Skip to main content

Internet Of Things – Next Wave


The new buzzword in technology is “Internet of Things” (IoT). The layman’s scenario that anybody will tell you is – A vending machine getting out of coke, will sense the quantity of bottles, transmit a message to warehouse that it needs more supply which may transmit a message to nearby transporting trucks to fill the order and within few minutes it’s refilled. So a person visiting, checking stock, placing an order and after processing getting a supply will be things of past. The entire supply chain scene is automated here in the era of IoT.

Internet has probably gone through 2 different phases since inception. If I leave technological advances aside – there was an era of “Internet of Content”. People browsed websites to get information. Loads of webpages, images, and movies were the part of this phase. It was a repository of data. You search it, browse through it and consume it for your own purpose. The 2nd wave was (still there) – “Internet of People” – This was when a new social media came big way and apart from email or chat – people got connected with each other. As technology advanced in parallel to enable more mobility devices accessing internet – this phase was faster than earlier. Now the 3rd phase is about to start – “Internet of Things”. Sounds magical yet, but by next year or so, don’t be surprised if your milk container starts telling you that the milk inside is not so good. Your dishwasher may place work order if it develops a snag. Things will start connecting and talking with less and less human intervention.

Technically – things will have an IP address to identify themselves. They will have sensors to receive and send messages. There will be a new protocol (like http) to exchange information. There will be new platform to develop applications. Whole new world of opportunities opening up in technologies – where you need enabled devices, programming things, new languages, new scenarios, lot of analytics, business process transformations, integrating it to different platforms, data and what not.
It may sound complex and confusing – but on high level – there are 4 types of scenarios that can be shortlisted. Let’s look at those in next article.

original Blog on - http://supplychainminded.com/internet-wave/

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bristlecone Webinar on Supplier Risk Management

Purchasing Magazine, Bristlecone and SAP getting together to bring you very good discussion on supplier risk management. Webinar will be held on June 24, 2 to 3 PM eastern Time, USA. Contributors are - Paul Teague from Purchasing magazine , Jason Buch from spendmatters , Naresh Hingorani from Bristlecone - Supply chain leader company and Padmini Ranganathan from SAP. As we always talk about spend visibility, data issues, strategic sourcing - these distinguised speakers will bring out more strategic views to the table on how all this can be achieved to analyze your business risks better, upfront. You can register for event by accessing this link and register See you there.
Post a Comment
Read more

Master Data Management – Product or Process ?

I have 2 SAP systems and I want to fix my material master, Services Master. I want all that data to be clean, standardized, classified, enriched and load it back to my SAP in next 6 months. What do you suggest ? Chris - one of my key client was explaining during a “solution understanding” call. My sales manager Tom, enthusiastically started talking about new version of the MDM platform by ERP company, tools, technologies, product landscape, licenses etc. After 30 minutes of sales pitch, I could see confusion on Chris’s face clearly. He said - but I don’t want to add any new product in my infrastructure for all this. Can you just implement MDM for me without I adding any new software ?   Both are using MDM implementation as a keyword, but in a completely different context. Chris wants to implement MDM as a process while Tom was trying to sell MDM as a new software. Whats the difference ? Lot I will say. MDM as a product – when you sell a   software license to a...
4 comments
Read more

Data Management - Elephant & Seven Blind Men

I am sure most of you read a story of Elephant and Seven Blind Men. For starters - this is how the story goes - "A number of blind men came to an elephant. Somebody told them that it was an elephant. The blind men asked, ‘What is the elephant like?’ and they began to touch its body. One of them said: 'It is like a pillar.' This blind man had only touched its leg. Another man said, ‘The elephant is like a husking basket.’ This person had only touched its ears. Similarly, he who touched its trunk or its belly talked of it differently." As Wikipedia mentions - This story has been used to illustrate a range of truths and fallacies. At various times it has provided insight into the relativism, opaqueness or inexpressible nature of truth, the behavior of experts in fields where there is a deficit or inaccessibility of information, the need for communication, and respect for different perspectives. The moral of the story is - While one's subjective experience...
Post a Comment
Read more