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#SIdO
The Internet of Things isn't just a trendy topic - it's also a major trend in innovation, as the participants in SidO, the largest professional event for the Internet of Things, held early April in Lyon, were reminded.

The Internet of Things refers to connected objects, to which an internet connection brings real, intelligent added value, and which generate usable data. Everything but gadgets.

According to a study by US consulting firm Gartner, the world will have close to 25 billion connected objects by 2020. More optimistic is US investment bank Goldman Sachs, which says it will be more like 28 billion.

In France, in 2013, the Internet of Things was valued at 48 billion euros. According to Gartner, the market for connected objects is expected to reach 13.2 billion euros in five years' time, or more than 30 connected objects per household. B2B solutions should see the strongest growth, although barriers remain, such as the costs of deployment and the integration of connected objects into corporate operating systems.

Nevertheless, the applications for the Internet of Things are numerous, especially for local authorities. In Clermont-Ferrand, a public lighting monitoring system helped the city to achieve energy savings of 35%. The Internet of Things is also proving relevant for manufacturers. Solutions developed by companies like Markem-Imaje make it possible to install connected printing systems and to facilitate breakdown detection.

But key challenges persist, such as those concerning the data collected by the Internet of Things. While this data will give a crucial advantage to companies that are able to collect and use it to better understand their customers, numerous legal questions remain with regard to the protection, compilation, security and use of personal data.

The Internet of Things is a rapidly growing sector, and it's creating jobs, especially in the fields of embedded computing and electronics. Many opportunities have already been identified by job seekers and companies alike. Nearly 40% of these companies see this phenomenon as a vector for improving their profitability and a tool for increasing their competitiveness, according to a survey conducted by IDC in July to September 2014.

As the bank for a changing world, BNP Paribas is very interested in innovations that, like the Internet of Things, disrupt our existing practices. L'Atelier BNP Paribas seeks to identify the latest initiatives and the changes that they bring, both for consumers and for companies, to help everyone to understand them better.

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