Fixing the Very Broken World of Accounting with Real-Time, Real-World Data (Part 2)

Let's talk about IOT, and what it can do for business information systems, especially accounting.

IOT, or more properly IoT, is the "Internet of Things"; the two key words here being "Internet" and "things".

Internet, as in they are connected to the Internet ... you can listen to them, and sometimes talk to them, from the open Internet. Possibly through an intermediated network technology, because of the nature of the Things. And definitely over an encrypted transport.

The Things are generally (but not necessarily) connected wirelessly, over a radio network. This is because having data comms cables would be a huge pain in the ass, expensive and needs to be maintained. So the Thing connects over Wi-Fi, or Zigby, or LoRaWAN, or 6LOWPAN or mobile network or whatever.

If data comms wires are a pain to have to have, power supply wires are even more so. So no power wires, Things must harvest their energy (sun, vibration, electricity) or have a battery that can last years without needing to be got down and cracked open.

Across a wide swathe of the IOT market, Things are not connected using mobile phone network operators (3G, 4G, 5G), which is a good thing to provide some viable competition to giant phone companies that swat any challengers like annoying bugs.

Over the years, Things have become better, smarter, smaller - and easier to deploy and manage.

IOT is very much an Operational Technology. Operational Technology? OT? Yep, the shadowy cousin of Information Technology. IT. Which is why it is sometimes called "Shadow IT" (https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/security/what-is-shadow-it.html).

OT is implemented by very serious, very capable people in companies that have operations. The kind of people that don't have the time or the inclination to get into a whole lot of bullshirt and hoop-jumping, they have a job to do, and every minute wasted is a minute production is not happening of the goods that the business sells to make money.

Business???????????? Makes

Tiger Brands??? Breakfast cereal

MTN?????????????? ???? Airtime

FNB???????????????????? Banking service products

Cadbury’s??? ?????? Lots of bad chocolate

Lindt?????????????????? A little good chocolate

Eskom????????????? ?? kWh of electricity

Coricraft???????????? Midrange household furniture

Reason??? ??? ?????? Hours of consulting services

Because they almost ARE the business, operations management often has large budgets to spend, and some of the spend is on technology systems.

Operational Technology.

Verifier jigs that sit at the end of a production line and feed production information back to a database. Pneumatic lifts with computerised control at warehouse dispatch. Air conditioners to keep the building cool that talks to the Building Management System.

Technology to enable business operations. Because "Operations", like "Finance", is a business support function.

IT should be part of Operations as a business enabler, you'd think, but somehow it was owned neither and both by Finance and Operations, and so carved itself out an independent existence, free to man-spread itself on anyone needing high tech truc.

OT is purely for operational application, and lives in the shadows behind the carpark's pillars below Operations offices.

IOT would then be a subset of OT.

The difference with Operational Technology is that the hardware is certified to be in compliance with best practice or required certifications, such as accuracy, safety, emissions, longevity, and more.

The tech in “Operational Technology” has one purpose - to provide high-quality “real world/real time” data:

? To a Rules Engines that can trigger actions and perform useful automations in the background consistently, reliably and for a useful business outcome

? To analytics systems that can boil it down into a couple of important metrics that are intuitive and useful and you care about

Now you know what’s going on right now, you can do something about it right now.

Not after month-end when the management reports come trickling in.

IOT is not a solution, it is a technology component. IOT is a means to a valuable end; it is very hard to do consistently and robustly as there are device fleets out in the field far from expert technicians.

This is why it must be delivered as a managed service, by IOT technology experts. Because the actual tech inside IOT is superficially simple, but needs a hell of a lot of what we in the trade call "service delivery", "service assurance", and "service management".

Like any technology, Operational Technologies need to be integrated into the business, which means integrating them into the technology and the data model that underpins the business' Operating Model.

And that is where successful execution of some kind of transformative innovation initiative will begin.