The #MondayMusings blog series provides executive level insights and analysis for the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and Digital Transformation from the previous week’s briefings, events, and publications @LNSResearch.
Click here to speak with Matthew Littlefield
Everyone loves fall. In Boston most like it for sweaters, pumpkin spice lattes, and apple picking. At LNS we love it for user conference season! The season has officially kicked off, and we have had a very busy first few couple of weeks.
LNS Research spent much of the first three quarters of 2016 writing about Big Data Analytics, so it is not surprising that so many of the events we have already attended have focused on this topic.
Several weeks ago Andrew Hughes attended the company’s user conference in Berlin. This was the first time we have attended an OSIsoft event, so we were excited to be invited. This was especially true given some of the articles we have written recently on the death of the data historian.
Interestingly, OSIsoft - a company whose product “PI” name has become synonymous with the data historian itself – isn’t even arguing this point with us. Instead, they have embraced the message of what we wrote. Not that the data historian technology is going to die; rather, business models will transform and time series data will maintain its value for process optimization but also contribute to a much broader story for Big Data Analytics.
At the user event, OSIsoft shared a number of customer stories, including Shell, which demonstrated just these changes. To learn more, please see the full report.
It’s not every day you get to ride on a maiden high speed train voyage, and meet SAP CEO Bill McDermott in the same day or the executive leadership team of Trenitalia (the primary train operator in Italy). However, that is just what Andrew Hughes did recently at a SAP hosted event in Rome.
With HANA, SAP has been a long time player in the Big Data Analytics and Internet of Things (IoT) space. However, even though SAP has one of the largest industrial client basis on the planet, as SAP rolled out HANA, industrial operations wasn’t the first place the company focused.
Encouragingly, as HANA is maturing, the IIoT is starting to get the focus it deserves from SAP. At this event, SAP showcased its ability to collect real-time operational data from a moving high-speed train and use this information for optimizing operations and long term reliability management. Although there are other IIoT platforms in the space that can provide similar capabilities to what was demonstrated by HANA at Trenitalia, none of them can also act as a platform for (Enterprise Resource Planning). It is a unique offering and one that SAP seems continued to invest in. McDermott also announced a multi-billion dollar investment in the space at the event. Look out for more coverage from LNS in our forthcoming IIoT Platform solution selection guide, in the meantime, read the full report here.
We have covered Splunk several times on this blog over the past year, and for a good reason. They are one of the fastest growing Big Data companies on the planet and, over the past year, have aggressively moved from IT to also support the OT space. Several weeks ago Jason Kasper had the chance to attend the user conference in Orlando and was pleasantly surprised (even given what we already knew about the company).
Having been a software industry veteran for the better part of the past 20 years (working at companies like IBM, ABB, Aspentech, and Meridium) Jason knows how difficult it can be to foster an enthusiastic and engaged user base. However, these types of users are something Splunk has in spades. There is such a thirst and passion from customers that he heard from more than one customer that they were purchasing the product on their personal credit cards.
Clearly, this type of problem is the type of problem every technology company (and venture capitalist) would like to have – but it is a problem none-the-less. Over the coming year, especially as Splunk moves into other areas like operations, sustained growth will depend on the company’s ability to capture and focus this passion into common and repeatable solutions. Luckily, Jason already identified several areas for customers to start with, operations and maintenance, to learn more you can read the full report here.
Although I already mentioned that we are well into the fall travel season; it is an interesting quirk to the travel schedule that every fall officially kicks off with the Siemens analyst day in Boston (the day after Labor Day), while the summer is kicked off by Dassault Systems analyst day in Paris (the last week of June).
These two events don’t only bookend the summer, they also juxtapose two very different approaches to Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) and managing an enterprise software company.
The biggest news from Siemens was bringing in a new executive leader for the division. Otherwise, it was business as usual, continuing down the company’s long-term and well-documented strategy of delivering deep and broad solutions that map to industrial customers digital value chain, including engineering, manufacturing, and automation. For a more detailed analysis of the strategy, please see the full report here.
The Dassault Systems analyst day highlighted the company’s penchant for flair and drama. Under the strategic leadership of Monica Menghini, the company continues to push the boundaries into new industries, solution areas, and experiences. For a more detailed analysis of the strategy, please see the full report here.
During the summer I joked that every single time Pete Bussey published a new report it was covering an Environment, Health, and Safety (EHS) acquisition or merger. It doesn’t seem like the fast and furious pace in the marketplace is going to slow down either. Vendors continue to strive to build broader and deeper EHS product portfolios that meet specialized needs across a broad range of industries, a trend that is exemplified by the VelocityEHS acquisition of e3 assets. To learn more, you can read the full report here.
The #MondayMusings Industrial Transformation blog series provides insight and analysis for executives from the previous week’s briefings, events, and...
The #MondayMusings Industrial Transformation blog series provides insight and analysis for executives from the previous week’s briefings, events, and...
The #MondayMusings, Digital Transformation blog series provides executive level insight and analysis from the previous week’s briefings, events, and...