By Rodney Weidemann in issue #18 | Q4 2018 | Transformer
The real power of data lies in what an organisation does with it. This is why marrying BPM and IoT technologies can work so well. This marriage enables companies to connect data from the physical world with data in the cyber world, and then, through analytics, deliver this combined information to the relevant users, at the right time and in an easy to understand format.
If you think about it, says Denis Bensch, CIO at FlowCentric, IoT devices are primed to sense, monitor and operate easily with their environments, while BPM excels at system integration, managing process logic and processing data. Together, they monitor, gather and execute on data from external environments. By bringing them together, he continues, data can be gleaned directly from IoT devices and automation can take place immediately, without the need to wait for people to interact with the environment.
“In other words, personnel don’t need to keep manually checking environments – especially remote locations – as sensors are installed and configured to send data packets at regular intervals. If there’s a pattern in the IoT data that requires action, such as the temperature increasing, the data will trigger an alert in the BPM system. Once this is triggered, a process will automatically be initiated, and a task notification sent to the correct users, informing them to take action. The process will continue to send email or SMS reminders until the task is either completed or escalated to a manager for action,” says Bensch.
In The Real World
“Of course, when deciding how to integrate IoT and BPM, it’s important to choose a real-world solution that will offer tangible benefits to the business, be it cost savings, risk reduction or increased efficiencies. The cost and effort involved in setting up a BPM/IoT solution must then be evaluated against the genuine benefits that will be gained from the solution, in order to ensure that the company sees a real return on investment (ROI).”
Vital Elements
“Of course, it’s imperative to have a genuine business outcome in mind when bringing these two areas together. In addition, it’s important to bring analytics into the mix as well, as this will be vital in processing the vast amounts of data produced by the IoT sensors, and in delivering the critical nuggets into the BPM system.” Looking ahead, says Bensch, it’s clear we’re on a digital journey and the majority of these tools, BPM and IoT included, have already demonstrated their worth individually. By integrating them all properly, it’s clear that even greater benefits can be derived. “When IoT, BPM and analytics are properly and effectively combined, these technologies actually have the potential to create solutions that deliver tremendous agility with respect to crucial business decisions. And it’s not only through the highlighting of problems, but also by revealing solutions and opportunities for market growth,” he concludes.
Read original article published in Issue #18 Transformer
