Infor has launched a new platform that takes data from sensors, connected devices and other IoT endpoints and feeds them into the form’s business applications.
The platform was unveiled at the firm’s Inforum 2016 conference in New York. Called Infor IoT, the software layer will sit between IoT devices and the firm’s middleware, which acts as a conduit to various cloud-based apps.
The system enables an overarching view of the enterprise from IoT end-points to enterprise systems. At a keynote speech, Infor chief operating officer Pam Murphy told delegates that her company has an opportunity to “deliver connected intelligence” by leveraging its applications and provide a scalable, consistent platform as opposed to trying to bolt together applications from a wide variety of vendors.
“Acquiring and transporting data from devices is the easy part. The more difficult part is bringing the intelligence derived from these devices and the data to the enterprise applications that we use to deliver business outcomes,” she was reported saying by V3.
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Managing real-time IoT data
The platform will cover device management as well as collecting and processing IoT data in real-time. There will also be aspects of machine learning and analytics used to give customers better business intelligence.
Murphy cited examples of a factory tracking heavy equipment from warehouse to dealership to customer work-site to decrease inventory and predict when maintenance is needed. Ultrasonic detectors can be used to find defects and feed this into business data to schedule repairs at the right time to decrease less disruption.
Ian Hughes, Internet of Things analyst at 451 Research, told Internet of Business that one of the values of IoT is accessing the big picture generated by multiple streams of data, it is equivalent to increasing the resolution of a digital image with more pixels.
“Seeing and responding to patterns as close to real-time as possible provides an advantage with long-term trends providing strategic insight for any business. Businesses have worked on quarterly, or monthly, gathering data to make decisions but now they have the potential to gain insight at any point, as they all become digital enterprises,” he said.
Hughes added that each cloud vendor is looking to provide value-add services to develop some brand loyalty, but IoT and modern IT systems are developed on open standards and are platform neutral.
“An end-to-end provider will be looking to be the best-of-breed in each area of the system architecture. As we are seeing with cloud containers (and micro services) that are extremely portable, offering either full system orchestration or developing a niche service that can play anywhere are both viable options.”
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