IoT, AI, Automation, RPA = The Future of Digital
We have been interacting with our customers and each interaction leads to an “intent” to automate their business processes. These thoughts have only accelerated after the Covid-19 pandemic and suddenly the “intent” is slowly but surely transforming into real action, plans and budgets. We are seeing an increased momentum where our customers want to digitize as much as possible as they definitely don’t want to be caught unawares the next time…. be it a warlike situation or a pandemic.
Let’s consider some real-world examples:
1. The CIO of Piramal Glass, Poorav Seth, one of our key customers recently spoke to press on how they were able to cope with the erratic manufacturing situation because they have implemented our FaktoryWize IOT platform and manage their manufacturing activities and take decisions remotely. https://www.expresscomputer.in/news/how-technology-is-enabling-the-indian-manufacturing-sector-to-fight-the-covid19-battle/52013/
2. Another customer, a tier 1 manufacturer in India, has completely scrapped their IT plans and priorities for 2020/2021 and is re-focusing their initiatives and budgets on automation, AI and IOT.
3. A consumer OEM customer in the personal health segment, the biggest player in Asia, who manufacturers equipment for both B2B and B2C segments was already planning to offer a Connected Products strategy. Now they have a new issue, their service personnel can’t get to their customer locations to service their equipments as per their service contracts. After sales services is a huge revenue for them. This customer is now looking at Service BOTs, better customer engagement, remote training and self-service using AI and other tools as options to overcome their service challenges.
4. A General Insurance major is considering linking driver behavior (using IoT-enabled sensors to monitor real-time driving behavior), creating short- and long-term patterns/trends, reporting, calculating insurance premiums based on this data & trend patterns and also automating rules-based insurance claims disbursements.
5. Another manufacturing customer is already deploying AI in manufacturing for predictive maintenance –identifying and reporting fault in parts, machines or manufacturing process and reporting them in real time. AI also helps in optimization of supply chain by forecasting demand and returns.
In Summary
IOT, RPA, AI, Automation are all transformational technologies that can individually or together offer huge operational and commercial benefits to any organization and help differentiate from competitors. Creating the right business case that works for you and strategic investments in these technologies will reap huge dividends for organizations in the future. These are no longer “nice to have”, but a must have, whether you are a Tier 1 market leader or a SME.
