On a warm day in October, three companies and two startups met at the TNW offices to conclude the 100-day Vodafone IoT Challenge.
Innovation is something that all companies want, but few actually have the time for. We read about the advanced new tools and technologies that collect deeper insights and make things faster and easier than ever before. But in the end, everyday tasks always take precedence over the efforts and progress we can make for tomorrow.
The real challenge is simply taking the time needed to innovate. For this reason, Facilicom Group, Vodafone Ziggo and the Heineken Experience took part in the 2024 edition of the Vodafone IoT Challenge.
The Vodafone IoT Challenge began in 2018 when Vodafone Business IoT experts sought to address some of the most common customer challenges in new ways. The idea behind the initiative was to find innovative solutions through the combined strength of key industry players and innovative young technology companies. After a successful first edition, the challenge now welcomed partners from various industries.
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Similar to a fitness bootcamp, the Vodafone IoT Challenge connects each participant with a startup in the IoT space and gives them the support and motivation to complete a one-hundred-day sprint in which they develop and demonstrate a solution to one of the key challenges they face you.
The challenge began on June 20, when participants were pitted against two startups: Sensing Feeling and PFM Intelligence.
On October 17th everyone came together for Demo Day to exchange results and share experiences. Here's what we learned:
Challenge one: How can we see without seeing?
As the EU takes a leading role in promoting data protection rights across the union, this also poses challenges for companies that want to use technology to gain more insights without violating data protection.
Ron Knaap, Director of Platform Technology at Facilicom, faced this challenge. Knaap and his team focused on improving the user experience in buildings and needed to develop a way to monitor factors such as occupancy levels, air quality and occupant mood to improve well-being in buildings.
As part of the program, he partnered with Jag Minhas, CEO of Sensing Feeling. Together they developed a project that uses 3D sensors to create heat maps inside buildings. This allowed them to collect extensive data about whether crowds were gathering or dispersing, how quickly people were moving, and more. This information can then be used to provide real-time insights and even predict behavior.
For Minhas, this challenge presented a new use case in which Sense Feeling’s technology and expertise could be applied: “Typically our use cases take place outdoors or in industrial centers. This time we were able to focus on human behavior in relatively compact spaces such as reception areas and hallways.”
Challenge two: Can we analyze people's behavior and match it with online reviews?
The Heineken Experience is an immersive experience with interactive exhibits that bring visitors closer to one of the Netherlands' most popular brands.
Benjamin David, sales and marketing manager at Heineken Experience, wanted to gain deeper insight into visitor satisfaction by understanding what was happening in the attraction and comparing it to what visitors were saying online.
Bart Schmitz from PFM Intelligence was your solution partner for this challenge. Together they analyzed key insights that could help Heineken improve the experience. Based on this required data, PFM designed a sensor-based system that could collect information about visitor behavior, visitor flow and interactions within their exhibition space.
One insight David took from this experience is that even though they started big and ultimately wanted to gain insight across the entire site, they realized they needed to limit the demo to a few key areas.
However, both partners are confident that when it launches in December this year, the insights gained from the system will help with strategic decision-making on renovations and route planning, improve the overall visitor experience and allow them to test ideas that can later be scaled up.
Challenge three: How can we optimize the layout of a store?
Vodafone Retail recently introduced a new shop concept at its Bijlmer Arena location. As Vodafone Retail Channel Manager Hein van Hell explained, they wanted to analyze the store in a data-driven way to optimize the layout and drive more traffic to the store.
They wanted to delve deeper into questions like: How do people interact with the products on the different shelves in the store? How busy is the street in front of the store at different times of the day/week? How many salespeople do we need to have at different times of the day? At the same time, it was necessary to ensure that this data could be collected in accordance with data protection and GDPR guidelines.
To gain these types of insights, they needed a solution that could monitor customer behavior, understand crowd composition and the level of interaction at their physical locations. Additionally, they needed a platform capable of aggregating diverse data sets for comprehensive insights.
Van Hell and his solution partner Christiaan van Rooijen from PFM developed a concept that combined technologies to provide the insights Vodafone Ziggo wanted.
“Although there was already a counter, we installed sensors that could collect data about customers entering the store. We also installed sensors that focus on street traffic so we could understand how many people were walking past the store compared to the number of people. Once shoppers entered, we were able to track every step they took in the store,” said van Rooijen.
Through this demo, they were able to confirm that their new store concept is more engaging and also gained insights into how to adjust their product portfolio based on customer insights.
Insights for the future
Two things that participants really liked about the program were: a dedicated TNW program project manager to keep them informed throughout the hundred days, and the opportunity to share and learn from each other's experiences.
Jelmer Letterie, Senior Marketing Manager for Vodafone Ziggo and Program Manager of the IoT Challenge, emphasized that although these were three very different projects, they had many similarities in terms of insights. In fact, he shared three general takeaways from Demo Day:
- Continuous Learning – Even established companies can always learn something new by challenging themselves to go a step outside the box.
- Work with experts – Working with specialists accelerates progress and opens up new perspectives.
- Start small, think big – innovation takes time. Start with a smaller, focused project that can later be expanded across the entire company.
“These three pillars are actually the purpose of the IoT Challenge,” emphasized Letterie at the end of the last day.
