In the utilities management sector, energy flows can be controlled with a real-time understanding of the state of the grid assets: from power stations distribution to smart meters. Not only they can optimize the energy based on the actual capacities of their assets, but, as a step further, they can apply certain logic to draw a detailed consumption pattern that can better optimize and distribute energy more efficiently. A more sophisticated approach, known as predictive maintenance, is to build intelligent algorithms to detect the possibility of power failure or peak before they occur, preventing unplanned downtime, saving millions of dollars, productivity loss or other economic and social impact.

Another example, in the “connected vehicle” industry, is where a vehicle is equipped with a comprehensive set of sensors that are constantly sending a wealth of real-time information such as traffic data, road conditions, pedestrian flow, passenger status, weather data, or pollution levels. Although this set of digital assets can be owned by the vehicle owner or one service provider, it can now be a source of valuable information to be profiled, stored centrally and dynamically shared to provide benefits to an extended set of other entities (e.g., insurance companies and other service providers) enabling new services, such as safety, marketing, local business, traffic control, weather forecasting, and emergency services.

In the smart cities context, IoT’s ability to capture real-time sensor data on everything from energy consumption to problems with the water or sewage system, public transportation, streets, safety and traffic flow, can all be connected to the Digital Asset Management system and enable sound decisions to be made, there and then, as well as in the longer term, sharing with other entities to benefit from its value.

Furthermore, when the digital assets data are managed through advanced technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and deep learning, different patterns can be detected and more valuable information extracted that can’t otherwise be observed or used.

The most important outcome of this advancement is the enablement of a collaborative culture for innovation that has become indispensable for the value creation of the future, both within the business’s own boundaries and beyond, with partners, governments, institutions, customers and communities. More collaboration to bridge the gaps between developing and developed worlds will become a necessity for the advancement of societies.

Imagine, with shared digital assets that represent farming, agriculture, environmental or anonymous individual health information collected globally, from developed and developing countries alike, the extracted values for humanity to improve productivity, health, and to predict natural disasters and epidemics can be enormous. In addition to generating business values to the companies working on those data, new business models that pave the path for open innovation will evolve.

However, significant global efforts and alliances need to lead the creation of such a collaborative environment, to bring different industries, technology leaders, standardization bodies, institutions, and governments together. These efforts are most likely to succeed if driven in an unbiased and not-for-profit atmosphere, taking a global approach to bridge the gaps and accelerating the adoption of the technology and interoperability in a collaborative eco-system environment. The Industrial Internet Consortium IIC represents a leading valid model to follow.

Digital assets, embedded in IoT, are just the beginning of the digital ecosystem which is developing rapidly worldwide. A collaborative and technology innovation culture is becoming the path from just “digits” to a real global “value”.