IoT Enabled Process Innovation: Exploring Sensor-Based Digital Service Design Through an Information Requirements Framework

Abstract

Through digitisation of physical artefacts and environments, the Internet of Things carries vast potential for process innovation. However, navigation of the quickly evolving technological landscape and identification of emerging opportunities for value creation remains challenging. To this end, we combine existing frameworks on information requirements, IT capability, and business value of IT. We evaluate the usability of these frameworks for IoT enabled innovation in our analysis of two sensor-based process innovation projects. We investigate the fit between process characteristics and technological functionality, and the implications of this alignment. Our analysis demonstrates that the framework provides a practically useful and theoretically coherent conceptual device for analyzing process characteristics and digital options to innovate processes. Furthermore, we find that IoT sensors are well suited to address connectivity and uncertainty requirements. However, in order to leverage them to address high equivocality requirements designers need deep contextual understanding to align IoT capability with information requirements.