Would you like to base your business decisions on real-time information from your production line, off-road machinery or processes? What if trivial decisions were made automatically and you could focus on the topics that really matter - and deliver the most value?
Industrial data platforms have become a key enabler for managing businesses based on real-time information. Smart platforms collect data, store and analyze it in the cloud and enrich raw data to actionable insights, user experiences and reports. Depending on the case, data may enable automation, higher efficiency or smarter maintenance.
A data platform infrastructure is built on a combination of software and hardware. Internet-connected sensors collect data and store it in the cloud, algorithms crunch the data and serve it to whoever needs it.
Value trumps technology
From a technical perspective, building a networked data collection platform has become straightforward. There are several mature off-the-shelf IoT solutions that offer varying degrees of customization possibilities.
With the technical side pretty much solved, we can focus on the real issues. How should we use the data? What is the value we get out of it? What is valuable for different stakeholders, such as product management, R&D, after sales, partners and end users?
The customer’s business case drives Insta’s work from square one. While we may very well end up developing a data platform incorporating neural networks to detect anomalies in processes, the effort is in vain if we do not correctly identify the business and user needs and the potential value of the data.
Start with design
We start our projects by obtaining a solid understanding of our customer’s business. We facilitate dialogue between our team, our customer’s stakeholders and, if necessary, our customer’s customers.
Before we write a single line of code, our service designers focus on the business and the potential value of data. Going forward, our user experience designers start working on practical designs and wireframes that eventually turn into prototypes, early versions of working products or services.
Today, design and user experience have become a key success factor for B2B solutions. Unless we are building an embedded system without a user interface, we are crafting tools for experts from field operators and maintenance engineers to top management. In their personal lives, these people are used to apps and services that look good and work smoothly - when an enterprise app delivers the same experience, it really stands out.
"Real-time data allows making wiser decisions that are relevant right here, right now."
