• by Chuck Martin , Staff Writer, September 15, 2015

No matter what anyone thinks about the scope of the Internet of Things, some major companies are placing major bets on its future.

The latest in a series of all-in announcements, Salesforce today introduced a new platform to help companies make sense of IoT data coming from a wide range of sources.

Combined with its customer and marketing data, Salesforce will be able to incorporate information from sensors, apps, Web data and weather data to provide a more complete picture of customers in real time.

The data analysis can trigger real time, one-on-one communications, according to a Salesforce spokesperson.

And Salesforce is not the only large company dialing into the Internet of Things.

Following its announcement several months ago that it would invest $3 billion around the Internet of Things, IBM yesterday created a business unit to focus on smart devices. As expected, much of the focus will be on crunching data from connected objects and trying to derive insights from all of it.

Not to be outdone, General Electric yesterday announced the creation of a new division with the goal of becoming a leader around IoT. GE named one of its vice presidents to the new position of chief digital officer to lead the charge. GE Digital will combine the company’s software center with its commercial software teams.

Disney also is involved behind the IoT scenes, with its researchers showing smart light bulbs that can communicate with each other by transmitting signals by light. The bulbs could be used like beacons for various location-based marketing applications.

These and other IoT efforts are laying the groundwork for marketers.

The resource being allocated to fuel the Internet of Things is likely to provide not only new tools for real-time marketing but also fresh insights and capabilities that emerge as more smart objects are interconnected.

The ultimate benefit could be the lifting of some of the fog around the customer journey.