Smart City
Hyrde IoT: Challenges along the journey
Gerard van den Houten, MD, Hyrde IoT
IoT is rapidly changing the business landscape, enabling companies and people to be more connected than ever before. And this trend is set to increase with experts predicting that there will be an estimated 41.6 billion connected IoT devices by the year 2025.
Navigating their way through this ever-evolving IT backdrop is Hyrde BV – a portfolio company of the VolkerWessels Telecom Group. The VolkerWessels Group comprises of 140 diverse companies, all of whom are independent, with well-defined regional markets, expertises and identity. Through control and support at the division level, VolkwerWessels pool resources to offer integrated solutions and provide the best possible service to their clients.
The newly formed Hyrde company has been making significant strides through its comprehensive ecosystem of IoT solutions. Credits go out to Gerard van den Houten -Managing Director of Hyrde BV – who has been the driving force behind the successes the company has enjoyed so far.
While recounting his personal career journey in IT, Houten highlights the challenges he has faced in this fast paced and dynamic environment and shares his philosophy on building a winning team. Excerpts from the interaction:
Key traits for success
Self-motivation and the self-will to get back up despite setbacks have been one of the key traits for his success. The thought leader’s ability to “think out of the box” and find creative solutions without having to reinvent the wheel has helped him throughout his professional journey.
A thought leader who walks the talk
Building a team of like-minded people and consistently motivating them with his contagious passion is a solid leadership trait in Houten’s arsenal. He encourages inventive thinking and creates a healthy work environment with the right balance of charisma and self-assurance. According to him, it is important for a leader to rally the team to meet both their personal goals as well as those of the organization. “No man is an island, and the support of a strong team that shares both your vision and passion cannot be under-estimated,” says Houten.
Challenges along the journey
According to Houten, Failure is part of success but it needs to be managed well. The lessons learned from failing, help one recognize one’s true potential and tenacity to succeed. “My journey to success has not always been plain sailing, but my drive and determination helped me to learn from my mistakes and move forward,” says Houten. “Recognize the signs of failure, understand its causes and limit the impact of failure. Book small successes to ensure you stay in a positive spiral,” he adds.
Staying in the positive spiral despite failures
According to Houten, staying completely aware of the industry dynamics is a crucial part of surviving. “I continually up-skill myself to fully understand the business I am in. This helps me recognize when the business model needs to be modified to ensure that our offering remains relevant.
Managing key relationships is also an area of business that cannot be ignored. Houten attributes most of his success to the strong alliances he has built up over the years. Strategic relationships with industry leaders as well as financial stakeholders, has provided Houten with an enviable support base from which to launch innovative concepts. Having the freedom and support to take calculated risks has resulted in the company being able to review its product offering to better meet the demands of the Industry.
Why choose IoT?
IoT solutions can play a significant role in changing the status quo of any business. IoT offers opportunities that might not have been possible a mere 5 years ago. A well-crafted IoT solution can not only assist in reducing operational costs – something most companies aspire to achieve – but oftentimes opens up new non-traditional revenue streams for the company. Today, almost all companies can benefit from IoT for one reason or the other and it was against this setting that Houten was inspired to create the Hyrde IoT ecosystem.
Hyrde IoT platform
The Hyrde ecosystem addresses the challenge of keeping IoT affordable by providing numerous types of devices, global connectivity networks as well as “off the shelf” IoT solutions. The platform is based on an open source architecture with a “no license fee” model. It can be seen as an extension to any competitive IoT platform and is well placed to suit the demands of emerging Smart Cities. The ecosystem is available on transaction and SLA based pricing which includes everything needed to roll out world-class IoT solutions.
Top 25 Smart City Technology Ceo’s Of 2020
The idea of a smart city has become extremely important when it comes to the context of defining the strength, performance, facility, demography and urban economy. How a smart city would perform? In what ways we can identify a smart city?
When it comes to understanding a city in terms of scientific growth and implementing important policies with the right quotient of strategies, it has a tremendous impact on the socio-economic growth of the place and worldwide. Several reports and research studies indicated there will be a continuous rise in the population living in the urban city. Under this circumstance, the present Government needs to tighten the loose ends. The first important aspects are to make all the resources easily available for the people to utilize. Not just basic resources, but when it comes to luxurious resources, the people living in the urban city have first access to it. A person’s mind is extremely inquisitive; they search for the technology that makes their life extremely easy and convenient. In a way, this contributes to the economic and social growth in a city but gives their poor environmental sustainability.
How does the scientist look into this growth?
Growth in technology is so widespread that some of the issues and problems that need immediate attention are often overlooked. The rise in population means deterioration of air quality, transportation, and economic risks. Not just this they are open to major health consequences. When the population density in a city is lesser, the lesser will be the energy consumed for electricity and transportation, which will certainly help in the dropping of carbon-dioxide. But there is no way that all these can be controlled. The situation indicates that the cities are in need of smarter ways to control and combat the new challenges.
The rate of metabolism in cities consists of consuming essential products and excreting waste. This is a common phenomenon and is unavoidable. This gives rise to socio-economic issues. Promoting any goods for sustainability has been taken through the growth and marketing of natural capital stocks. Also, if we consider and take into account city sustainability, this also promotes an anthropocentric approach. According to this, a city responds to people’s requirements for sustainability solutions or socio-economic growth.
If we have to consider that the cities with the high urban population depend on transportation facilities, land uses and other facilities, then we could be certain that this will also have an impact on technological growth. Public transport will be more efficient and will be of the highest quality to be able to respond to the economic needs of the city as well. It gives a better meaning of labor with employment, thus increasing the productivity of the firm.
As we take a new approach towards urban service provision, there is growth in technology, including ICT. The concept of a smart city is not limited to technological aspects alone. With the growing relevance of the smart city concept, the definition and meaning are also changing, giving rise to greater confusion and challenges for the policy-makers. In the next sections, we would take look at the deeper impact and implications of technology towards building a smart city.
