Accenture seeing quick adoption of IoT among Irish businesses

18 May 2016

Accenture Ireland’s energy and utilities lead, Michael Russell.

Having already described the internet of things (IoT) as a ‘huge opportunity’ for its business, Accenture Ireland’s energy and utilities lead, Michael Russell, explains how it plans to get its technology into 600 homes across the country.

Accenture announced back in January of this year that, as part of a pilot programme with Electric Ireland, 600 homes and businesses across Ireland would get the chance to trial Accenture’s Connected Platforms as a Service (CPaaS).

As part of this IoT platform, users can remotely enable or automate control of multiple smart devices using a number of smart plugs, and have monitors to measure electricity consumption installed throughout the premises.

From Accenture’s point of view, these smart plugs join a number of other IoT smart home devices currently finding their way into people’s home, with this specific trial testing the Accenture Connected Home Services suite using advanced analytics technology.

Five months on, Accenture Ireland’s energy and utilities lead, Michael Russell, spoke with Siliconrepublic.com, revealing what some of the latest developments are, both in terms of it rolling out of its smart home technology, and advancement of IoT in general.

Irish companies quickly adopting IoT mindset

Most interesting is news of some of the other projects that Accenture is working on, particularly the industry and hybrid business models that are being adopted across multiple sectors.

In Ireland, at least, Russell believes that businesses are understanding fast the potential connected technology offers them.

“Clients that I’m working with currently are starting to understand what the potential would be, what the impact on their industry could be… [of] taking early strides along what I’m sure will be a very interesting journey in the years ahead.”

Colm Gorey was a senior journalist with Silicon Republic

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