Field service technology company Servicemax has partnered with software and services firm PTC to offer an Internet of Things system using radio frequency identification, satellite, long-range low-power (LoRa) RF or Wi-Fi technology to report when a piece of equipment starts to malfunction - even, in some cases, before a user notices the problem.

The IoT revolution is gathering pace, impacting people's lives and the way they interact with the everyday 'things' around them. According to Cisco's 11th annual Visual Networking Index: Global IP Traffic Forecast Update, the number of connected devices will have grown nearly 2.5-fold, from 4.9 billion in 2015 to 12.2 billion by 2020, when global IoT spending is predicted to have reached $1.29tr, as outlined in a new IDC Internet of Things Spending Guide.

Challenge: As a quickly growing business, one of the world's largest infrastructure and irrigation equipment providers realized its existing approach to managing freight invoices wasn't keeping up. An entirely manual process – from tearing envelopes to rubber stamping G/L codes – the company was not only wasting valuable time and resources, but encountering costly errors.

Actility, the European startup battling with rival Sigfox to connect things from fuel tanks to Amsterdam's canals to the internet, has raised $75m from investors in a bid to win business in the industrial sector.

New technology from Alibaba Cloud aims to predict when and where large airfreight shipments will be sent each day for a range of forwarders and shippers. Alibaba says its new artificial intelligence (AI) platform, called PAI 2.0, will provide businesses and organizations machine-learning capabilities.

Analyst Insight: Relatively flat growth over the past several years coupled with margin erosion and heavy M&A activity in the industry has companies looking to the their supply chains for greater efficiencies. Long-tail SKUs and accelerated obsolescence cycles are clogging storage capacity that is needed for expansion of new lines, categories and products to deliver "one-stop shopping" for customers and competitive advantage for distributors. The next competitive edge will come, not from step change, but from transformational projects that deliver unprecedented efficiency and agility. - Chris Mehl, electronics industry leader, Fortna Inc.