IT Brief, New Zealand: Cognizant’s Vice President of Mobility Makes a Case for CIOs to Consider Wearable Tech in Enterprises

“The enterprise wearables market is expected to reach $18 billion by 2019,” says Sowri S. Krishnan. “Smartphones and tablets were the catalysts that steered the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) movement in the workplace. And now applications and services will be the fuel to fan the wearable technology fires,” he says. Excerpts:

“The wearable technology trend is driven mainly by people wishing to simplify their lives, by consolidating and analyzing data from various sources to interpret the world around them better and provide contextual insights.

The next few years will see the early adoption of wearables. These range from smart glasses and smart watches to activity trackers and more, but the key to this transformation is usability in the workplace.

For instance, healthcare organizations can utilize wearables that leverage the capabilities of biometric sensors to monitor remotely and regularly health statistics such as blood pressure and sleep patterns.

Customer experience in the retail sector can also be transformed with wearable technology. For example, retail organizations can identify customers by harnessing the fields of information surrounding them—their Code Halos resulting from their digital footprints and forming their virtual identities—to break down the barriers between IT and business.

Wearable technology can become bigger and better with augmented reality. In the near future, augmented reality is expected to usher in new ways for businesses and industry processes such as improved asset utilization, process efficiency, productivity, cost savings and revenues.

Mobile and connected devices can help to boost efficiency for those in-field services. Augmented reality headsets can act as collaborative tools to bridge human contact across organizations.

Organizations must realize that the enterprise wearables market is still evolving and they should evaluate the core business benefits before implementing the new technology.

Identifying tasks that can be made more efficient with wearables, knowing devices’ functionality, and analyzing potential risks are some of the essential first steps before incorporating wearable technology into an organization’s overall strategy.

This is a brave new world that CIOs and IT departments can start exploring in order to tap mobile’s full potential in enterprise application.”

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