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Showing posts from April, 2018

Apprehensive adopter

As folks assembled in the meeting room you could feel the uneasiness in the air.   The invitation read "manage customers digitally" with the body of the message including words like "revolutionary and efficient".   Although the ground was flat, I was looking for something to trip on, help me fall suddenly and smack my head against the floor, anything to get out of this meeting.   You could see the attendees all preparing to take their stance, some were curious and sincerely interested in change, a handful had no real feelings either way, and of course my fellow naysayers.   If we added enough resistance to this movement it would fade away like so many others before I thought.   Our naysayer silently continues to vent; "the fact of the matter, at least from my perspective, is that I have been successful for years why should I change.   If my Big Chief tablet and a number two pencil has worked, let's not upset the apple cart".   However, my funk was

Who owns the data?

Finally the capital budget allows you to replace some very old equipment.    You can't open a trade magazine without seeing the latest news regarding the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).   Lucky for you the equipment manufacturers are offering an IIoT ready solution packaged with your equipment.   Suddenly your enthusiasm turns to confusion as you review the details of the quote.   What the hell is that subscription fee?   Isn't this equipment mine; lock, stock and barrel?   You mean to tell me that I need to pay the manufacturer, every month,   to give me the luxury of accessing data produced by the equipment I just purchased?   The only explanation has to be new math, at least as a child this is what my parents told me when I asked hard to answer questions. It's amazing how history repeats itself, we are starting to see manufacturer specific data languages appearing in their "smart" equipment.   Didn't we learn our lesson twenty years ago that h