Unpacking Pandora’s Box of IIoT/Industry 4.0 Travel Guides - the Importance of Partners

As we return to looking at our journey through Industry 4.0, we will now take a look at our project partners, the travel planners, and the guides for our trip.

Now that you have decided on your destination, timeline, and route for your journey, it is time to look and see if you need the assistance of a travel planner (Systems Integrator) or tour guides (Technology Partners), or if you want to do this journey on your own.

You may decide to undertake this journey on your own, and you will learn and reach your final destination; however, there are some drawbacks to this approach. You have an idea of what stops you want to make along the way and the sites you want to visit and learn about, but you may miss some very important stops that you are not aware of.

This is where your Systems Integrator operates as your travel planner. If you pick the right one, they have done this before and are specialists in this service. They will sit down with you to look at your final destination and travel maps, as well as the areas that you want to visit. From here, they will work with you to help determine the best order in which to visit your chosen stops, but more importantly, they will be able to highlight stops that you may have overlooked. They can also point out areas that you need to avoid and help you when unexpected road blocks and delays occur on your journey.

Another area where your travel planner can help is in finding the right tour guides. In this case, your tour guides are specialists in very specific areas, as they have the knowledge of what technologies will enable you to get the most out of your particular stops (processes).

It is crucial that, when planning your journey, you find partners who are open and receptive to collaboration. Similar to when an experienced travel planner or tour guide works with you to find out what it is you truly want to get out of your trip, your overall satisfaction with the experience increases dramatically.

There are a large number of System Integrators out there that can help, but among them are those that focus on Industry 4.0 evolutions. If you were planning a trip to tour South America, you wouldn’t go to a travel agent that specializes in cruises or Asian getaways. You would look for someone who has a proven track record with South American excursions. They already know the local tour guides and have checked them out based on how knowledgeable they are about the area.

Picking your Systems Integrator requires you to properly vet them and ensure that they are not just throwing out buzzwords in order to impress you. You will want to make sure that they have the same understanding of what the buzzwords mean to you and your organization. This will enable them to identify other areas of importance, as well as which technology partners’ are best suited for your project.

In the next article, we will take a look at data and the importance it plays in your journey.