New Service-provider and Business-model Disruption in the IIoT
through easily configurable components, means that companies don’t fall into the trap of
creating bespoke solutions for each and every use case.
There are multiple dimensions to the re-use requirement. It may involve sharing a group of
devices and sensors to support multiple applications in order to lower implementation costs. In
other respects, re-usable hardware platforms are commercially more appealing to drive
economies of scale. And, software re-use reduces the need for multiple pools of expertise and
the risk of losing institutional knowledge.
Many enterprises frame their investment decisions around an initial IIoT application to address
a pressing use-case or application requirement. This approach is blind to the innovation potential
second and even third generation services. The capacity for new services is inherent to many IIoT
applications and carries a value that traditional business cases often fail to capture.
As an example, consider how an application for a particular industrial problem might generate
data relevant to a different market segment. A vehicle manufacturer’s connected car application,
to track wear and tear for example, can feed data into a usage-based insurance application for a
marginal cost. This is an example of a multi-sided business model where the economics of one
application create data to support new service innovation at a cost that undercuts traditional
business models.
IIoT applications can also have a business transformation impact. This may be the case of a
manufacturer creating a consumer-oriented service on top of an established enterprise-market
product. A medical device supplier, for example, supplies diagnostic equipment to hospitals in a
business-to-business (B2B) model. One avenue of innovation around the diagnostic device is to
create a variant for the consumer segment or to make the data from the hospital device
accessible to patients in an extended business-to-business-to-consumer (B2B2C) model. IIoT
technologies and platforms make this possible. By selecting the right technologies, standards and
partners for the very first IIoT application and service-enablement environment, each
organization either opens up or closes down the prospect of future business opportunities.
Extended and multi-party business models drive the need for interoperability which characterizes
many IIoT applications in communal operating environments. These situations are very common
connected vehicles, office buildings and manufacturing facilities, for example. They also apply to
distributed environments such as transportation networks and smart cities.
As a practical example, we illustrate the different IIoT challenges that multiple cooperating
partners have to overcome in the context of an intelligent transport system.
2.4
IIoT Interoperability Viewed in the Context of Everyday Travel
Journeys
People who are traveling to their homes, meeting venues or places of work care foremost about
their entire journey which may involve multiple modes of transportation and associated services.
IIC Journal of Innovation
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