Business View Oceania

37 BUSINESS VIEW OCEANIA VOLUME 4, ISSUE 12 technology-domain divide. We have a whole lot of vendors who know their technology, but know nothing about their customer.” Today, IoTAA aims to connect data, devices, people, processes and things to the internet as a way to help people make more informed decisions and get the best outcomes. The ultimate goal is to boost Australia’s future success, productivity, competitiveness, jobs and economy. The Alliance has faced challenges in getting people to adopt IoT solutions, but those challenges are also why it’s so important that the organisation exists. “The reason for the challenges are a whole lot of interesting cultural and organizational factors in Australia,” Zeichner explains. “There’s complacency here. There’s resistance to collaboration, which can be an advantage in many ways but in other ways it’s not. That independence also means there’s a lack of sharing, which although fundamental in the Internet of Things, runs contrary to ingrained business practices and is not something we naturally do.” To face those challenges, the association has plans to accelerate the adoption of IoT in Australia through supporting and activating collaborations, promoting and enabling evidence- based policy and regulation, and identifying strategic opportunities for economic growth and social benefit. “Australians, I wouldn’t say are early adopters, but we’re fantastic at dealing with crises. We are late to the table, but then we move like greased lightning,” Zeichner says. “I’d like to bypass that and do a bit more planning and a bit more leadership, a bit more ‘putting out there’ earlier.” To do so, the IoTAA operates eight different workstreams that break down the needs of individual sectoral domains, including food and agriculture, smart cities, water, energy, manufacturing, transportation, health and construction. Zeichner cites the example of measuring lettuce leaf wetness as a solution identified in the food and agriculture workstream. If a retailer requests 1000 heads of lettuce from its supplier, it will just get 1000 heads of lettuce at random. However, IoTAA CEO, Frank Zeichner INTERNET OF THINGS ALL I ANCE AUSTRAL I A ( IOTAA)