{"id":22539,"date":"2021-01-05T07:51:29","date_gmt":"2021-01-05T07:51:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/iot-connectivity-digital-transformation-debts-post-covid-19\/"},"modified":"2023-09-13T12:40:45","modified_gmt":"2023-09-13T12:40:45","slug":"iot-connectivity-digital-transformation-debts-post-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/iot\/iot-connectivity-digital-transformation-debts-post-covid-19\/","title":{"rendered":"Part 8: IoT Connectivity: Digital Transformation Debts post-Covid-19"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Covid-19 is causing rapid acceleration of Digital Transformation (DX) initiatives. According to the Covid-19 digital engagement report from Twilio<\/a>: \u201cDecade-long digital transformation roadmaps of nearly every company got compressed into days and weeks in order to curb the spread of the Coronavirus. Businesses in every industry had to figure out how to reach their customers – whether those customers are shoppers, patients, students, businesses or even, employees – essentially overnight.\u201d<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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This re-iterates the importance of Digital Transformation Debt. IoT for a connected world is essential for Digital Transformation.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

One forecast<\/a> predicts 75 billion<\/a> devices by 2025.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Part 8 of the ten-part series on Digital Transformation Debt expands upon the emergence of the Connected World \u2013 through Internet of Things (IoT). Though a bit slow in comprehensive market penetration, both\u00a0Consumer Internet of Things<\/a>\u00a0as well as\u00a0Industrial Internet of Things<\/a>\u00a0(IIoT) are starting to transform homes, businesses, and governments as well as heavy industries such as discrete and process Manufacturing. This transformation is accelerating in the Covid-19 ear. IoT has many applications for the Covid-19 challenges emanating from the disruptions in Supply Chain, Manufacturing, Public Sector services, and, most importantly, Healthcare.\u00a0IoT connected devices are exploding. The road to\u00a0IoT success though runs through Digital Process Automation<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 which we have now identified as\u00a0Intelligent Process Automation of Things<\/a>\u00a0– connecting the consumer\u2019s world through end-to-end value streams orchestrating people, things, enterprise applications, and business partners.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Intelligent Process Automation of Things (IPAoT)<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Many components and technologies are used to support IoT\/IIoT use cases end-to-end: from the Edges to the Enterprise – involving People, Processes, Analytics (from Thing Data) and of course Connected Devices. Many components and technologies are used to support IoT\/IIoT use cases end-to-end: from the Edges to the Enterprise – involving People, Processes, Analytics (from Thing Data) and of course Connected Devices. There are also IoT reference models that pertain to IoT consortia and\/or standardization bodies. My favorite is the IoT World Forum\u2019s Reference Model. This<\/a> 7 level architecture reference model puts collaboration and Business Processes at the top of the multi-level architecture for IoT.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Intelligence of Things: Insight to Action<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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IoT is generating enormous amounts of data. We are inundated with information from connected devices \u2013 both in consumer and industrial contexts \u2013 and it does not appear to be letting up any time soon. Connected devices are becoming increasingly significant sources of information: Big Data will is becoming \u201cThing Data<\/a>.\u201d Over time, the Thing data will be stored, analyzed, and mined for models that reflect insights \u2013<\/em> that can then be acted upon, such as analytics model that can predict a device will fail before it happens.<\/p>\n\n

The following illustrates the continuous improvement loop from Insight to Action. At the bottom, you have the raw data emanating from connected IoT\/IIoT devices. The raw data could also include customer transaction data, trading partner data, and even Blockchain transactions.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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With Intelligent Process Automation of Things (IPAoT)<\/a>, connected devices (IoT), people, enterprise applications (ERPs), and trading partners can collaborate and achieve objectives end-to-end. Equally important is the Intelligence <\/em>that drives the processes in each step and each state towards the objective. The AI patterns discovered from the Thing Data is operationalized and acted upon in the context of automated processes. So, AI is leveraged for optimizing the operation of the devices real-time, assisting people intelligently, automating the work whenever it makes sense.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Edge Computing<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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IoT connected devices are at the edges \u2013 lowest level \u2013 of the Enterprise-In-Motion ecosystem. The Internet of Things (IoT) and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) are significant contributors to Digital Transformation. <\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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When it comes to autonomic IoT, the emerging connected devices trend is Edge Computing<\/em><\/a>. <\/em>Increasingly business logic and AI models are executing at the IoT edges. There are many advantages to executing AI models at the edge<\/a>. In many applications, instantaneous decisions need to be made dealing with, for instance, hazardous material, or dangerous levels of pollution, or even emergency dispatching. The delays of roundtripping from a Cloud-based data center for AI model execution could be prohibitive.<\/p>\n\n

In some cases, Internet connectivity might have unacceptable latencies or even be off-line.  The actuators and sensors of connected devices often leverage gateways to connect to the Cloud. The connected devices and the gateways are becoming increasingly powerful in storage, computation, and networking optimizations. Pushing computations and Intelligence to the edges reduces the latency of executions.<\/p>\n\n

The Industrial Internet Consortium<\/a> defines it as follows: \u201cEdge computing is a decentralized computing infrastructure in which computing resources and application services can be distributed along the communication path from the data source to the cloud.\u201d Edge computing allows devices take immediate action. In other words, edge computing is faster and more optimized.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Digital Prescriptive Maintenance: The Killer IoT Application<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Digital Prescriptive Maintenance<\/em><\/a> leverages IPAoT and takes it beyond predictive analytics and prescribes exactly what needs to be done, by whom and when \u2013 leveraging end-to-end digitized value streams or processes. IPAoT determines the remaining useful life<\/a> of a device and takes pro-active predictive action before it breaks. That is why we called it digital <\/em>prescriptive maintenance: it implies the Digitization and Automation of the prescribed tasks to resolve the maintenance case. Here is an example of end-to-end prescriptive analytics: from detection to the creation of the case, to triaging, to field service dispatching, to supplier provisioning, to warranty.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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IoT and Covid-19<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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The Covid-19 pandemic exposed the vulnerability of both the private and public sectors in managing assets. There are still products \u2013 such as hand sanitizers of Webcams \u2013 that are either difficult to find or expensive. With IoT, the assets could be the manufactured goods, or the assets can be the connected devices themselves. They could be simple devices with low energy and communication bandwidth capabilities that need a more sophisticated gateway to connect to the Cloud. In the Industrial Internet context, powerful connected devices have onboard computing capabilities that allow them to process data at the edges and connect to the Cloud through WiFi or 5G connections. Alternatively, RFID could be attached and embedded in the packaging of the goods for manufactured goods \u2013 for instance, in transportation with containers. <\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Telehealth and Covid-19: <\/em>There was a recent spike in Telehealth<\/a> due to Covid-19. What is telehealth in the Covid-19 era? IoT \u2013 with connected medical devices<\/a> \u2013 plays a significant role: \u201cThe Internet of Things (IoT) has extended traditional videoconference visits to enable practitioners to remotely monitor patients<\/a>\u2019 blood pressure, oxygenation levels, pulse and other key metrics.\u201d More importantly, it is not just about sensing. Telehealth needs digitized and automated processes. As indicated by one of the experts Dr. Peter Fleischut<\/a>, \u201cIt\u2019s about people, process and technology \u2026 It\u2019s probably 80% people, 15% process and 5% technology.\u201d<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Industry 4.0: <\/em>even before the pandemic, manufacturers were introducing Automation and sophisticated robotics, and edge computing in all phases of the supply chain. With Covid-19, Robotics and Automation are becoming critical in Industry 4.0. The manufacturing industry \u2013 especially automotive original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) \u2013 were in a significant digital transition, and Covid-19 accelerated and increased the transformation. Service levels of assets \u2013 often parts in supply chain applications \u2013 could be critical. Automation is also increasingly deployed at the edges \u2013 which alleviates or reduces the need for human interventions or contact.<\/p>\n\n

The opportunities for addressing Covid-19 challenges pertain to tracking people\u2019s movements, provisioning, and delivery of supplies:<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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