situation.

8) Digital Events more feasible:

Before lockdown, there were many in-person events, but today all the event organizers have to take a digital platform to follow the designed schedule.

The unbelievable outcome received from the digital events is increased participation. People around the world are participating and rendering their opinion, either its technology-based event or a discussion on the economy.

Though there are some pros and cons in digital events, so in-person events might not be completely replaced, but there are huge chances that post-pandemic digital events would become part of normal life.

9. Rise in Esports:

Like all other things, the sports world had to shut down in the COVID stress. Event organizers, sponsors, and fans had to accept this unwanted reality. However, this lockdown disclosed an alternative way of enjoyment. There are e-versions of sports like F1 care racing which are telecasted on the television. Though they may not give the real feel, in the coming year there would be a better and more realistic look.

In the coming days, sports would choose the online platform and would use the most advanced technology to provide the most exciting and genuine sports feel.

COVID-19 might be disturbing businesses, economy, and progress, but it is teaching us how to be best by being at home and by avoiding the contact. It has developed an appetite to develop the most advanced version of the present technology. It has asked developers and IT professionals to extract the best from IoT and AI. It has warned the healthcare system to become more robust to face future pandemics and develop an intense bond with the latest technologies.

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admin
May 12, 2020
Big Data

How China, US and Taiwan used Big Data In The Fight Against Coronavirus?

Big data is no new word in today’s tech wrapped world. Today in this corona crisis situation, Big data has emerged as an incomparable tech invention for different purposes.

It is used in the fight against CoronaVirus, thus suggesting the need for the further development of big data and requirement of Big Data analysis for different purposes.

There are many Big data specialist companies delivering Big Data solutions for better approaches to the result.

Countries are tapping into Big data, Internet Of Things and Machine learning to track and identify the outbreak. They are using digital technology to get real-time forecasts and help healthcare professionals and government for predicting the impact of the COVID-19.

Let’s switch back to the real topic we were talking about. Let’s know about the vital role played by Big Data in this COVID-19 fight.

Surveillance Infrastructure In China:

The first in the list is China as it is the place where COVID-19 first case was reported. China’s monitoring culture emerged as a powerful weapon in the fight against COVID-19. China installed thermal scanners in train stations to detect the body temperature and separate the probably infected one. As we know, high fever is the symptom of COVID-19; the passengers showing the symptom were stopped by health officials to undergo coronavirus testing. If the test comes positive, then the administration would alert all other passengers who might have exposure to the virus so that they could follow self-quarantine.

China has installed millions of security camera to keep a track over the citizens’ activities and curb the crime rates. These cameras were used to discover people who were not following the proposed quarantine to stop the spread of the virus.

If a person who was supposed to be in quarantine, but cameras tracked them outside their homes, authorities were called to take appropriate actions.

In fact, the Chinese government also used an app named “Close Contact Detector” that notified users if they had contact with someone who was corona virus-positive.

Travel verification reports/data shared by telecom providers were used to list all the cities visited by the user in the last 14 days to check whether quarantine was recommended based on their location or not.

The integration of data collected by using the surveillance system helped the country in exploring the ways to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

Read More: Will 2020 Be The Transition Phase of Internet Of Things?

Big Data Analytics and Taiwan’s successful pandemic strategy:

After the observation of painful stage in China because of Corona spread, it was expected that Taiwan would be hit harder than China.

But, surprisingly, Taiwan faced the virus havoc very smartly. It used advanced technology and strong pandemic plan, which they prepared after the 2003 SARS outbreak to control the virus’s impact there.

Taiwan has integrated its national health insurance database with migration and custom database. Through this centralisation of data, the country faced the coronavirus strongly. They got real-time alerts regarding the probably infected one on the basis of symptoms & their travel history.

The country even had a QR code scanning and online reporting of travel and health symptoms that helped the medical officials to categorise the travellers’ infection risk. They even provided a toll-free hotline for citizens to report symptoms.

When the first corona case was reported, and WHO informed about the pneumonia of unknown cause in China, Taiwan activated all its warriors, including technology. This quick and active response taken by the country saved it from the severe effect of this fatal disease.

Use of Mobile Apps in Pandemic:

In America and Europe, people’s privacy is the priority still medical researchers and bioethics focused on the power of technology and supported its use for contact tracing in a pandemic.

Oxford University’s Big Data Institute co-operated with government officials to explain the advantages of a mobile app that provides valuable data for controlling coronavirus spread.

As we know, mostly coronavirus transmissions occur before the symptoms are visible thus speed and effectiveness to alarm people had been deemed as supreme during a pandemic like a coronavirus.

Read More: How can IoT be Used to Fight Against COVID-19?

A mobile app that holds the advanced 21st-century technology can help in the notification process while maintaining principles to decelerate the infection spread rate.

In 2011, Tech experts had developed a solution to monitor and track the spread of flu efficiently, but the app wasn’t adopted, thus limited its usage.

Now organisations are working to develop app solutions that can provide a platform where people can self-identify their health status and symptoms.

For the development of such apps, there are many app development companies that offer the most advanced and reliable services.

Corona has not just given us health challenges but also providing necessary learning experiences for data science in healthcare.

In US, the government is conversing with tech hulks like google, Facebook, and many others to know the possibilities for using location data from smartphones to track the movements of its citizens and analyse the patterns.

Dashboard to track the virus spread:

Dashboard is another tool that has been proved helpful for citizens, healthcare workers, and government policymakers to see the progression of contagion and how invasive this virus would be.

Dashboard collects the data from around the world to display the no. of confirmed cases and deaths caused by coronavirus with locations.

This data can be analysed and used to create models and find the existing hotspot of the disease, which could help in proper decision making for the home-quarantine period and help healthcare systems to prepare for the coming challenges.

Outbreak analytics use all the available data like confirmed cases, infected people, deaths, map, population densities, traveller flow etc. and then process it using machine learning for the development of possible patterns of the disease. These models are further used to get the best predictions of the infection rates and results.

Thus, it is obvious that proper use of big data solutions and big data analysis can help countries in this pandemic. Big data, machine learning and other technologies can provide a model and predict the flow of a pandemic. It can analyse data to assist the health officials in preparation for the fight against Corona or any other future pandemics.

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admin
April 22, 2020
IoT

How can IoT be Used to Fight Against COVID-19?

The current COVID-19 is disturbing countries; the increasing cases and death news has alerted everyone.WHO has declared COVID-19 a global pandemic on 11 March 2020.

The world is facing challenges currently like identifying the origin of the epidemic, decelerating its spread, and having enough medical resources to treat patients.

Pain points in a virus pandemic:

The increased spread of the COVID-19 has punctured all the services and exposed many structural problems in governments’ health response systems.

All these sudden exposers of the problems redirect us to the conclusion – inability to regulate the solutions which can dominate the expansion of the outbreak.

Tracking the eye of an outbreak, quarantining the infected patients to stop the further spread, treating infected patients, and making sure for no spread between medical staff and patients. All these ‘needs of the time’ require enormous human resources.

The accelerated epidemic will curb the system and will make it more fragile and weak.

Any way or solution that can help in this pandemic?

IoT Application during COVID-19:

In this current COVID-19 crisis, IoT is already contributing to managing some aspects of the COVID-19.

For instance, drones are already employed for monitoring roads and the public to assure quarantine and wearing masks. AI has also been adopted to predict future outbreaks.

Some notable applications of IoT:

  • IoT integrated thermometers are being used in hospitals and other public places to screen patients and staff to detect which US countries are seeing an increase in fever( high fever is the symptom of COVID-19). These map-wise data generated provides unparalleled real-time disease surveillance, which enables health services to respond as early as possible.
  • IoT connected wearables have become an essential part of the Corona crises. In Wuhan, China, Patients and staff at a field hospital wore rings and bracelets synched with an AI platform for monitoring vital signs like temperature, heart rate and blood oxygen levels. The government of Hong Kong is using electronic tracker wristbands to inform and alert administration ( health authorities) if any person is coming from international destinations and is not following compulsory home quarantine directed by them. On the other side, a team of entrepreneurs have developed an advanced wristband that vibrates when a person wearing it tries to touch his/her face ( the most probable way through which virus is spread.)
  • Robots are used to relieve the stress of healthcare workers and contribute to assisting in treatments. The 5G connected robots deliver drinks, food and medication to patients. They are even used to disinfect hospitals and other risk locations.
  • In Vancouver, British Columbia (Canada), hospitals are installing IoT buttons (battery operated and connected through LTE-M) that sends alerts to management for cleanliness or maintenance issues that can cause risk of virus spread, endangering lives. Through this facility managers can track signals and staffs’ response time to schedule the cleaning rotations.
  • Drones are not just monitoring lockdown but are carrying medical samples and supplies to and from COVID-19 hotspots. Drones are also employed for spraying disinfectant in some public spaces and vehicles which are crossing through the most affected areas.

Well, the time has re-defined the potentials of the IoT services and the requirement of it in businesses. There are IoT app development companies which can help you and your business for staying safe.

Also Read: IoT- An Advanced Approach to Update Small Businesses

Investigation of COVID-19 through IoT:

The numerous and diverse data collected by mobile devices are used by IoT for various application during this COVID-19 stress.

IoT can be used to discover the origin of an outbreak:

An IoT based study by researchers at MIT used aggregated mobile phone data to trace the spread of dengue virus in Singapore during 2013-2014.

The overlaying GIS ( Geographical information system) on IoT mobile data from the patients can help in many ways. On one hand it can help epidemiologists in tracing the patient zero. On the other hand, it can help in identifying people who have come in touch with the infected one as they may be infected.

Restricting People for quarantine using IoT:

IoT can act as a watcher to ensure that patients are following the quarantine properly. Health care personnel can monitor the infected person following is quarantine or breached it. If the person has breached then through IoT data, one can track who else may be exposed to the virus through the infected person.

IoT holding responsibility for patient care and management:

The attributes of IoT has come in deep use for the surveillance of patients who either need to be quarantined at home or need in-hospital care.

With IoT, patients can check their temperature and upload the data of the same with their mobile devices to the cloud for analysis. This facility grants help worker accessibility to maximum data in less time while assuring no spread of the virus through a patient.

Through IoT devices, medical staff can keep remote monitoring of in-home patients with chronic conditions like diabetes or hypertension. The regular checkup of heartbeat and blood pressure through wearables can provide a big relief to the medical workers. The provided data can be analysed for identifying the pattern.

Also Read: Is IIoT is the Fourth Industrial Revolution?

IoT to remain Healthy:

Adding IoT in your indoor environments could help you in staying safe from the infectious disease in today’s world.

According to EPA, indoor air in homes might be more polluted than outdoor air. The advent of COVID-19 has closed the outside world. Thus, we have to stay inside breathing impure air, which can never be healthy. Having a good IoT enabled indoor air management can add a lot to your living.

In offices, the indoor environment should be healthy and comfortable. The business owners should add an indoor air quality management program that can control contaminations and maintain ventilation.

In an indoor air quality program, IoT platform monitors the air quality by detecting the pollutants and helps in maintaining the fresh air inflow. It even provides actionable data which one can use to address existing issues and document your improvement over time.

IoT, IoT and Only IoT:

It is now obvious that the combination of existing technology and the IoT components can be used to empower the healthcare system to deal with the disease. The only obstacle is that- they are fragmented but not connected.

This means that systems need to be able to build up its infrastructure quicky to connect to the data collection components, processing and storage to enable the system to tract disease, monitor quarantine and keep a watch on an infected one.

In the coming years, IoT would get a special place for its contribution to the development of the health care system. It could detect the infection more quickly and deliver other services more efficiently. The advanced health care management in an office or any other place may include indoor sensor technology for virus detection, pollutant or any other toxic.

Thus getting IoT services or contacting an IoT development company would be better for your health and business as well.

In the end, Stay Safe.

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