The 5G revolution is not just on paper. Vodafone, which is the leader of the experimentation in the metropolitan area of Milan of the network that is about to sanction the new digital revolution, has chosen the Lombard capital to concretely demonstrate in which direction the relationship between telecommunications and companies and the Public Administration will evolve. With a new series of digital services, which Vodafone offers "turnkey" relying on the network and on its technological knowledge, albeit in partnership with some production companies: and therefore the Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, robotics, analytics, Big Data and quant 'other, at the service not only of private citizens (the smart home, the connected car, etc.) but also of companies (small, medium and large), banks, insurance companies, shops, factories, farmers, to optimize their business or services to the client.
“In Italy – he said Giorgio Migliarina, Director of Vodafone Business, the division dedicated to digital services for businesses, in which the TLC will invest 240 million euros over five years – 39% of businesses intend to increase their investments in ICT, and another 50% say they want to confirm them: it means that 90% of the productive fabric is oriented towards investing or even growing even more on the technological side”. “The IT revolution is ending – continued the manager, providing an overview of the scenario – and the digital one is starting. The differences are mainly three: the information revolution involved only technicians, i technologist, while the current one is potentially in the hands of everyone, citizens and businesses of any kind. The old revolution led to streamlining production activities, this one instead is revolutionizing business models all over again. And it is much faster and less progressive than the previous one”.
Worldwide, Vodafone already connects 80 million objects, 10 of which in Italy alone, one of its main markets. What does the digital revolution mean for companies or institutions? For example, just recently the Vodafone Analytics solution, which studies the presence and movement of people based on the SIM cards used in a given space and at a given time, in collaboration with Cerved which is able to implement data on the profiles of people, has provided to the Municipality of Milan a statistical analysis relating to the flow of people during the last Fashion Week at the end of February, which made it possible to analyze the impact on tourism in the city. Only through the data provided by the telephone cells and cross-referenced with those of Cerved, for example, was it possible to detect that there were 213.800 more visitors than in a normal week of the year, with 39% of foreigners (captured through roaming) 61% of Italians.
“But this type of analysis – Migliarina explained – can also apply to a commercial establishment. To help him understand, for example, at what times to open and close the shop based on the flows of that specific neighborhood or that specific one, or at what times to offer some products rather than others, depending on when people travel to eat, or to shop. It can even be a tool to understand if and where to open a business”. But the fields of action, for example through the Internet of Things, are even wider: fromAgriculture 4.0, with a turnkey solution for the agricultural entrepreneur who wants to monitor weather data and the state of health of the land and plantations; to energy consumption, with solutions of the smart home type but even more advanced for monitoring consumption, temperature, humidity and other data in larger and heterogeneous environments, such as factories and offices.
“Banks and insurance companies request the service most often. The former to optimize the costs of the various branches, the latter to offer risk prevention tools to their customers". The return for Vodafone is very clear: these solutions have a price that varies from hundreds to thousands of euros depending on the type of product, but they are not one-off and to use them you also need to subscribe, which then includes updates and assistance. Like a private telephone subscription, but with a minimum duration usually of several years.
