INFS2621 Enterprise Systems Integration with Internet of Things

Answer:

Introduction:

The Enterprise Internet of Things or IoT is regarded as the upcoming development in the technology enabling the physical things. These things have been embedded with the computing devices for participating in the business process (Bi, Da Xu & Wang, 2014). It has been declining the manual work and improving the business efficiency. There have been various examples that the IoT has been applied to the current enterprise system. The extreme enterprise use cases have been including the fleet management, building automation, remote asset management, connected cars, energy management, connected healthcare solutions, smart metering, smart warehousing and the connected retail store management.

The Enterprise systems and the IOT have been enabled through the new progress in the embedded systems, communication technologies, smart sensors and the Internet protocols. The fundamental premise has been to possess smart sensors and the actuators to deliver the latest class of the enterprise applications. The present revolution regarding the Internet, D2D or device-to-device, M2M or machine-to-machine and mobile technologies are seen as the initial phase of IoT. For the upcoming years, the IoT has been thought to make the various technologies for enabling the new applications (Da Xu, He & Li, 2014). This is done by connecting the physical objects such as the machines and devices along with the business applications. It is done to support the intelligent making of the decision.

The following report deals with the discussion on the integration of the Enterprise systems with the IoT. It has also made chosen Amazon Fresh’s Dash Program as a relevant case study for the understanding of the topic.

Discussion on Enterprise Systems’ integration with the Internet of Things:

The operation and design of the manufacturing enterprise have been involving with various kinds of decision-making at different domains and levels. The complicated system has possessed a huge number of decision-making and design variable needing the real-time data gathered from the business scenario, processes, and machines. The ES has been used for supporting the data acquisition, decision-making tasks (Tao et al., 2014). Thus the IT infrastructure for the sharing effects and acquisition has been impacting the performance of ES highly. Investigations are done highly on the effect of the growing IoT on the Es on the modern technologies. For achieving this, the development of the paradigms of the manufacturing system is needed to recognize necessities of the decision support systems in the distributed and the dynamic scenarios. This also includes the latest advances in IT associated and overviewed with the paradigms of net generation manufacturing. This also includes the relation of the ES and the IR infrastructure. These have been explored in the marketplace to recognize the gaps to adopt the IoT as the infrastructure of It of ES.

The developing numbers of the physical objects have been connected to IoT at the unprecedented rate. It is done by realizing the concept of IoT. It has been delivering the promising scope to create the effective enterprise and industrial systems. This is done by leveraging the rising ubiquity of the identification of radio-frequency. It has been also including the wireless connection with the sensor and the mobile devices. The fundamental instance of such objects has been including the vehicles comprising of the GPS tracking (Fang et al., 2014). This has been connecting with the control and the monitoring systems for enabling the smart machines and logistics with the PLC or the Programmable Logic Controller. These are interconnected with the management systems of resource performance. There have been various other domains also where the IoT has been playing a significant responsibility and developing the quality of human lives.

The applications have been including the hospitality industry, real-estate, retail, industrial automation, healthcare, and transportation. The business operations of the present generation enterprise have been involving various kinds of decision-making at different domains and levels. This complex system has possessed various amounts of variables of design and the decision-making has needed the real-time data gathered from the business scenarios, processes, and machines (Whitmore, Agarwal & Da Xu, 2015).

The enterprise system has been utilized for supporting the data communication, decision-making, and data acquisition tasks. Thus the IT infrastructure regarding the enterprise integration and data acquisition has needed the adapting of the distributed and dynamic environment. The IoT has been anticipated to improve the efficiency of the enterprise system. It has been facilitating the business models and aligning the physical operations with the digital resources on the basis of real-time (Li, Da Xu & Zhao, 2015). The Big Data technology and the cloud technology has been supporting the enterprise systems moreover as they have been delivering the intelligent insights and scalability. The aim has been to create the insights, permitting for the accurate, quicker and proper decision-making. It has been also fostering more business centering the customers.

There have been various instances that have been applied to IoT in the current IoT system. Various platforms of the Enterprise Systems have been integrating with the ERP, MRP and the systems of business intelligence for delivering the most helpful insights for the decision makers.  They have been implemented as the part of the IoT strategy along with the integration of the EAI or Enterprise Application Integration projects (Pang et al., 2015). As the platforms have been achieving the attention for their end-to-end offerings with their IoT solutions, they have been helping the companies to connect the devices. This has been to acquire the data that has been relevant for the enterprise systems and the same time delivering the controls to the enterprise systems to control those devices.

Most of the enterprises have been adapting to the IoT applications for saving the expenses. For instance, they have needed to reduce the usage of energy, reducing the chance of theft or reducing the probability of failure of the factory equipment. Despite all this, few enterprises have been utilizing the IoT for developing the new services. The construction and the manufacturing organizations have been using the IoT. This is done to develop the safety through launching the services of collision-avoidance. It reduces the injuries and accidents at sites (He & Da Xu, 2014). Moreover, the automotive manufacturers have been embedding the connectivity in their products. Hence the cars could notify the drivers as there is the time for the medical device manufacturers, tune-ups launching the new healthcare services with the connected products.

The IoT has been playing the primary role in the enterprise systems with the proper level of integration. Thus The IoT could act as the bridge between the IT infrastructure and the physical assets. The IoT of enterprise has been improving the efficiency of the material resource plan and the supply chain management. With the tracking of assets, remote monitoring, and the predictive maintenance the companies have been able to realize the better investment return.

The enterprise integration with the IoT has needed the extension of the connectivity from the enterprise and the cloud to devices. This is done at the edge of the network. The IoT gateway between the IoT devices capturing or creating the data like back-end applications and the sensors has been consuming the data (Tao et al., 2014). The IoT platform has been communicating through the lightweight protocols allowing the connectivity and scalability to analyze and manage the data from various devices at the edge of the network. The connecting of every device has been distributed at various locations including the desktops, point-of-sale systems and the kiosks for performing the remote management.

The IoT has been used to monitor and automate various things. For instance, the meeting of air conditioning and room lights that could be turned on as they feel any person near could be considered. Through the ability to maintain the track of data generated by the connected devices and done by using that for automating the menial activities taking up time in the workplace. Thus wonders are done for the efficiency and the business in overall.

The relevant Case study:

As this scenario has been farfetched, the technologies, along with existence are put to use. The surface of their potential is barely scratched. For instance, the Amazon Fresh’s Dash Program is taken as the case study. This tool has been allowing the people to make use of the stick for the ordering of the customer products at home (Aws.amazon.com, 2017). Moreover, the implications have been more staggering for the B2B market rather than the B2C market. The equipment have been repaired and replaced before the problem arises. Thus the IoT has been revolutionizing the eCommerce automation and the customer behavior regarding the product usage.

The overview:

Previously the implementation of IoT has been limited to a small and finite number of IP addresses and the expense of the required hardware integration with the daily objects. However, these are not applicable at present. The IPV6 and the activities on the widening of the protocols have been permitting for an unlimited amount of internet addresses virtually.

IoT streamlining the predictive analytics:

As the outcome of numerous devices the streamline data via the networks, Amazon has been manufacturing or selling them. Their business has acquired a mind-blogging quantity of new data on the way the clients have been using the products. Hence Amazon has been garnering the invaluable business intelligence (Vermesan & Friess, 2013). This has enabled them to develop the marketing messaging, services and products. All this has been exciting and amazing. The revolution has been lying in the rise of the predicting the customer demand and the ability to face the necessities quickly.

At the age of the Internet where all the people have been used to in getting what they demand in seconds, the above advancements have been irresistibly tantalizing. In due time the capability for predicting have turned out be robust as the historical data has been utilized for predicting the various hazards. This includes the geopolitics, popular TV shows, hit movies, civil unrest, local weather, natural disaster, and wars. The same rule is applicable to the B2B companies like Amazon (Botta et al., 2016). The capability of predicting and meeting the customer necessities has been almost instantaneously resulting naturally in the more pleasurable experience of business for the consumer. This has been making them more likely to go through the business with the organization. This is where Amazon could capitalize on better items and services. This is to increase the customer retention strategies extending the customer life-cycle.

The customer retention through automated service:

The convenience in the era of Web could not be exaggerated. Keeping in mind that the automation with client maintenance sounds somewhat outlandish, this partnership furnishes clients with solace that make then return. It also includes the comfort, straightforwardness and effortlessness from their side. The clients get what they need or need before they even acknowledge they need that. Let the air channel at home be taken for instance. It is not checked every month. People are highly likely in signing up the service automatically sending the replacements filters as they are needed. The same thing can be valid for lights, groceries, game controller and many more (Lee & Lee, 2015). There must be event that the client has the choice to scan for an item they require just once and after that they never need to stress over that procedure again. In such case they must agree to the service doing that.  As convenience, the administration and item satisfaction expands. The way to this sort of maintenance lies in eCommerce.

E-commerce, IoT, and line of business application integration:

E-commerce has been allowing for the simple collection of the additional data such as the phone numbers, email addresses and social profiles and so on. It has been allowing the organizations to avoid the misunderstanding through sending the email. This has been reminding the customer replaced the eggs and coffee. Their card is about a certain amount of money. For Amazon, it has been permitting them to retain the clients through warning them that the product has been regarding the necessities to be replaced. This has been followed by the inquiry whether or not they need to order the latest one (Vermesan & Friess, 2014).

Despite all this, the integration of the data with the LOB or the Line of Business applications such as the ERP and CRM systems has been essential absolutely. Through pulling the data to individual CRM profiles, along with the information from the connected device bought, has been allowing Amazon to control their own customer profile. This is regarding the repairing, usage, replacement and so on. As mentioned previously all the individual profiles have been aggregated could provide the correlative insights for using the product and usage (He, Yan & Da Xu, 2014). Without the LOB eCommerce integration, it has not been possible. However, the competition must swallow as Amazon is alive. The eCommerce, IoT and the LOB application data also required to get integrated into a single intuitive platform for taking the complete benefit of the exciting latest technology.

The challenges moving forward:

The obvious challenges have been the integration and security. The secure smart device networks along with the sensitive information and private data require the protection that must mitigate the possibility of getting theft or the malicious attack. However, the cryptography has been the promising sector helping regarding the privacy and security concerns. The layered security protocols and the consumer education have been also helping with the secure implementation of the IoT.

The integration has been difficult for most of the business. The organizations have been worrying regarding the complete expense over time, the ability to adapt and scale. The IT resources have been required to control the system, to deploy and kept secured. Moreover, the integration of the IoT integration with the LOB systems and e-commerce has needed the custom integration (Botta et al., 2014). At last, it has been coming down to Amazon building the custom integration. Thus the IoT at Amazon has been a significant technological revolution with full of benefits to the day of their clients and the way they do business. Amazon has been taking the complete advantage of it and hence the rewards have been limitless.

The handling of technology by Amazon:

The partnership of Amazon with the clients has contributed highly to the developing of few remarkable services and products that have been poised to disrupt the industries (Chen, Chen & Hsu, 2014). Below is the way how some of the clients have been taking the cloud services like SaaS world through worm with the helping from the revenue management platform.

• IAS has been delivering the services and an industry network to Amazon. This has been to improve the visibility around the transportation of items.
• The Hemisphere GNSS launched Atlas satellite recently. This has been the corrective positioning service. It featured the industry-disrupting accuracy and pricing.
• The Amplifier is the third-party logistics or 3PL Company. It has been building the quick growing service of merchandising.
• The Cvent has been delivering the SaaS meeting management. It has been improving the business meeting and the convention industry.

Conclusion:

The rapid development of the cloud facilitates has been making that possible to integrate the technologies smoothly around the platform. There has been no necessity to reinvent the wheel for all kinds of functionalities required to back-up the new service delivery. Rather than this, the report claims that the business has been able to focus on the development of the disruptive technology for meeting the particular industry or the business need. This is done by partnering with the cloud service providers for managing the things at the backend. This includes the order management, customer relationships, accounting, and billing. At Amazon, the job has been to help the clients in bringing new services to the marketplace. It has been supported by the reliable, flexible and capabilities of usage-based billing and the revenue managing platform. The billing has been helping to innovate Amazon get to the market quicker through controlling and capturing all the useful information needed to assure the timely and the proper billing of the clients. It has been designed in scaling accommodating and easily the fast growth often accompanies by the latest cloud solutions. As the IoT has been continuing to take the shape, all the businesses have been turning to be the technology company for some extent. The innovative business has been seeking to disrupt their individual industries with the latest technological products that have been delivered as the service. The cloud deployment has been made that possible for Amazon to deliver the exciting innovative solutions. Through the building of the established cloud platforms and the partnerships with the specialized firms for developing the functional sectors, falling outside the primary expertise, the business must develop new services. This must be quick and bring then to the marketplace before the competitors. 

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