This might come as a surprise, but there are a bunch of “Essex Girls” attached to the Internet via a special necklace. I kid you not.

They are not, however, white-stiletto-wearing teenagers. Instead they are a herd of cows on an Essex farm. Around their necks they have a device that monitors them and sends back information via a website as to their whereabouts in a field and how fit and healthy they are. The system could save thousands of pound for farmers by spotting ill-health amongst dairy cattle.

It is an interesting example of  “The Internet of Things”. Instead of a computer being connected to the Internet, it is something else, in this case a cow. But there are plenty of other things connected to the Internet.

There is the Internet Fridge from Samsung, for instance, as well as the kettle that sends you a Tweet to tell you it has boiled.

So what in your business can you connect to the Internet?

Book publishers, for instance, could connect books allowing them to monitor which page you had reached and then send you additional material relevant to the exact spot in the book you were reading.

Or what if you run an accountancy practice? You could connect cash registers to the Internet so that your customers’ bookkeeping was done automatically.

And if you run a dentistry service, what about Internet connected fillings that would let you know they needed re-doing before the patient felt any pain.

Oh goodness – the possibilities are limitless. Perhaps.

But the Internet connected cows do make you think; there are ways we can use the Internet to save costs in our business, driving up profits, if only we were thinking more creatively outside the confines of a website and a computer screen.

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