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The Power of the IoT for the Extended Enterprise

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Organizations looking to take advantage of the Internet of Things (IoT) will be poised to capitalize on numerous new business opportunities in the future. As hardware and networking costs have decreased, the amount of data available to the enterprise has exploded and will continue to increase. In fact, the number of connected devices throughout the world is expected to grow to 14 billion by 2022. It’s not a matter of if organizations will be transformed by the IoT, but a matter of when. Those businesses differentiating themselves now through innovative IoT applications will have a significant advantage over their competitors.

However, harnessing the power of the IoT is much easier said than done. Organizations often limit the ROI of their IoT deployments because they focus solely on connecting their products – not the enterprise. To maximize ROI, companies need to derive value from the data generated through connected assets and devices. Manufacturers, for example, would need to migrate their product lifecycle management (PLM) approach to an IoT-driven one. With an IoT-driven PLM approach, organizations will receive real-time feedback from their connected products and end user behavior, and share it with multiple business stakeholders – both internally and externally. This allows companies to glean valuable information about their products in real-time to significantly impact product development.  

Becoming an Extended Enterprise
Most organizations today strive to become an extended enterprise. Extended enterprises maximize the business benefits of digital and automation initiatives throughout the organization. These can range from enterprise focus, such as customer intelligence, collaboration, innovation and governance; to marketing and customer-focused efforts such as social media, websites, e-commerce and advertising. An area that can provide tremendous value to an organization and is often overlooked is the product lifecycle management. There are four phases of traditional product lifecycle management: idea conception, product design, manufacturing and service. With this traditional approach, it can sometimes take years to collect meaningful feedback and data that can be used for product improvements. With IoT-driven product lifecycle management, the product is connected to the Internet and data is collected in real-time. 

To maximize impact, both the data generated during the manufacturing process as well as data collected in the field should be aggregated, analyzed and shared within the extended enterprise and integrated into relevant IT systems (e.g. PLM software). So far, manufacturers typically collect pre-defined sets of machine data, but they don’t make use of this data nor do they share it with other parts of the organization, such as warranty management, quality control, product development, business development or with other key external business stakeholders. Also, the integration of this data into other IT systems is often missing. Sharing data with various stakeholders and systems leads to increased, more precise and permanent feedback on the product, and therefore greater opportunities for further innovation.  

IoT-driven product lifecycle management is an iterative development process based on the insights of product engineers, the feedback of end users and numerous other internal and external stakeholders. This allows companies to take a broader view of their products and develop their product and service offering in a faster and more efficient manner. This is accomplished by connecting products as well as analyzing and further processing data using an IoT platform that can handle data from multiple systems and devices, apply business logic and processes with ease, and integrate it effectively.  

Leveraging the Internet of Things, companies can streamline business processes for stakeholders across the extended enterprise. For example, in manufacturing, data automatically collected from smart and connected products, gives companies meaningful feedback as to how products should be reengineered and provides opportunities for additional revenue through selling services.   

Considerations Before Starting an IoT Deployment
Selecting the right IoT software provider can mean the difference between a game-changing business innovation and a failed launch. It is important to select an IoT platform that is functionally robust, able to connect devices, integrate multiple IT systems or services, and that can share and process data effectively. It is also imperative that the software features a visually appealing interface that is simple yet sophisticated and highly intuitive. Last but not least, organizations should also choose a provider that can provide engineering and product development expertise.

Here are four considerations when choosing an IoT solutions provider:

1. Is the platform able to engage various stakeholders in a simplified way? Business users from multiple segments of the organization must be able to apply specific business process logic to the machine and product data themselves. With the proper platform in place, stakeholders from multiple areas of the business can write their own algorithms and process the data without assistance from IT. 

2. Is the platform able to connect various types of machines, assets and devices? The platform should be able to integrate and manage an entire – mostly heterogeneous – network of connected machines, assets and devices, and allow respective users to share data for seamless collaboration. 

3. Can the platform integrate easily into various IT systems and services?  The platform should also feature a standard set of integration points allowing it to push data into other IT systems (e.g. ERP, PLM) or to interact with other IT services. This allows organizations to apply algorithms to business system data and inter-relate it to machine data to glean valuable information.   

4. Does the provider have the ability to bring in subject matter experts and engineering/product development teams to enhance the product? Besides IT excellence, the provider should offer broad industry and product engineering expertise allowing the organization to migrate from product lifecycle management to an IoT-driven product lifecycle management.  

Conclusion
To become an extended enterprise, organizations must embrace IoT-driven product lifecycle management which incorporates insights of multiple stakeholders into the development process. It allows companies to integrate an unprecedented level of feedback into their products, in real time, enabling them to develop their products and services in a faster and more efficient manner. This is accomplished by using a robust IoT platform from a provider that can provide product engineering expertise. With the right IoT software provider, organizations can realize the numerous benefits of IoT-driven product lifecycle management.  

Matt Jennings is Regional President, Americas, for Bosch Software Innovations.  He has more than 25 years experience in the IoT, data and device management fields. For more information about this particular topic and Bosch Software Innovations, visit www.bosch-si.com.     

 
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