The Middle Edge In

The Internet of Things (IoT) is driving the next industrial revolution.

From agriculture, to manufacturing, to universities, the IoT phenomenon has made its way across various industries, and rightly so.

The ability to automate processes and collect real-time data for real-time analytics has allowed for the evolution of tedious and manual procedures, into that of efficiency and productivity. We are now able to collect and leverage data insights – which were previously unavailable to us – for better decision making.

We at BizCubed have worked on several IoT projects, where we utilized a range of different IoT devices such as weather sensors and motion detectors. What were some of our findings? What we found was that IoT devices are unpredictable, and quite often, less accurate than we expect.

In our experience, IoT devices are subject to a wide range of flaws and inconsistencies. Some of these include manufacturing defects, faulty readings thanks to environmental conditions, and small yet significant differences in calibration between devices operating in the same environment.

The good news is that most organisations can cope with this unpredictability and change in data fidelity that is caused by inconsistent IoT devices. We call this concept “Middle Edge In”.  We save focus on the devices and the network, but go further. Success is achieved when you incorporate the change in data fidelity into your organisation.

In this video, our CEO Zach Zeus, explores the notion of “Middle Edge In” and why it is crucial to organisational adaptability.

Transcript

Since the inception of BizCubed we have worked on several IoT projects.

The IoT devices on these projects have ranged from large custom made screens to people counters, to weather sensors, to water meters, to motion detectors.

One size definitely does not fit all. One thing we have witnessed with consistency though is IoT devices are often far less accurate than we think.

This reflects the reality that the world we live in is far more unpredictable than we anticipate.

And devices can only account for a portion of that unpredictability. The good news is that most organizations can cope with this unpredictability.

And in fact when we talk to internal domain experts at these projects we learn that they are not at all surprised with device results. They are used to working in this unpredictable world, on a daily basis.

What is important to note, is these domain experts can not only cope with an unpredictable environment, they manage. They often have tools, techniques, ideas, and methods to address the real world reality.

We work with the front line domain experts to accelerate the value realised from IoT devices by taking advantage of their real-world experience.

The big realisation is that working with IoT devices changes significantly the fidelity that we are working with.

Let me share with you an example.

We recently worked on a project where we measured people movements in real-time. The measurements that were historically being recorded just once a year were now being captured immediately.

So we helped secure hundreds of thousands of measurements where historically there was just one.

This gave us a much clearer picture about how that space was being used. It was this higher degree of fidelity that allowed this clearer picture.

Our work is focused on how we can have that change in fidelity, can drive the business changes and value that the organisation is looking for.

This requires changes in business process and changes in how information is reported. It sometimes can require change in how metrics are reported to governing bodies.

The focus for our projects is on how the organisation will function differently with this higher fidelity information while leveraging existing domain expertise.

And we call this Middle Edge In. We save focus on the devices and the network, but go further, go beyond that. Success is achieved when you incorporate the change in data fidelity into your organisation.

If you’d like to learn more about how we help organisations manage from the Middle Edge In and how we help them leverage their data to make better decisions, contact us.