BA Bites - From 5G to Smart Cities: Finding Business Opportunities in Connected Data and Processes

Speaker A: We are diving into one of the biggest shifts happening in IT right now. The rise of advanced connectivity. I'm talking about 5G, 6G, IoT edge computing and smart city technology. But not as buzzwords, but as a massive enabler of process change and data driven opportunity. The Better Business Analysis Institute presents the Better Business Analysis Podcast with Kendra Walsh. Welcome back everyone to the Better Business Analysis podcast with your host, Benjamin Walsh. And today we are going to be talking about the topic about 5G, about smart cities, finding business opportunities and connected data and processes. Now here's the thing. Most people hear 5G and think faster downloads or better, uh, mobile coverage. But if you look at it through the lens of a business analyst, you start to see a, uh, web of data and connected processes that can transform industries, operations and customer experiences. So today we are going to unpack one, what advanced connectivity really means for businesses. Two, how business analysts can identify opportunities in connected data flows and automation. And three, the new types of analysis and skills we'll need as connectivity scales. Let's start with the connected opportunity. 5G and 6G networks are creating ultra low latency connections, meaning basically that data can move between devices, sensors and systems in near real time. So if you combine that with aot, which are sensors, so uh, Internet of Things is what it stands for, but they're sensors. Effectively you can buy them off AliExpress if you want to. Billions of sensors and cameras and smart devices, that's IoT. You've suddenly got live operational data everywhere. And then if you add an edge computing which processes that data locally rather than sending everything back to the cloud, and that's very important, this means faster insights, lower costs and new levels of automation. Right. It sounds a bit technical, but here's the b aliens. Every sensor or device is part of a process. Every data point is a potential decision maker or trigger. Every connected system creates an opportunity to add or lose value. So the role of the BA is to map out where this connectivity meets the business. Where does new data, uh, appear? How does it change decisions that have been made, services that are delivered, or risks that need to be mitigated. Okay, there's some questions for you. Let's dive into segment two, which is finding opportunities in that data. Uh, and the processes is really where it gets real. So we'll take two examples here, utilities and energy. So smart meters, you've got probably got one in your house that measures the electricity usage you've got. And IoT sensors consistently stream usage and fault data. The opportunity, massive predictive maintenance, dynamic pricing and customer transparency. A BA can define the data flows, map the processes, and, uh, I guess qualify the business impact by putting those in. Right. So, um, if we do this flip side, you used to have a media person who were to come around and check your meter. Well, that's gonna cost money. You know, you can get rid of that. But smart meters are gonna cost a lot of money to run. So is that a positive business case? And, and it was. And a lot of people are starting to do that. And then if you turn to local government or smart cities, which is totally an area that I'm, um, just getting more and more interested about, you've got traffic sensors, you've got waste bins like GPS on them, knowing where they are, lighting systems, they all generate operational data. Right? And so the opportunity is that there's process improvement. Fewer, ah, like I go, um, truck routes, lower costs, reduced emissions. The ba, us as bas, can connect their data to performance metrics and delivery, um, service delivery goals for making, I don't know, a city smarter or managing, um, traffic better or, uh, making sure we know when lights are out. And in health care, you dipped m into this, uh, again, I have a, I have a ring that measures everything, which is interesting, and I find it much better than the wearable watch, uh, that I've had previously. But wearables, remote monitoring and connected diagnosis, there's an opportunity there. It shifts us from reactive to preventative care, which saves a lot of money. And for the ba, it's about analyzing stakeholder needs, patient journeys, and the data that's, um, dependencies between them. You know, what data can we collect and sharing that, and obviously security and all that are really key in this as well. So when we talk about 5G or AOT, what we're really talking about is the ability to sense, decide and act faster. Okay? Sense, decide and act faster. That's a process story. And the BA's job is to identify which process benefit most from that speed and that visibility. So you could think, where are, uh, manual decisions still slowing things down? Where can data remove guesswork or delay? Where can predictive analysis or automation improve outcomes? These are prime BA opportunities and they sit right at the intersect between business process, technology, capability and customer value, which is where bas love to play. So what does this mean for bas and leaders? Right? What does this mean for us? Firstly, data literacy becomes a core skill for bas. I've talked about it often. I've done two years of data, uh, data project. You don't have to be a data scientist, but you need to understand data flow, sources, latency value, uh, process steps, where the Data is generated, APIs. Secondly, process modeling needs to evolve. So we do process modeling, but you don't just map human activities, but the digital ones too now. So including sensors and bots and APIs and events, you need to incorporate that. We used to not put technology which was the solution in. Now if that, um, that used to just be a data store or a place that you had your engine. Now if you've got sensors in, that might be a data source. So I'll give you a great example that I've just hit. Does that user need to fill in a form about their address or does the mobile phone already know their address? Okay, that's ait effectively. Thirdly is, uh, collaboration. So bas can now sit between it, uh, architects, operations and strategy. You'll need to connect those business outcomes to the actual network and data capabilities underneath them. So if you're thinking about a big process, diagram all the different levels having. Introducing a level of data was something we started doing, ah, a few years ago. Should definitely have a data, um, area there. And now you might even have network and sensors. Think like a value designer and we talk about value engineering. It's something that I want the word to take off. Every connected device is an opportunity to measure and improve something. And every data stream can fuel a new service, a better customer experience or a cost saving initiative if we analyze it properly and use those technologies and those data sources. So as we move further into this connected world, the best bas won't just capture requirements, they'll think transitioning connectivity into capability, turning streams of sensor data into smart decisions and better business outcomes. If you're working in ba IT strategy or digital delivery, now's the time to ask these three questions. What data do we already have? What can we collect? Or what's coming that we're not using yet? And how can we turn that data into insights, automation or value? Because that's where the next wave of business innovation will come from. Not just from the tech itself, but what we do with it. So start looking at this technology. Start uh, understanding how it can affect uh, your processes today and I'll speak to you next week. SA.