Articles by Bart Schouw
Imagine SmartTech Manufacturing Inc., a thriving, U.S.-based company known for its cutting-edge industrial robots equipped with remote monitoring and predictive analytics capabilities. For years, it has dominated the European market, prides itself on proprietary software, and safeguards its data analytics.
Posted November 21, 2024
In an era marked by rapid urbanization and technological advancement, the concept of smart cities has captured the imagination of urban planners, technologists, and policymakers worldwide for over a decade. As cities grapple with the challenges of accommodating growing populations, managing resources efficiently, and improving quality of life, a new paradigm is emerging that promises to revolutionize urban living: the cognitive city. At the heart of this transformation lies the game-changing potential of generative AI, poised to unlock the true potential of smart cities and usher in a new age of urban intelligence.
Posted August 15, 2024
Amazon's Just Walk Out technology seemed like the epitome of futuristic shopping when it debuted at Amazon Fresh stores. I, like many, was thrilled about the potential of advanced AI transforming the shopping experience. The idea of simply grabbing items and leaving without the hassle of a traditional checkout process was a game changer. I believed that the technology arm behind these stores, Amazon Web Services (AWS), was at the forefront of AI innovation. However, the recent revelations about the true nature of this technology have left me, and many others, feeling disappointed and misled.
Posted May 16, 2024
For the past year, my team has been exploring the value that generative AI can add to Internet of Things (IoT) platforms. The reason is simple: as IoT continues to evolve, addressing challenges related to mass connectivity and device management, the need for a forward-looking perspective on the future of IoT platforms becomes more apparent. Use cases like predictive maintenance indirectly highlight this need for advanced functionality. While device management remains fundamental, enabling such use cases requires practical capabilities such as machine learning and AI.
Posted February 15, 2024
My first encounter with enterprise integration dates back to the early 2000s. Remember those days when Enterprise Service Buses (ESB) emerged as the antidote to the convoluted labyrinth of closely interconnected applications? It was the era when architects sought structured approaches to transform the tangled web of point-to-point links into a more coherent system—akin to shifting from spaghetti to lasagna, if you will. This marked the early definition of enterprise integration.
Posted November 16, 2023
If you wait long enough, everything comes back into style. This timeless principle not only applies to fashion, but also to software development. The technology preferences in the industry have been swinging between bespoke solutions and platform-based solutions due to emerging technologies and their challenges. As someone who has been in the industry since the 1990s, I've witnessed these shifts firsthand.
Posted October 19, 2023
In April, I was at Hannover Messe, one of the world's largest trade fairs for industrial technology, which is held annually in Hannover, Germany. Due to COVID-19, the event was canceled for a few years, but this year, it was back, and, I'm happy to report, nearly at full scale. I had forgotten how massive it is. The sheer size of the event, with thousands of exhibitors and hundreds of thousands of visitors from all over the world attending each year, was truly mind-blowing. You need to have been there to understand.
Posted June 16, 2023
Do you think of your IoT projects in maturity curves? If yes, I applaud you for it. Thinking in maturity curves helps organizations to reduce complexity and to navigate through the unknown. It is a natural behavior and a sound strategy; it is the answer to how to eat an elephant.
Posted April 19, 2023
In the summer of 2010, I sat down with my son and had a serious conversation with him about what he wanted to become in life. He was at a point in his education where the classes he decided to take in the present would determine what kind of studies he could pursue in the future.
Posted November 17, 2022
Like Stephen Hawking's famous musings did for the laws of the universe, everything as a service (XaaS) is about to revolutionize the way you think about the world. Offering benefits like operational agility and efficiency, XaaS will be the business model for every equipment vendor in the future. And it will be big. According to Fortune Business Insights, the global XaaS market is projected to grow $2.3 trillion in 2028.
Posted August 18, 2022
A product-led approach, the hot trend where you deliver your value proposition to customers primarily through your products, could be the next generation of everything-as-a-service (XaaS). Traditionally, most software companies have tended to be sales-led and, therefore, they spend a fair amount of money on marketing to fill their sales pipelines. Today, due to several technology trends such as the use of cloud as a delivery mechanism, new sales models have begun to emerge.
Posted May 02, 2022
Ecosystems are nothing new or revolutionary. What is new is that new waves of digitalization are forcing entities of all sizes and strategies to interact and operate together in an increasingly fast-changing and complex environment. In today's digitally enabled markets, the concept of a social, business ecology, as outlined back in 1985 by organization consultant Peter Drucker, has become a full-blown reality.
Posted March 08, 2022
There are some words that you have never heard of and when you hear them for the first time—bam! From that instant, you hear them every day and read them everywhere. "Metaverse" is such a word. Today, the metaverse, long seen as a futuristic dream, is quickly becoming a reality. What it will become remains to be seen.
Posted December 15, 2021
The pandemic has shown clearly that the risk of doing nothing in digital is exceeding the risk of doing something. Now is the time to seize the opportunity to become the next digital rainmaker.
Posted September 27, 2021
A new type of channel looms on the horizon for Customer 360 projects, and it is going to be the toughest one of all to achieve. In order to master it, customer experience needs to evolve to the next level—a level that can be thought of as the "connected customer experience." The channel? Connected products.
Posted May 26, 2021
The full potential for companies that digitally transform is predicted to be $100 trillion by 2025. This astonishing value would be reached through the combination of digital technologies—mobile, cloud, AI, sensors, and analytics, among others. These are accelerating progress exponentially, said the World Economic Forum, but this growth can be realized only if there is collaboration between business, policymakers, and non-governmental organizations.
Posted May 05, 2021
The full potential for companies that digitally transform is predicted to be $100 trillion by 2025. This astonishing value would be reached through the combination of digital technologies—mobile, cloud, AI, sensors, and analytics, among others. These are accelerating progress exponentially, said the World Economic Forum, but this growth can be realized only if there is collaboration between business, policymakers, and non-governmental organizations.
Posted April 05, 2021
While many companies are using IoT for reasons numbers one and two, few have embraced it for reason number three—disrupting with new business models. Despite top management stating that digital is important (20% of all top strategic initiatives in annual reports now include the word "digital")—and that IoT is one of the most disruptive and necessary technologies to shape their markets—in reality, they are mainly using it to manage costs by improving efficiencies and enhancing customer experience by augmenting existing products. This is severely limiting organizations' ability to gain new value.
Posted January 18, 2021
What do prison guards, dental hygienists, and barbers have in common? They all have jobs that rely on physical proximity and carry a high risk of exposure to diseases, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
Posted September 14, 2020
Powering the next generation of renewable energy with IoT positively impacts running costs, while ensuring that wind power will continue to be both a viable economic solution for energy production for the future and a benefit to the environment.
Posted May 28, 2020
Competition these days is no longer just about cost or quality; it is about companies offering entirely new digital business models and better customer experiences that are based on insights. How do organizations compete on that basis? They do it by unlocking the various data sources that are imprisoned within IT and business departments, systems, and databases.
Posted March 24, 2020
The Age of the Contextualist
Posted December 16, 2019
Just as in the oil industry, exploitation of data comes down to how good your refinery capabilities are. Just as oil has to be refined to get valuable products out of it, such as gasoline and jet fuel, data has to be refined into insights. And, just as in the old days of the oil business, the rush is on.
Posted September 26, 2019
Becoming future-proof sounds similar to something you would need a fortune teller for. If anyone can teach me how to become a fortune teller, then I would like to sign up for that training class! But I don't believe that you have to be a fortune teller to be future-proof. Rather, it is more about acknowledging some hard facts about the pitfalls in your organization, and then trying to avoid stepping in them.
Posted May 16, 2019
Working Backward (Or: What IoT Can Learn From Steve Jobs)
Posted March 08, 2019
Fast and Furious Technology: From HFT to IoT
Posted December 11, 2018
In my last article, I discussed how the Internet of Things market is showing early signs of maturity, but that many projects still can stumble. I identified seven "habits" that successful projects have in common, which, when used together, are powerful enough to set your IoT project on the right path.
Posted September 27, 2018
In the past few years, IoT has been greatly overhyped; hence, many IoT vendors had to convince the market of their pedigrees by touting use cases and customer success stories. In reality, IoT was only getting traction in very few markets—manufacturing being one—with the rest trailing behind.
Posted May 11, 2018
In the IoT world, devices are moving from smart to intelligent due to the advent of artificial intelligence and machine learning. However, this is now hindered due to the natural limitations of the cloud. In order to progress, devices need lower latency, a higher level of independence, and better connectivity.
Posted March 26, 2018
A lot has been written about why IoT is going to be absolutely essential to your company. If you are convinced as to the why but wonder about the how, pay attention. Based on all the lessons learned from my engagements around the globe, I am going to tell you how. It basically comes down to three basic phases: preparation, the "real stuff," and embedding it in the organization.
Posted January 08, 2018
While Vic Damone and Jane Powell wanted their eggs with a kiss in the 1950s musical Rich, Young and Pretty, in the near future, your kitchen might well know exactly how you want them thanks to the Internet of Things (IoT).
Posted September 20, 2017
With the furor over fake news, where the truth is massaged for commercial or political gain, the focus has gone off fake data—which can have a lot more perilous consequences.
Posted May 15, 2017