IoT has a major impact on both industry and society and is expected to continue to impact many aspects of our lives. For society and the functions supporting society, there are very large gains to be made from using IoT. Operations and functions that today depend on expensive and time-consuming processes can be made more efficient and improved with the help of sensors and actuators, while also becoming cheaper. A simple example is different responsibilities a municipality may have to ensure the availability of something, say a lifebuoy or defibrillator at a beach. At the moment, this can be done via staff who make rounds. This then costs a lot of money and takes time. If a sensor for a thousand Swedish kroner were instead attached to these aids, not only would you save time and money, but you would also know exactly when a lifebuoy is removed from its place, instead of noticing it after a few days when you pass by his weekly round.

A larger example is how sensors can be used to measure water leakage in drinking water systems, in order to locate and fix leaks. These leaks may correspond to the need to build new municipal waterworks in some large communities. This is a very large investment, which can possibly be avoided by instead using IoT sensors to fix the leaks and thus also reduce the environmental impact of a new water plant.

Today, we do not know all the possible solutions that can come from this technology, but we do know that it has the potential to both streamline and improve many of the activities that contribute to our society. When you see at the same time that there is a shortage of labor in many of the public sectors, and that it will increase over the years, IoT is an important opportunity to be able to better use our available resources where they are most needed.