Skip to main content

1,2,3 deploy IoT


Our ability to gain perspectives, which influence our decision process and accelerate customer value, is getting exponentially better with the passing of each day.  Your connected systems / IoT aspirations are visceral and supported by logic.  A few suggestions to help you wrap your head around getting started on your journey:



Move the needle

If you had to choose just a couple of business conditions, which when altered could impact your entire operation, what would those be?  The best way to accomplish this is not to think about what or how will gather this information, instead focus on why these are so important to your business. Most of the time these answers may be found stitched into the intuition of yourself and your teammates.



Think big – start small

We often get trapped within ourselves and only think about things which we know we can measure or explore. This new world of connected systems opens myriad opportunities to examine and leverage information in ways which we could not even imagine just a handful of years ago. So, dream big and once your ideas are jotted down take a methodical and pragmatic approach to accomplish your objectives. There are no shortcuts on your journey to evolve your business into a prescriptive service organization.



Block out your technical approach

If you can't describe your architecture and approach in three to five large blocks you should re-examine your design. For instance, a block approach might include; data, intelligence, and action. Connected systems are complex but they don't need to be complicated.



Experiment and evaluate

The rate of change in intelligently connected systems is mind-numbing. Once you begin to peel back this onion it is likely you will be overwhelmed and easily distracted with competing components of connected system solutions. Put a toe in the water, start with a prepackaged and narrowly focused IoT solution, or jump with both feet in and start with an IoT platform. Either way establish diverse pilots and assess multiple technology types. Don't forget that most of these systems are subscription-based and your long-term total cost of ownership should be considered once you pass the pilot phase.



Partner up

Odds are you will have to choose a horse to ride with regards to a platform, do so with eyes wide-open.  While the platform partners are important, they become exponentially more valuable when they have a strong consulting partner organization.  As an example, you may choose Microsoft for the partner and Hitachi Solutions for your consulting partner.



In a "try and buy" SaaS business environment we need to get to the punchline quickly. From a tactical perspective you will need to have quick wins to build your confidence as well as those funding your aspirations.  When you consider the strategic side it is important that you stay just a few steps ahead of your competition, you want them to follow you and share your new cost structures.



-----

Next post:  losing my mind

Questions?  feel free to leave replies or direct message

See all of the "last mile worker" posts here:  http://lastmileworker.com

-----
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Speaking AI (artifical intelligence)

You're talking but I can't hear you.   Everyone can certainly understand this condition; the "Peanuts" parents who sounded exactly like your own, your significant other while you watch your favorite game on TV, or most importantly a work colleague or partner which you are attempting to communicate a thought or vision.   All of these, and many other examples, have plagued our organizations long past the childhood game of telephone (passing your words to another, and on to another, etc.).   So what?   What has changed?   Besides the velocity of products hitting the market, the requirements that we have for our business now needs to be interpreted by data scientists, yet another abstraction layer from the field conditions.   Think about this example; TODAY :   we often think in binary terms, if "x" happens do "y" …   take a sales person seeking potential leads by searching a system for the last time we made contact TOMMOR...
Post a Comment
Read more

months to aquire, moments to lose

It is just hard to imagine that one of the most common reasons maintenance contracts are lost is because people don't show up and don't pay attention to the details.   In many cases maintenance is an investment to keep the life of your asset running for a protracted period of time. However the length on many maintenance contracts is not even close to the life expectancy of that equipment, so if you don't really have any idea what maintenance is being performed then how do you really know if it's being done to your specification? Thus, it really boils down to business elements, assuming that you are actually performing the work, our focus needs to be on how you are differentiated. Let's take a look at a couple of the most common business-related reasons why people lose maintenance contracts. Not showing up ; managing contracts can be complicated between the sites, number of assets, and the frequencies at which items need to be maintained, can a...
Post a Comment
Read more

is seeing comprehending?

Oh yeah, visual inspections are why God gave us eyes.   There is not a single machine learning, IoT, computerized environment that can match the skills a human's brain can assess and deliver based on visual feedback. The trick is making sure that the person connected to those eyeballs actually knows what they are looking for!   Face it, aren't the best workers those that can recognize an issue long before it becomes a problem? So instead, is the challenge really not that they can visually see, but instead that they can comprehend and correlate potential challenges? While we have many different definitions for "wisdom" in context of this topic, I think about it as those individuals which have had the most experience, both good and bad. Coincidentally I am a firm believer that the best service people are those that make the most frequent mistakes. When I was in the field I had lots of experience screwing things up. The difference is that I would always check and tri...
Post a Comment
Read more