As businesses prepare for the new normal, now is the time to make smart decisions about the future. By 2023 it’s estimated that companies worldwide will invest $1.1 trillion in Internet of Things technologies, while the number of connections is forecast to top 3.5 billion devices and sensors according to market intelligence company IDC. This is one step towards creating the digital-defined business, where data drives decision making.

“The ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’ of the business world are becoming increasingly obvious,” says Anne Sheehan, director of Vodafone Business UK. “And it is technologies such as IoT that are proving to be the differentiator to introduce more efficient processes or generate new revenues.” Sheehan points to the company’s recent report into the Internet of Things, which found that 87 per cent of UK businesses that implemented Internet of Things technologies have already seen tangible returns. “This is a competitive edge today that will only become more apparent as we move forward,” she says.

But what do those numbers actually mean? Well, take the water that comes out the tap in your kitchen. Across the UK, about 23 per cent of the water that runs through underground pipes is lost to leakage, more than three billion litres of water a day – or 1,200 Olympic-sized swimming pools. The industry has set itself the target of reducing water leakage levels by 15 per cent in the next five years – but some are going further still. SES Water, a utilities firm that provides water to approximately 730,000 people in East Surrey, and parts of West Sussex, West Kent and South London, is using Internet of Things technology, underground sensors to monitor pressure, flow, temperature and acoustic signals, to pinpoint the exact location of leaks in its network. Read On: