Australian organisations lack the 'data smartness' which could help them reduce emissions, improve productivity

The growing volume of data from the sensors and systems that make up the Internet of Things (IoT) is critical to tackling challenges of national importance. It includes everything from data about energy use needed to track progress towards net zero emissions, to real time alerts about equipment that help industries improve productivity.

But Australian organisations generally aren't smart about their use of Internet of Things data, says Frank Zeichner, CEO of IoT industry body IoT Alliance Australia.

“A data smart Australia is an Australia where individuals and businesses and government know what data they need, they know where it's going, and they know how it's being used to drive their everyday lives, their businesses,” Zeichner said.

“We don't think quite like that today. Data is being sucked out from us and being used for us and being introduced into our business by our supply chains – we haven't got on top of yet how we're smartly using that data.”

Zeichner will join industry leaders on October 10 at the IoTAA’s State of the Nation event in Sydney, to lay out the problem and what can be done about it. IoT Hub is the event media partner.

On the agenda will be smarter use of data to help achieve net zero targets. This will require quantifiable data about Australian organisations’ consumption of resources.

The good news is that many organisations are already collecting some of this data.

“We are measuring consumption today at an early stage for productivity reasons,” Zeichner noted.

“We are not using those same measures for looking at emissions and carbon consumption. There's a leap between one to the other. It's not a big leap, but it can be done and it needs to be done if we can reach our targets,” he said.

Industries primed to benefit

This could be done relatively quickly in some industries, such as the energy industry, according to Zeichner.

“We're measuring consumption today, but not at the micro grid level. Should do that. That way we can start affecting individual sub areas,” he said.

“We can do the same thing with transport - more efficient delivery of things. We can do the same thing in agriculture through better use of land. We can do it in buildings, through more efficient running of buildings,” he added.

“So, plenty of opportunities for us to leverage what we're already doing in measuring, to actually translate that to what we're doing with carbon emissions. But moreover, what we're doing to improve carbon emissions.“

“It’s not a question of just measuring, it's how does that measurement drive transition to more efficient use of carbon? That's the key, and that's why you need the data. It's not just a number, it's a pathway to action.”

Change culture, skills

Being data smart requires an understanding throughout an organisation of the strategic value of this data, Zeichner said. That will require a change in mindset.

“It's still not part of business as usual. It's not how people think. It's still driven by the IT guys or the IoT guys. It's just getting into line of business but it's not there by default,” he said.

“So there's a whole culture of understanding digital that needs to be through companies, not just with a few, that needs to be happening.”

Smarter use of the data will require digital skills.

“We have this  chronic need for better skills. That's not just skills in development – it’s skills in operation, in integration, in how it's used and how it's explained, it's how it's built into products.”

“You don't need to be an expert in full stack development. You need to understand its application. We really need that. We need digital in our DNA to understand and navigate this future world.”

Relevant skills need to be taught to the “entire population”, in Zeichner’s view.

“We need to lift everybody to understand. That's the corporate people, that's the customer people, that's the operations people. It's everybody who's using it. That's a major skill uplift.”

Making these changes requires better collaboration between business and government, he argued.

For example, the IoTAA recently helped Consult Australia launch the Digital by Default green paper, which provides a roadmap for digital transformation of infrastructure projects.

It’s one of many steps required to achieve a data smart Australia.

Frank Zeichner and industry leaders will discuss a data smart Australia at the IoTAA State of the Nation event at the Sydney Startup Hub in York Street Sydney, from 3.30pm-7.30pm on October 10, 2023. Purchase your ticket here.