Retailers must plan now for the IoT because the technology positively impacts top- and bottom-line business performance by improving omnichannel operations and enabling personalized and contextualized interaction with consumers, says a report from IDC Retail Insights.

For retail energy companies, managing data once meant nothing more complex than processing analog meter readings and customer billing information. However, the advent of the smart home, along with the wave of digitization sweeping the industry, is creating major opportunities to tap into an explosion of fast-moving, complex big data in compelling new ways.

Are we to add the Internet of Things to the pantheon of top strategic technology priorities for the decade? That's the question increasingly in front of IT decision makers these days as tech vendors add the buzzphrase to their marketing and practitioners evaluate the rapidly growing array of related tools and technologies.

Lufthansa Technik and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico have announced an agreement to create an aviation maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facility to service short-haul and medium-haul aircraft.

ABI Research forecasts that revenues from maintenance analytics will total $9.1bn this year. Following a CAGR of 22 percent, the market’s size will reach $24.7bn in 2019, driven largely by adoption of predictive analytics and M2M connectivity.

Although telematics technologies and services were first adopted by the long-haul trucking industry in the United States more than 20 years ago, adoption in the non-trucking sector is expected to equal the trucking industry in terms of numbers of connected vehicles by the end of 2014 and will dominate the commercial fleet telematics industry by the end of 2019, accounting for almost 50 million vehicles globally.

Today's complex and connected supply chain translates into quick communication with partners. At the same time, it creates huge opportunity for data leakage and security issues that need to be addressed proactively in supply chain systems.