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customers’ systems. In the case of a
deep-sea petroleum pump that powers
and offshore oil platform, any failure
can be very expensive. But because
of the instant flow of data allowed
by connecting the pumps through
intelligent sensors, Rockwell engineers
are able to head off potential problems
or drastically reduce downtime if an
issue does occur.
No. 3: Transform the business
Over the decades, very few of
our customers have told us that
transforming their business was a
key goal at the outset of their IoT
initiatives, but many adopters have
said they now see the potential for
a data-driven transformation arising
from their efforts.
The most common scenario for
such a transformation is the ultimate
maturation of additional revenue
streams into a new business division,
and certainly companies like TKE
and Rockwell fall into this category.
These companies are no longer selling
equipment, but uptime, which is what
their customers care about most.
Down the road, as more companies
think through the application of IoT
principles in their industry, there is the
potential for this approach to be a truly
disruptive force across many industries.
It wasn’t long ago that nobody would
have imagined a fleet of taxis carrying
GPS devices connected to a central
user app could revolutionize mass
transit, but today it has.
But most companies don’t start out
with IoT looking to disrupt an entire
industry - They want to disrupt their
own processes and work smarter.
The key to doing so is to start small
and be very focused at the outset. As
the solution matures and capabilities
grow, new opportunities will emerge.
Jerry Lee is Microsoft's director
of product marketing, Data
Platform and IoT.
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