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Digital business will create dynamic value chains and new business
opportunities that CIOs and business and IT leaders must investigate. In this
research, we explore how a car crash creates two different types of
business moments to illustrate the potential of digital business.
Key Findings
As things in the Internet of Things become smarter, negotiations between them and with people
can be deterministic, through centralized brokerages, or nondeterministic, through peer-to-peer
intelligence depending on the state of the art and the desired degree of control.
Key industries involved in the two business moments include consumer electronics, healthcare,
financial services, automotive, retail, legal and government.
The top technologies enabling this business moment include Internet-connected automobiles,
smartphones and smart clothing sensors, Internet-addressable environmental video cameras,
automated real-time decisioning and offering systems, and communications standards and
protocols.
Recommendations
CIOs and business and IT leaders:
Business moments are speculative situations. Use these moments to communicate complex
stories that illustrate the potential of digital business and to help build your leadership networks
with like-minded business partners.
Integrate business moments into your thinking about customer journeys and associated
processes. As "things" become important in ways you hadn't envisioned, use these moments to
help see new connections for your business.
Table of Contents
Analysis.................................................................................................................................................. 3
Digital Business Brings Potential for Numerous Business Moments.................................................. 3
Business Moments and the Four Internet of Things Scenarios.......................................................... 3
Car Crash Business Moment Scenario 1: The Smartphone Is the First Responder........................... 6
Crash!.........................................................................................................................................6
Don's Virtual Personal Assistant Gets Busy................................................................................ 6
Analyzing the Business Moment................................................................................................. 7
Implications of This Business Moment............................................................................................ 10
Car Crash Business Moment Scenario 2: Autonomous Devices Coordinate the Response.............13
Crash!.......................................................................................................................................13
The (Local) Internet of Things Gets Busy...................................................................................14
Analyzing the Business Moment............................................................................................... 15
Implications of This Business Moment...................................................................................... 19
What Is Digital Business?................................................................................................................20
Gartner Recommended Reading.......................................................................................................... 21
List of Tables
Table 1. Industries and Requirements of the Scenario 1 Business Moment.......................................... 10
Table 2. Industries and Requirements of the Scenario 2 Business Moment.......................................... 18
List of Figures
Figure 1. Four Scenarios of the Internet of Things................................................................................... 4
Figure 2. Two Car Crash Business Moment Scenarios........................................................................... 5
Figure 3. The Car Crash......................................................................................................................... 6
Figure 4. Scenario 1's Central Brokerage Point...................................................................................... 8
Figure 5. Centralized Brokerage Scenario of the Internet of Things......................................................... 9
Figure 6. The Car Crash Revisited........................................................................................................ 13
Figure 7. Peer-to-Peer Intelligence Scenario of the Internet of Things................................................... 15
Figure 8. Scenario 2's Business Moment Value Stream........................................................................ 16
Figure 9. Digital Business..................................................................................................................... 21
Page 2 of 23
Analysis
Digital Business Brings Potential for Numerous Business Moments
Digital business is the creation of new business designs by blurring the digital and physical worlds.
Digital business is ushering in an unprecedented convergence of people, business and things,
creating new revenue opportunities in its wake (see the What Is Digital Business? section, and
"Agenda Overview for Digital Business, 2014" for more detail). To illustrate this potential, this
research will use the concept of the business moment a transient opportunity that is exploited
dynamically (see "Digital Businesses Will Compete and Seek Opportunity in the Span of a
Moment"). A business moment is very short in duration (even seconds), depending on the nature of
the opportunity. This catalyst sets in motion a series of events involving people, businesses and
things that span multiple industries and multiple ecosystems.
This research is part of a series highlighting different business moments. These scenarios are not
meant to be recommendations or predictions of where an enterprise should focus, but rather, are
meant to stimulate thinking of CIOs, IT leaders and business leaders around the possibilities for
their businesses or situations.
years later, that number has grown to 10 billion. This growing Internet of Things (IoT) exhibits four
key capabilities:
1.
Connect The Internet of Things starts out with the ability to connect an object to the Internet.
2.
Identify With connection comes a profound capability of identifying "Who or what are you?"
3.
4.
As the IoT things become smarter and more capable, their connectivity becomes a two-way
communication. Things can not only be interrogated, but also offer and negotiate for information
and services. Business moments arise when things in the IoT broadcast their information or
announce their needs and willingness to negotiate.
The new capabilities for negotiation provide an opportunity to analyze the forces ahead for business
and government. Two key forces form a matrix: (1) intelligence, which recognizes the level needed
for negotiation; and (2) the possible ways that the things are organized, from centralized to
distributed. These result in the emergence of some new capabilities, depending on how the
business approaches its organization. Out of this matrix, four scenarios emerge:
1.
Ordinary things This is the world of things as they have been for centuries: There is some
identification that a person who is physically present can read. The information can contain
Page 3 of 23
serial numbers or other tracking numbers that are then entered in another system. This requires
low intelligence and is very distributed. Examples of this are individual physical items, such as
tires, bolts and cloth, which are physically counted in inventory.
2.
Current state of the art This is the world where all items have a bar code and their
movements, when recorded, are sent to centralized systems for further processing and actions,
if needed. This would also include the world of kanban manufacturing, where things are
identified and their local movements are determined by visual inspection. All items that have a
bar code, especially consumer products such as breakfast cereal, smartphones and toys, are
represented in systems for better accuracy through their bar code scans.
3.
4.
Peer-to-peer intelligence In this scenario, the different devices have a built-in sense of their
needs and resources within their advancing intelligence. The devices don't need the central
brokerage as much as they need an information bank to know more about prices and costs.
With items that are high in value, a peer-to-peer intelligence requires additional investment that
can be justified by the higher risk of damage or theft to those items (see Figure 1).
ORGANIZATION
Distributed
Ordinary
Things
Communicate
Peer-to-Peer
Intelligence
Negotiate
INTELLIGENCE
Current
State of the
Art
Centralized
Brokerages
Centralized
Source: Gartner (June 2014)
Page 4 of 23
Figure 2 shows two possible car crash scenarios, further described below, for how business
moments transpire.
Figure 2. Two Car Crash Business Moment Scenarios
Embedded
Scenario 2:
Autonomous
Devices
Intelligence
Brokered
Scenario 1:
Smartphone
Centralized
Distributed
Organization
In Scenario 1, a smartphone coordinates and brokers the various devices and services to address
human health and auto repair concerns. Scenario 2 takes a more distributed approach in which
each of the devices acts on its own to coordinate within an emerging resolution ecosystem. The
intent is to provoke discussion and thought concerning your business in this emerging digital
business context.
Page 5 of 23
Car Crash Business Moment Scenario 1: The Smartphone Is the First Responder
Figure 3. The Car Crash
Crash!
The intersection was always busy and congested, but especially during the workweek. Horn
blowing was a normal part of any surface travel in this section of the city. As soon as the light
turned green, the line of cars rapidly accelerated, gated only by the level of caution, if any, of the
lead cars. The line swept around the backs of the cars sticking into the intersection. Just as Don
was turning the corner, the line suddenly halted. Don stopped but was immediately pushed into the
car in front of him, and the airbag flew into his face, and everything went black.
Page 6 of 23
their contracting systems until it receives approved towing and preliminary repair estimates.
Checking online review and approval ratings, it selects the best option using its preprogrammed
decision rules for price/performance and proximity of towing and repair shops.
As the EMTs revive and check Don, and the fire and police responders secure the vehicle and
scene, the VPA locates and interrogates nearby video cameras to collect digital evidence of the
crash as it occurred. As the EMTs begin to move the now conscious Don to the ambulance, they
locate and pick up Don's smartphone. Once Don is settled, and they are moving toward the
hospital, the EMTs upload a summary of Don's condition to the smartphone. The VPA sends a
message containing the summary to Don's family.
The towing company retrieves Don's car and takes it to the repair shop for further evaluation and to
wait for final approval for the updated estimate. With everything taken care of, the VPA sends its
collected crash information to the police and a set of law firms for assessment.
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1. Smartphone
detects sudden
deceleration
2. Smartphone
interrogates passenger
clothing for vital signs
3. Smartphone sends
information to medical
emergency first responders
4. Smartphone interrogates
vehicle systems for
damage report
9. Smartphone sends
information portfolio to
law firms for assessment
8. Smartphone
notifies next of kin
via text messages
and Facebook
7. Smartphone interrogates
nearby video cameras to
collect digital evidence of
the car crash as it occurred
Catalyst
Thing
Business
Person
In this scenario, the smartphone serves as a central brokerage point (see Figure 5), as would a
brokerage point or multiple points managing the deployment of the medical, fire and police
emergency response teams. These latter may be specialized points for each of the providers, with a
main brokerage point coordinating their efforts. This would be similar to large-scale operational sites
providing standardized negotiation capabilities for the vast networks of things that have a need to
be managed through supply networks and the secondary markets of brokerages that will be
"feeders" for specialized supply networks. Specialized companies that have world-class product
design will leverage these networks as part of their design and focus on gaining greater product
differentiation.
Page 8 of 23
ORGANIZATION
Distributed
Ordinary
Things
Communicate
Peer-to-Peer
Intelligence
Negotiate
INTELLIGENCE
Current
State of the
Art
Centralized
Brokerages
Centralized
Source: Gartner (June 2014)
As a central brokerage point, the smartphone interacts and negotiates with the IoT things in its
"local" environment. It communicates with sensors, video cameras, auto repair stations and
businesses using available communications types, such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Near Field
Communication (NFC) and the Internet. Once a connection is established, the smartphone can
begin to determine who or what they are and where they are and, as appropriate, "negotiate" for the
desired information. In the case of things such as the clothing and auto sensors, the negotiation is a
relatively straightforward request for information. Negotiations for repair estimates are much more
active processes involving the execution of multiple resources in the different companies, as well as
additional smartphone resources, some of which presumably reside in the cloud.
Table 1 summarizes the key industries involved in this business moment and highlights some of the
key capabilities.
Page 9 of 23
Industry
Consumer
electronics
Healthcare
Automotive
Retailers
Government
Financial
services
Information Flow
Communications protocols
Legal
Page 10 of 23
Value There is obvious value for Don in a quick response and medical treatment, as well as
the value of having the repairs, insurance and other things in place once he is able to deal with
them. The emergency responders derive value from being able to perform their duties more
efficiently and effectively, and the repair company stands to derive financial value. However,
what other value is created in this scenario? Are there other opportunities for "value" as yet
unidentified? What kind of financial or other value is there, and by whom? Keep in mind that, in
a consumer-directed economy, reputational value may be as or more significant in the long run
than financial.
People There is a positive impact on the lives of all the participants: Emergency responders
have critical information to make their tasks easier before they arrive; the victims get faster and
more-targeted care; the hospital doctors and nurses know what they need to do before the
ambulance arrives at their door; and the various business people can make faster informed
decisions. Critical activities are carried out with less effort and risk within the coordinated
ecosystem of information. What other people might be included in the scenario? How would
they interact or even know about the potential for involvement? What people are involved with
monitoring, approving and interacting with the various types of automated smart systems in the
scenario?
Businesses This scenario suggests a disruptive potential for businesses. A smartphone may
send the car damage report to repair and insurance companies in its contact list or to all nearby
companies, either very close or at some distance, as determined by an Internet search. The
latter provides an opportunity for new organizations to replace previously used ones. What
other businesses might be involved in the scenario? What opportunities for products, services,
experiences or information are possible? Are there additional opportunities to drive engagement
and loyalty? What new businesses, smart systems, industries or people might disrupt the
involvement of the players? What are the implications for your enterprise and industry?
Things The things in this scenario are participants, not just controllers. They exchange
information with businesses and people in a continuous dance of intelligent and autonomous
negotiation. Businesses that make things should examine all the possible integration points
contained inside the moment, such as the ability of the car to detect defects or hazards and
recommend solutions. Technical processes that normally were closed and contained within
operational technology (OT) are now exposed as connected and integrated with the world of
people. Does your enterprise have things or services that could similarly be made available? Is
there an opportunity for your offerings to provide information about themselves, their status or
capabilities? What about your internal processes? Can they be exposed, connected and
integrated with the world of people?
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Health services Pharmacies and medical supply units either in the hospital or external to
the hospital, should specialized trauma care, medications or other needs arise, use the
transmitted medical information to trigger ER deliveries. The victim's available medical
information may also result in rerouting to a specialist in another hospital.
Rental companies Car rental companies vie for providing Don or his family with a
temporary vehicle or chauffeur services.
Taxi companies A taxi appears at Don's house offering to take the family to the hospital.
Competitive dynamics With initiatives such as the European Commission's adoption of two
2
proposals to ensure that, by October 2015, cars will automatically call emergency services in
case of a serious crash, will smartphone companies or apps need to take on a different role?
Will there be a search engine optimization "arms race" among hospitals or insurance or even
emergency response companies to gain the business?
Security and risk What are the risks to Don in this scenario? What happens to privacy, and
3
will the U.S. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and similar policies
allow the real-time medical information transactions? Does the availability of information that
elicited the taxi's offer make Don's house suddenly vulnerable to a break-in? What risks are
involved in the smartphone app that is brokering the event? How would you define
requirements and test cases? How would you test such a system? What is the "safety override"
for a rogue sensor? What keeps the sensors from being hacked? Are the video streams
available only in particular, negotiated circumstances?
Integration Who will handle the integration and standardization of messages and
interoperability? This is especially important in the healthcare area to ensure accurate
transmission of information and to protect privacy. Will the government be involved? Industries?
Groups such as the W3C?
Process What changes to how we view process will be needed to create a flexible broker
able to account for the nuances and uncertainties in any emergency situation? How will brokers
"learn" from their experiences and improve their performance over time? How will business
processes change to accommodate external exposure and adapt to what happens next in novel
situations, all while maintaining any "secret sauce"? How will insights for improvement and
value be identified and incorporated?
Talent What types of talent are needed by the various players in this scenario? As
technology such as smart clothing replaces the need for people to take blood pressure or other
readings, what new skills will EMTs need to acquire? What new skills will insurance adjusters
need to acquire to remain relevant and provide value? As technology augments human
capabilities, what additional training, capabilities and mindsets will people need to begin to
adopt?
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The moments of opportunity and competition that lead to the gain or loss of a sale or the
transformation of an industry can happen in an instant. To a large extent, they are outside the
control of incumbent businesses and result from the relentless advancement of technologies, as
witnessed by the expansion of the Internet of Things and the Nexus of Forces of information, social,
mobile and cloud.
Business moments can be used to stimulate thinking around the possibilities. This research is part
of a series that highlights different business moments across a variety of industries and situations.
As more business moments are created, Gartner will be connecting them, and drawing out patterns
and even more questions. In the meantime, CIOs, IT leaders and business leaders should consider
the possibilities for their businesses or situations.
Crash!
The intersection was always busy and congested but especially during the workweek. Horn blowing
was a normal part of any surface travel in this section of the city. As soon as the light turned green,
the line of cars rapidly accelerated, gated only by the level of caution, if any, of the lead cars. The
line swept around the backs of the cars sticking into the intersection. Just as Don was turning the
corner, the line suddenly halted. Don stopped but was immediately pushed into the car in front of
him, and the airbag flew into his face, and everything went black.
Page 13 of 23
Page 14 of 23
In parallel to all this activity, Pat, a local entrepreneur, receives the set of the multiple broadcasts
and tweets compiled by her smart scanning agent. Noticing the amount of information available
from the video cameras, cars, traffic analysis system, and other devices and systems, Pat begins
thinking of ways to use that information to prevent such accidents. However, it is the lack of
information that catches her attention, and she quickly sketches out an idea to make the traffic
lights themselves smart enough to adjust to traffic flows. After some additional work and talking
with some of her maker friends, Pat launches a Kickstarter project that not only is quickly funded
but also catches the attention of some large municipal governments offering her assistance in
setting up her new business.
ORGANIZATION
Distributed
Ordinary
Things
Communicate
Peer-to-Peer
Intelligence
Negotiate
INTELLIGENCE
Current
State of the
Art
Centralized
Brokerages
Centralized
Source: Gartner (June 2014)
In this scenario, the different devices have a built-in sense of their needs, resources and capabilities
within their advancing intelligence (see Figure 8). The devices don't need the central brokerage as
much as they need to know who or what they are (how they are to function), where they are
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(spatially as in GPS location or what system they are part of), and their "availability" (what
information they have to share passively on request, actively on a communication trigger or
proactively based on rules of engagement).
Figure 8. Scenario 2's Business Moment Value Stream
Airbag
sends alert
Two cars
collide!
Smartphone detects
sudden deceleration, adds
GPS and makes
emergency call
EMR system
dispatches first
responders
Car systems
broadcast status
Smart clothing
tweets status
Smartphone
alerts emergency
contacts via text
messages
Repair companies
send bids to the
insurance
company
Hospital is notified
and updated
First responders are
updated
Towing companies
notify police of
availability and send
bids to the
insurance company
Insurance company
sends contracts
Catalyst
Internet
broadcast
Thing
Point-to-point
Internet
communication
Person
Business
proposal
Business
Business
contract
Telecommunication
Source: Gartner (June 2014)
Some devices may also need to know where and how (either directly or through negotiation) to get
needed information. The additional investment in peer-to-peer intelligent devices and things can be
justified on the basis of either the higher risk of damage or theft to them, or the value of the
information and capabilities they provide.
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The entire network of the IoT is also a communications network, allowing two components, such as
a towing company's bidding system and an insurance company's contracting system, to negotiate
combining themselves and pursuing an economic settlement of costs between them. As this
intelligence improves, the number of components that can negotiate together will only increase,
leading to the construction of major subassemblies and, eventually, full-scale mechanical or
electronic products, as well as combinations of services that we cannot yet imagine.
This more nondeterministic scenario starts with a self-awareness or self-definition of what resources
a device or thing provides and what it needs to perform its function. As things become smarter and
more independent, the level of negotiation will increase, and each thing will try to explore some
alternative paths. This scenario benefits greatly from the development of standards mentioned
earlier due to quality programs, as well as the uniformity introduced by centralization and
consolidation of back-office systems.
Table 2 summarizes the differences between Scenario 1's centralized brokerage and the peer-topeer Scenario 2. Unless otherwise noted, Scenario 1's information flow and requirements pertain to
Scenario 2 as well.
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Industry
Consumer
electronics
Information Flow
Knowledge or access to
knowledge of implications or
appropriate responses to various
events that is, decisioning rules
Government
Healthcare
Financial
services
Automotive
Retailers
Page 18 of 23
Industry
Legal
Information Flow
Value No one really "owns" this moment, and businesses and other players are free to
negotiate and derive whatever amount and type of value from it they can. The open
communication also enables new business and business model opportunities. However, do the
provision and maintenance of the devices in this scenario increase, decrease or not affect the
total cost of ownership?
People New people with very different perspectives and capabilities are able to join in peerto-peer business moments. This unpredictability is a source of new values as well as potential
concern. Although Don's medical and personal needs are met, neither he nor any other single
person is in control. What would aid or prohibit people from accepting such a system? Would it
be age- or demographic-dependent?
Businesses This scenario has the most potential for disruption. New players, new
competition and new business models make this an uncertain world for any incumbent.
Competition among for-profit enterprises, including hospitals, trauma centers, and even
individual medical specialists and clinics, implies an arms race to remain relevant, not just in the
lead. What impact would such a distributed intelligent system have on your business? Would it
open or restrict value-creating opportunities?
Things This is a relatively loose association of things that are active participants. The
exchange of information and active negotiation among systems and with people engender a
highly dynamic flow of information and decisions. What would a highly adaptive, agile and
responsive supply chain look like under this model? How would negotiations occur to ensure
new suppliers took the place of no-longer-needed ones, while maintaining a smooth flow
among the rest of the chain? What would determine how much intelligence and autonomy are
needed for a device? What might cause this scenario to become untenable? To be the default
system?
Adjacent business moments In addition to the adjacent business moments listed above in
Scenario 1, a peer-to-peer scenario affords the possibility of a myriad set of opportunities
limited only by imagination and creativity. From the perspective of your or another industry,
what other business moments might be possible within this scenario?
Page 19 of 23
Competitive dynamics See the bullet point for competitive dynamics in Scenario 1 above.
Security and risk Security and risk in this scenario, as with any nondeterministic system, are
bounded by the rules by which each device, system and person operates. Devices and systems
need to know not only who or what and where they are, but also their rules of engagement to
whom and how they are to send information, negotiation parameters and so forth. There may
be additional privacy implications, especially from a regulatory perspective, not found in
Scenario 1, but how might they be mitigated? However, this scenario does not have a single
point of failure as in Scenario 1 (the smartphone). Does this increase or decrease security and
risk?
Process What changes in how people view systems and processes are implied by this
scenario? What process changes will be required to utilize a flow of real-time, perhaps
competing, information? For example, Don's smart clothing transmits differing but consistent
data from what the EMR devices at the scene transmit to the hospital.
Technology In this scenario, there is an increased level of trust in technological devices and
systems and in people's ability to interact with them. One of the crucial underpinnings of this
trust is the rules of engagement that inform the negotiations and interactions. What are the
implications for responsible development of intelligent devices? Would safeguards need to be
considered, and for what reasons?
Talent In addition to the technical talent implied by the preceding paragraph, business
people would need additional capabilities to monitor, analyze and effectively use information
from hitherto unknown devices and systems. Human "information processing" will take on a
new dimension requiring higher-level cognitive capabilities. What would be the impact of this
scenario on your current and planned talent pool? Would your talent pool become primarily one
of young app-literate, multidevice users?
One car crash, two very different scenarios. The common thread, however, is the involvement of
myriad devices in dynamically exploiting a transient opportunity. In the emerging digital business
era, transient events will provide opportunities and competition that can lead to gain or loss of value
or the transformation of your industry. Use these business moment examples to stimulate thinking
and provide vehicles for discussion, not about the details of the stories but about the implications
for your enterprise.
As more business moments are created, Gartner will be connecting them, and drawing out patterns
and even more questions.
existing business models and creates new revenue opportunities in its wake. By 2020, more than 7
billion people and businesses, and at least 35 billion devices, will be connected to the Internet. With
people, businesses and things communicating, transacting and even negotiating with one another,
a new world comes into being the world of digital business (see Figure 9).
Figure 9. Digital Business
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Evidence
1
J. Billhorn, "Get Ready for the Internet of Everything Economy," BizTech, 13 March 2014.
European Commission press release, "eCall: Automated Emergency Call for Road Accidents
Mandatory in Cars From 2015," 13 June 2013.
3
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