Enterprise Integration--the act of physically and logically "connecting the dots" between the process and the business systems--accomplishes a very important task, providing the data that drives the decisions. But there's another, sometimes nuanced, benefit of Enterprise Integration, and that's gaining Enteprise Intelligence.
Let's look at an example. Last year, Invensys announced a solution called Real Time Performance Management. At its core, RTPM takes a holistic view of the organization to allow tuning of costs, operating parameters, and organizational performance. Gains far beyond simply joining automation to an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software application.
So think about it--what do you really need when you talk about enteprise integration? It's not the phyical connections--it's the insight, and tools, to make better decisions, ensure profitability, and gain operations advantages. And luckily, the solutions are there for you.
You are absotutelly right Maryanne, insight today is the key!!!
ReplyDeleteAnd I think the industry will follow this inevitable trend, to look for solutions that not only turn on or off their motor, but that can tell how "healthy" the motor is, when it's the best time to schedule a preventive maintenance, what potential failures may happen based on current conditions and intelligence gained also from historical data, so, that's the power of EMI or gaining intelligence.
When I pitch about this change on "industrial behavior", I usually use the analogy with the "Minority Report" movie, in another words, having tools to playback historical data, to understand what's going on right now, to democratize the right information to the right users, enabling them to take better decisions, forecast the "future" and run industrial operations smoothly.
To make all my words short, INDEED on your great post!!!