In this article, Ian Foddering, Cisco CTO, UKI discusses the potential impact, and value the Internet of Everything can bring to the Finance industry.

Cisco believes the technology industry has never been more innovative, this view has been reinforced by business and technology leaders. The finance industry in particular stands to benefit hugely from the Internet of Everything. In terms of cost saving and in the increasing application of connected devices and machines.

Value at Stake

Cisco recently conducted a global survey on the potential economic impact of the Internet of Everything (IoE). Our research indicates that there is as much as $14.4 trillion of potential economic “value at stake” for global private-sector businesses over the next decade, as a result of the emergence of the Internet of Everything. Value at Stake is the potential bottom-line value that can be created or that will migrate among private-sector companies and industries based on their ability to harness IoE.

Our research estimates that 99.4% of physical objects in the world are still unconnected. With only about 10 billion of the 1 trillion things currently connected globally, there is vast potential to connect the unconnected via the Internet of Everything.

Four industries make up more than half the total Value at Stake, with the finance and insurance industries accounting for nine per cent of this total. Projections show that the Internet of Everything will create $1.95 trillion of Value at Stake for the finance industry over the next 10 years.

Connectedness in Finance

For financial institutions to receive the most value from the IoE, business leaders should begin transforming their organisations based on key learning’s from use cases that show how the IoE works in the real world.

Data-driven business is at the core of achieving the Value at Stake from a number of important factors. Leaders should focus on IoE initiatives that use Big Data and cloud computing to improve decision making across the company. To succeed, every customer-facing department, including marketing, sales, service, and support, must be able to adapt more quickly to rapidly changing customer demands in the IoE economy.

Another key pillar of the IoE in financial services is its ability to extend reach, enable new business models and allow financial organisations to scale globally.

Technology impact in the Financial Services

Financial institutions will need to consider their own internal cultural changes that are necessary to embrace the IoE. The value of any IT investment will be determined by the capabilities it enables outside the IT department. The IoE Value at Stake emanates from the marketing, HR, finance, production, sales, and other corporate departments. Therefore, a company’s IT decisions must consider the requirements of these departments. Corporate policies on employment, input-sourcing, and in customer-facing areas may need adjustment to embrace these IoE-driven best practices.

Along with great opportunity, the emergence of the Internet of Everything will present technology, organisational, process, regulatory, cultural, and other challenges. Financial businesses need to collectively solve these challenges because the benefits of increased connectedness, to business and society alike, far outweigh these challenges.