Changes

   <h4>Considerations</h4>

   <h4>Considerations</h4>

   <p>A strategic policy approach to IoT investments will need to be developed to ensure that the IoT opportunities are properly leveraged. The GC invests a significant portion of its annual budget on IT and supporting infrastructure. Without strategic IoT direction, the fragmented approaches to IT investments, coupled with rapid developing technology and disjointed business practices, can undermine effective and efficient delivery of GC programs and services.</p>

   <p>A strategic policy approach to IoT investments will need to be developed to ensure that the IoT opportunities are properly leveraged. The GC invests a significant portion of its annual budget on IT and supporting infrastructure. Without strategic IoT direction, the fragmented approaches to IT investments, coupled with rapid developing technology and disjointed business practices, can undermine effective and efficient delivery of GC programs and services.<ref>Government of Canada. (2018, December 3).<i>[https://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/pol/doc-eng.aspx?id=15249 Directive on Management of Information Technology].</i> Retrieved from tbs-sct.gc.ca</ref></p>

   <p class="highlighted mw-collapsible-content">A clear vision and mandate for how IoT will transform services and what the end-state IoT initiative is supposed to look like is a prominent consideration. In fact, most IoT considerations will need to be made on the non-technical side. Questions such as why a particular IoT solution is needed, what business requirements it will solve, how clients will use the IoT service from SSC, what the IoT service should look like from a client’s perspective etc., should all be taken into account first. Often the organizational cost of deploying and integrating IoT is higher than expected with regard to funding, time, and resource expertise.</p>

   <p class="highlighted mw-collapsible-content">A clear vision and mandate for how IoT will transform services and what the end-state IoT initiative is supposed to look like is a prominent consideration. In fact, most IoT considerations will need to be made on the non-technical side. Questions such as why a particular IoT solution is needed, what business requirements it will solve, how clients will use the IoT service from SSC, what the IoT service should look like from a client’s perspective etc., should all be taken into account first. Often the organizational cost of deploying and integrating IoT is higher than expected with regard to funding, time, and resource expertise.</p>

   <p class="highlighted mw-collapsible-content">Enterprises like SSC should be cognisant of not flooding their ability to conduct business with massive amounts of data without properly planning for its analysis, simply due to a fear-of-missing-out. An IoT device on its own does not understand what is happening around it, meaning that IoT devices and near-to-real-time analytics constitute a package that go hand in hand. Organizations will often deploy IoT for a specific purpose in silos but fail to handle the new influx of data or fail to connect these devices with other systems for aggregate analysis.</p>

   <p class="highlighted mw-collapsible-content">Enterprises like SSC should be cognisant of not flooding their ability to conduct business with massive amounts of data without properly planning for its analysis, simply due to a fear-of-missing-out. An IoT device on its own does not understand what is happening around it, meaning that IoT devices and near-to-real-time analytics constitute a package that go hand in hand. Organizations will often deploy IoT for a specific purpose in silos but fail to handle the new influx of data or fail to connect these devices with other systems for aggregate analysis.</p>

   <p>To add value, organizations should consider the Analytics of Things (AoT) before creating sensors that stream enormous amounts of data to databases from the devices. This also means that decisions will need to be made on how much local processing the IoT device does, including what data to keep, what data to abbreviate or discard, what data to segment off and send immediately as an alert, and what data to simply log on local storage that can be later retrieved manually by personnel and transferred to databases for review. There are specific data transmission needs due to privacy retrictions or national security, where the data classification may not allow the information to be transferred over the network and instead require a physical pick-up for data transfer.</p>

   <p>To add value, organizations should consider the Analytics of Things (AoT)<ref>Pal, K. (2016, August 11).<i>[https://www.techopedia.com/2/31958/trends/big-data/analytics-of-things-taking-iot-to-the-next-level Analytics Of Things: Taking IoT to the Next Level].</i> Retrieved from techopedia.com</ref> before creating sensors that stream enormous amounts of data to databases from the devices. This also means that decisions will need to be made on how much local processing the IoT device does, including what data to keep, what data to abbreviate or discard, what data to segment off and send immediately as an alert, and what data to simply log on local storage that can be later retrieved manually by personnel and transferred to databases for review. There are specific data transmission needs due to privacy retrictions or national security, where the data classification may not allow the information to be transferred over the network and instead require a physical pick-up for data transfer.</p>

   <p class="highlighted mw-collapsible-content">Additionally, there is a significant consideration to be made on whether real-time visibility and analytics is a business requirement or if near-to-real-time is adequate. In the vast number of business cases, real-time visibility is almost never needed for business operations. Near-to-real-time is sufficient for the vast majority of business processes, however, senior executives will need to consider the policy when deciding what processes will actually require real-time analytics.</p>

   <p class="highlighted mw-collapsible-content">Additionally, there is a significant consideration to be made on whether real-time visibility and analytics is a business requirement or if near-to-real-time is adequate. In the vast number of business cases, real-time visibility is almost never needed for business operations. Near-to-real-time is sufficient for the vast majority of business processes, however, senior executives will need to consider the policy when deciding what processes will actually require real-time analytics.</p>

   <p>Although security has been flagged as an issue, most of the IoT security issues can be resolved by banning the use of default device passwords of any device that comes onto the network. Banning default password and setting the IT requirements for any device that connects to the network will be a paramount project for SSC to consider in the future. In this way, the diverse nature of IoT services can be better managed based on the requirements set out by SSC. Shared Services will need to remain open to many different IoT solutions, however, it may want to consider how particular it will be concerning the low-level requirements of devices and software implemented on the network.</p>

   <p>Although security has been flagged as an issue, most of the IoT security issues can be resolved by banning the use of default device passwords of any device that comes onto the network. Banning default password and setting the IT requirements for any device that connects to the network will be a paramount project for SSC to consider in the future. In this way, the diverse nature of IoT services can be better managed based on the requirements set out by SSC. Shared Services will need to remain open to many different IoT solutions, however, it may want to consider how particular it will be concerning the low-level requirements of devices and software implemented on the network.</p>

   <p class="highlighted inline mw-collapsible-content">Shared Services will need to consider how to ensure it is an agile and flexible IT service provider as it pursues IoT deployments. This will be vital since the value, impact, and success of IoT initiatives can vary greatly from one organization to the next. Many enterprises have launched pilot projects to develop IoT-enabled products and services or have used the IoT to achieve operational improvements. Of these, less than 30 percent have taken their IoT programs beyond the pilot phase. Even among companies with large-scale IoT efforts, a significant gap separates the top tier of performers from the bottom tier.</p><p class="inline"> The continued support and use of Open Standards, Open Source, and standard APIs may need to be considered as a means to maintain SSC as an agile and flexible organization. No single IoT platform will be able to meet all the diverse technical and business requirements of IoT devices and business processes. Using Open Source and Open Standards may be needed in order to accommodate diverse devices and software.</p>

   <p class="highlighted inline mw-collapsible-content">Shared Services will need to consider how to ensure it is an agile and flexible IT service provider as it pursues IoT deployments. This will be vital since the value, impact, and success of IoT initiatives can vary greatly from one organization to the next. Many enterprises have launched pilot projects to develop IoT-enabled products and services or have used the IoT to achieve operational improvements. Of these, less than 30 percent have taken their IoT programs beyond the pilot phase.<ref>Chui, M., May, B., Narayanan, S., & Shah, R. (2019, January).<i>[https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/digital-mckinsey/our-insights/what-separates-leaders-from-laggards-in-the-internet-of-things What separates leaders from laggards in the Internet of Things].</i> Retrieved from mckinsey.com</ref> Even among companies with large-scale IoT efforts, a significant gap separates the top tier of performers from the bottom tier.</p><p class="inline"> The continued support and use of Open Standards, Open Source, and standard APIs may need to be considered as a means to maintain SSC as an agile and flexible organization. No single IoT platform will be able to meet all the diverse technical and business requirements of IoT devices and business processes. Using Open Source and Open Standards may be needed in order to accommodate diverse devices and software.</p>

   <p>Lastly, SSC may wish to consider evaluating the current Service Catalogue in order to determine where IoT can be leveraged to improve efficiencies, reduce costs, and reduce administrative burdens of existing services as well as how a new IoT service could be delivered on a consistent basis. Any new procurements of devices or platforms should have high market value and can be on-boarded easily onto the GC network.</p>

   <p>Lastly, SSC may wish to consider evaluating the current Service Catalogue in order to determine where IoT can be leveraged to improve efficiencies, reduce costs, and reduce administrative burdens of existing services as well as how a new IoT service could be delivered on a consistent basis. Any new procurements of devices or platforms should have high market value and can be on-boarded easily onto the GC network.</p>