by Dr. Richard Soley, Executive Director, Industrial Internet Consortium
Since it was founded in March 2014, the Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC) has been tested and proven to bring together organizations and technologies necessary to accelerate the growth of the industrial internet. The organization has become the largest IIoT consortium in the world and proven to be a thought leader repeatedly through identifying, assembling, testing and promoting best practices. None of this would be possible without the small and large technology innovators, vertical market leaders, researchers, universities and government organizations comprising our membership. It is their collaborative work that creates tangible results, speeding the commercial use of advanced technologies and digitally transforming enterprises throughout the globe. Considering the years since the IIC was founded, 2019 was indubitably one of the most transformative, influential years so far.
2019 saw the introduction of several programs which dramatically change the game in industry. The IIC has addressed the needs of technology users seeking to digitally transform their business, implement new industrial internet technologies, identify requirements in the market, distinguish themselves as industry leaders and/or connect with technology experts in various industries by introducing the following initiatives:
Industry Connect Service
Test Drives
IoT Challenges
Industry Leadership Councils
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Industry Connect Service
In pilot phase, the Industry Connect Service is designed as a direct benefit to technology users. The Industry Connect Service assists technology users in developing and deploying projects, as well as identifying requirements important to their industry. The experts within the IIC ecosystem have developed best practices, guidelines and frameworks and applied these resources across many industries, helping technology users solve problems and digitally transform their processes securely. Companies seeking solutions can now work with our experts who apply their knowledge to solve the complex problems posed by applying IoT technologies to existing processes and developing new business models to generate new revenue streams.
Test Drives
Test Drives are short-term, rapid-engagement pilots for technology users to employ and adopt IIoT technologies. They stimulate IIoT adoption across industry through accelerated implementation.
The IIC’s neutral collaboration platform fosters partnering to address leading-edge IIoT use cases in 3-6 month projects based upon technology users’ real problems.
IoT Challenges
IoT Challenges are public contests aimed at solving real problems and advancing the validation of industrial internet applications and solutions. In IoT Challenges, architects and solution providers compete to design industrial internet solutions that address high-profile, real-world problems. The Challenges are conducted over a period of several months, culminating in winners selected by a jury. Prizes for winners can include a funded pilot. The winners of the Smart Buildings Challenge will be announced in February at Bosch Connected World in Berlin.
Industry Leadership Councils
Our manufacturing-focused Industry Leadership Council is a collaborative council of senior executives from industry actively implementing, testing or using IIoT solutions in their manufacturing facilities. Its founding members include experts from major manufacturers in transportation, consumer products, agriculture, aeronautics and factory automation solutions. While the first Industry Leadership Council reflects a Smart Manufacturing focus, we have an open invitation to grow this council and start others in the Energy, Transportation, Healthcare and Smart Cities sectors. I encourage all organizations actively implementing, testing and/or using an IIoT solution in your facilities to apply to join a council.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
While the IIC has expanded its offerings to further help technology users, vendors, system integrators and researchers achieve tangible results as they seek to digitally transform across the enterprise, the consortium has continued with its industry-leading publications and testbeds throughout 2019.
IoT Security Maturity Model: Practitioner’s Guide
The IoT Security Maturity Model (SMM) builds on the concepts identified in the Industrial Internet Security Framework (IISF) and provides a path for IoT providers to understand where they need to be, make intelligent choices about which mechanisms to use and how to invest in the mechanisms to meet their needs. In February 2019, cybersecurity experts representing the IIC Security Working Group developed the IoT SMM: Practitioner’s Guide to extend the value of the SMM and assist stakeholders in the assessment process. The Practitioner’s Guide describes how to reach a given security comprehensiveness for each security domain, subdomain and practice and can be extended to address specific industry or system scope needs. Various industry use case examples demonstrate how an organization might select a target state or evaluate a current state.
Negotiation Automation Platform Testbed
Launched in August 2019, the Negotiation Automation Platform Testbed enables flexible automated negotiation of detailed trading conditions and business counterpart matching across manufacturing supply chains by employing new AI-based negotiation technologies and real-time production & logistics data.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
The Largest IIoT Consortium in the World
As the IIC has garnered a reputation as a thought leader in industry since its inception, the organization earned its role as largest IIoT consortium in the world during this past year, a result of joining forces with two other prominent industry players. In January 2019, the IIC united with OpenFog Consortium to work together in driving the development and promotion of industry guidance and best practices for fog and edge computing. Heading into 2020, the IIC joined forces with Trusted IoT Alliance to drive industry collaboration and research, foster open systems development and promote best practices for trusted IoT systems such as blockchain and related distributed ledger technologies. Under the IIC umbrella, the enhanced membership seeks to have more meaningful impact in the world of IIoT as we pave the path forward.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
The aforementioned activities and milestones scrape
the surface of the accomplishments of the IIC and its members throughout 2019. There were five new technical and white papers published, 72 use cases published, one web-based maturity assessment tool launched, 12 industry events executed, three Journal of Innovation editions published and 9 liaisons formed.
In October, we partnered with Fira Barcelona for the fifth time to host the IoT Solutions World Congress (IOTSWC). The 200+ sessions of the Congress, in which over 100 of our members presented, were divided into thematic areas: IoT enabling technologies, connected transport, manufacturing, energy and utilities, healthcare, buildings and infrastructure, open industry, artificial intelligence and blockchain. Each session focused on a real-world use case, with many customers sharing their stories about project implementations, lessons learned, results achieved and more. The IOTSWC attracted 16,000 attendees and once again provided excellent networking opportunities and widespread learnings on key technologies that are providing measurable results.
Looking forward to 2020, there is still much to be accomplished in the world of the industrial internet. The IIC will continue to play its role, using the resources collaboratively developed over the years by industry experts from around the globe and across all industries to give businesses the guidance needed to strategically apply digital technologies and achieve digital transformation.
I invite you to join us in our mission to deliver a trustworthy IIoT in which the world’s systems and devices are securely connected and controlled to deliver transformational outcomes. Explore membership today and stay informed of the IIC’s continued efforts.
We create the changes we wish to see only by working together. Join us in shaping a brighter, more connected future.