The panelists in this podcast talk about how machine-to-machine (M2M), machine-to-people (M2P), and people-to-people (P2P) interactions benefit from protocol standardization. Often, sensors and actuators communicate in many different systems that use proprietary protocols. This limits access to data and negatively impacts its potential value. Standardization of protocols will increase data value by reducing costs and improving productivity. This is especially important as the IoE benefits industries by converging operational technology (OT) and information technology (IT) functions.