System Integrators Prepare for Smart Manufacturing
Luigi De Bernardini, CEO at Autoware, in Vicenza, Italy, sees that system integrators are going to need to adapt quickly to the idea of software-as-a-service in manufacturing. In a recent guest blog in AutomationWorld, he says, “System integrators will have to be ready to change their business model, at least in part, by offering subscription services …”
According to De Barnardini, assuming that every company will sooner or later incorporate the Industrial IoT, cloud computing, analytics and Big Data into its evolving smart manufacturing formula, system integrators need to wake up right away, and smell the coffee.
He offers two insights:
1. The move from system and software ownership towards software-as-a-service makes good economic sense.
2. Although adopting software-as-a-service reduces the complexity of that specific service, there is still a need for system integrators to bring together the different solutions into a coherent whole.
The upshot, he says, is that system integrators need to support the traditional business model, while at the same time offering services to customers moving towards the Industrial IoT.
Interestingly, this is the same approach that Skkynet takes–with the Cogent DataHub supporting traditional, in-plant data connectivity and integration, and yet also connecting seamlessly to SkkyHub and the ETK for secure, remote data access and other Industrial IoT applications.
