IIoT SIs should opt for building customer focused solutions

Karen Ravindranath, Director of Zoho’s WebNMS IoT, talks about the importance of a harmonious collaboration between IoT device manufacturers, software platform providers, application developers, communication providers and the right channel players to deliver end solutions in a seamless manner.

How are you deploying solutions for Enterprise IoT platforms and solutions and helping India head towards Industry 4.0?

WebNMS is an Enterprise and Industrial IoT Platform provider and is the flagship division of Zoho. For many years, we were one of the leading providers of telecom network management software in India, USA and other major markets across the globe. From the time we transitioned from Network Management Software to core enterprise IoT in 2010, WebNMS had been closely working with IoT solution providers, industry focused SIs and service providers.

Indian industries are constantly under the pressure to be globally competitive. Optimized operations, streamlined and efficient maintenance can all cause cost optimization and help make Indian industries competitive in a global market. These are the benefits that IIoT brings to the table. Our mission is to support and encourage SIs and technology service providers from the country to fully embrace the new digitally disruptive technologies like IIoT, ML etc to expand their business offering and help the end customers, both industries and enterprises, a much needed digital transformation.

We have partnered with HMS Networks, a leading industrial communications device manufacturer to deploy IoT powered industrial solutions for a vintage line automobile manufacturer in India. The deployment is a collective synergy of implementation partners from the region. WebNMS offers continuous support to the partners right from POC to large scale implementation. We have been working with and encouraging traditional SIs to think beyond server rooms.

What is your advice and tips for industries in India who would like to become part of Industry 4.0?

Traditional industries and SIs should start exploring the potential of IoT, ML and the likes of new and disruptive technologies that will catalyze the connection between people, processes, assets and the business at large, in Industry 4.0. It is time they grasped the momentum created by the digitally disruptive technologies and enable smart and competition ready business environment for their enterprise customers.

On the enterprise side, technology decision makers in India are aware of the potential of IoT and connected data across business operations. However they are posed with the challenge of finding the right IOT strategy to incorporate into the existing system. It takes a clear IoT strategy coupled with highly functional IoT software platform and right hardware integration to get the desired results. Technology leaders should look for the right IoT partner who can deliver the end-to-end solution leveraging the right IoT platform that can be highly accommodating in terms of integration, be it greenfield or brownfield, offer all the critical features like predictive maintenance, Overal Equipment Effectiveness (OEE), Remote monitoring, Edge computing and real-time data analytics and reporting and be flexible in terms of hosting whether on-premise, cloud or hybrid. The right combination of IoT platform, applications and hardware can help avoid initial inertia and quickly scale to other business operations in the future.

SIs who are an integral part of the IIoT ecosystem should opt for building customer focused solutions rather than working on the platform from ground up. There are concrete, vertical focused platforms like WebNMS in the market that are armed with all the necessary capabilities and features to launch and deploy a full fledged IoT Solution without requiring few or no coding. All the SI or service provider has to do is choose the right application layer over the platform and start incorporating solution elements for customer focused applications.

What help would you like from the government for all of the above and which are the industries/sectors that are likely to adopt Industry 4.0 first?

The "Make In India" is a great initiative from the government to encourage manufacturing and industrial growth in India. Stimulus from the government for industries which adopt industry digitization and industry best practices can help Indian industries become globally competitive.

The regulations for industry 4.0 are not as concrete as yet. The market is unorganized, for which there should be policies and regulations to handle enormous data involved in future digital operations. According to a Delloite/NASSCOM analysis, the market potential of the Internet of Things in India alone is expected to reach US$ 9 billion by 2020. Considering the projected potential, it is time we have all the regulations and security policies in place to encourage future industrial best practices.

For instance, the introduction of AIS 140 regulation for the public and commercial transportation sector in India is a motivator to regulate the transportation industry, improve safety and additionally run data driven fleet operations. Other major industrial sectors like manufacturing, healthcare, retail, etc. will witness more of such adoption and execution of IoT solutions in the future.

Another important factor is the availability of sufficient skilled workforce to cater to the new technologies. Automation and IIoT may make some repetitive and manual jobs redundant but it has a huge scope to create enormous demand for highly skilled and technology empowered jobs. As proposed in the budget this year, we are hoping for an increased traction in training and preparation of our talent pool that is well equipped to champion the new and disruptive technology adoption in the market.

You company talks of uninterrupted multi-protocol data acquisition, processing, analytics, remote monitoring, process monitoring and optimization and predictive maintenance. Can you briefly explain some of these concepts?

WebNMS is a powerful enterprise IoT platform that offers tools and technologies to build and deploy scalable Industrial IoT solutions for customers. The platform is engineered to perform high speed data acquisition irrespective of the type of device, be it smart or legacy infrastructure. It provides edge computing, secure data transfer storage and processing, actionable analytics and business app integration.

WebNMS platform offers a wide range of capabilities for real-time Industrial process monitoring, remote asset monitoring, energy management, quality assurance, localized edge computing, automation, dynamic user insights and telematics capabilities for mobile asset tracking. CTOs and technology leaders who are posed with the challenge of murky operational data across industrial operations, be it production or supply chain can have centralized, real-time access to data using Industrial IoT solution. Top management can align its operational strategy to business goals, now with the access to periodic insights and reports.

Some of the important elements of Industrial solutions from WebNMS IoT Platform are Plant Performance Monitoring, Machine health Monitoring, Process Monitoring, Quality parameters monitoring SCADA data integration or other business app integration.

Most industries in India are still decades behind the rest of the world. How do we fast track them to Industry 4.0?

India is considered one of the fastest growing economies in the world. According to a NASSCOM report, Indian IoT market size will be around US$ 9 billion, of which Industrial IoT will account for US$ 4.95 billion. However when compared to other fast growth economies like China, we are still lagging in terms of actual IIoT adoption.

The reason for slow adoption could be attributed to various reasons. From our very own observation, we found one reason to contribute majorly to the slow adoption is complexity involved in finding the right IoT fit for unique industrial challenges. IIoT solutions take more than one component to achieve the desired results. It involves harmonious collaboration of IoT device manufacturers, software platform providers, application developers, communication providers and most importantly, the right channel players to deliver the end solution in a seamless manner.

Apart from the technical challenges, it is time top management and decision makers discern the importance of a connected enterprise and digital upgrade in traditional factories. It takes a top down conviction in any organization to adopt and accelerate the digital transformation for Industry 4.0.

IIoT implementations across the globe have witnessed proven ROI for various verticals. Going forward, it is imperative that Business owners and Key decision makers have a strategic road map for IOT adoption within their business or organization. This can not only be a great way to sustain competition but also help create new revenue streams and contemporary business models.

Will 5G make any difference towards implementation of all of the above?

5G technology will improve IoT adoption and deployments multiple fold. With a massive speed bestowed by 5G technology, challenges faced due to latency can be avoided.5G has the promise of creating real-time data exchange which is crucial for mission critical and low latency applications in both industries and enterprises.

We are excited to work along with IoT communication providers in India for large scale enterprise deployments where speed and connectivity are critical factors.