SGS : Digital Technology Superpowers Driven by the Internet of Things (IoT)

Senior Vice President Digital & Innovation at SGS, Siddi Wouters, explores how the next evolution of the Internet is changing everything.

About Siddi Wouters

Siddi Wouters is Senior Vice President of Digital and Innovation for SGS. He is an experienced leader in digital transformation and innovation strategy with a proven track record in international companies within energy, maritime, defense, food and agriculture, and financial services.

Siddi holds several executive certifications from MIT Sloan in Management, Innovation and Technology, and has a master's degree in Applied Physics from the University of Twente in the Netherlands.

What is Internet of Things (IoT)?

IoT can be defined as the intelligent connectivity of physical devices and people. Devices are equipped with sensors and designed for the remote collection and exchange of real-time data and measurements from user environments, leading to massive gains in efficiency, business growth, and service quality. The Internet of Things (IoT) represents a huge leap forward in our ability to gather, analyze and distribute data, converting it into information, knowledge and insights.

According to the Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group, the IoT represents the point in time when more 'things or objects' are connected to the Internet than people. Based on this definition, the IoT was born between 2008 and 2009.

In 2020, with a world population of 7.6 billion people, it was estimated that 28 billion devices were connected to the internet. What does it mean for business to have billions of devices online that can sense and communicate from anywhere in the world?

The IoT helps SGS to introduce innovative and smart ways of doing business by leveraging the knowledge and experience accumulated while performing testing and inspection services. It provides us with new ways to monitor and manage objects in the physical world, while new streams of data provide better avenues for decision making.

At SGS, we strongly believe in the potential of the IoT to shape the way we do our core business ¬- from providing innovative services to higher customer engagement and satisfaction, from operational efficiencies to completely new business models.

The IoT will help SGS to start performing its comprehensive, world-leading inspection and verification services in a smart way, such as checking the condition and weight of traded goods during transshipment, controlling quantity and quality and meeting all relevant regulatory requirements across different regions and markets.

We can use the IoT to ensure that products and services comply with global standards and local regulations in virtually every industry, covering the entire supply chain from raw materials to final consumption.

The IoT market is growing by 7% per year and the digitalization of inspection services is also rapidly expanding.

To accelerate the digitalization of its services, SGS is partnering with leading telecommunications companies, including Swisscom, Microsoft, LORIOT, and Redexia, to build an IoT Competence Center in Madrid. For example, Swisscom is providing a dedicated, secure IoT network to transport the data collected by sensors stored on Microsoft's dedicated IoT Cloud Hub solution for monitoring and analysis by qualified SGS inspectors.

IoT Center in Madrid

Established in Madrid but operating globally, our mission is to lead and support SGS's digital transformation in creating next-generation monitoring services through the provision of state-of-the art IoT solutions. Our vision is to become the globally recognized benchmark, both internally (SGS) and externally (business stakeholders, partners, clients, IoT community), for providing innovative, sustainable and cost effective IoT solutions.

Our strategy is to focus on quick wins, return on investment and in-house solutions, partnering with the best-in-class, value-added services.

Together we can design successful and innovative customer-centric business models around your ideas. Our unique skillset within the IoT organization will allow us to quickly and cost-effectively validate the concept, test the idea in practice, and rapidly deploy and scale the service for customers.