PLM IoT will have to reborn again in 2017

The Internet of things (IoT) is the concept based on the communication and using internet protocol between physical devices. (cars, smart devices, buildings, etc.) with embedded electronics, software, sensors and everything else you can imagine. The last few years built a significant hype around IoT in general, but also around PLM IoT. Some PLM vendors built a significant programs by turning around their businesses using IoT strategies. One of the extreme positioning statements I’ve heard is the following one – IoT is PLM.

According to Gartner hype cycle diagram, IoT is at peak of inflated expectations. You can see some of my earlier IoT articles here. One of my latest articles – Will PLM vendors find a way to monetize IoT?

WIRED article – Here is what happens to tech in 2017, unless 2016 was a dream published an interesting opinion about IoT – The Internet of Things Will Die. Take a look at the following passage:

Last September, some malware took control of millions of internet-connected devices, including security cameras and DVRs, and launched an attack that took down the website of security journalist Brian Krebs. It was one of the largest ever attacks of this type. The next month, the same piece of malware rendered large swaths of the internet inaccessible to many people.

The incidents capped off two years of bad news for the “Internet of Things,” including bricked devices, irritating outages, bankrupt startups, an international emissions testing scandal, and a viral story about a Brit who spent 11 hours trying make tea with a needlessly high-tech kettle. A Twitter account called Internet of Shit started documenting this market’s silliest gadgets, funniest error messages, and most depressing possibilities. It now has over 100,000 followers.

The Internet of Things was a made-up term to begin with. And now this bit of marketing nonsense carries a sheen of ineptitude, danger, and other shit. The upshot: the term will die in 2017, kinda like Big Data before it.

Another article IoT is Dead. While… while giving birth to the opportunities.

IoT (or rather IoX) has been overused in last few years, and every organization claiming to be the leader in this space. Yet still, the new terms being created around the Things, I can say that the hype is going to get over in near future., and we will see the real survivors who manage to stay in the game. Current tech leaders are pushing various areas independently and competing with each other, such as network, platforms, cloud, hardware, analytic, security and so on. The winners will be those who embrace and enable the end to end engagement and ecosystem with partnerships and collaboration, and will be the ones going to survive, together. The business leaders need to take a step back, and have an overview of their current strategies with an eagle eye, and then narrow down the areas in their respective businesses that can be improved, and initiate the IoT projects. 

It made me think about what PLM vendors will do if IoT buzzword will die. And it seems to me PLM marketing is pretty unprepared for the event. In my view, PLM vendors should be going back to normal in everything that related “connected” services and PLM. There are two parallel trajectories here – (1) focus on how to develop “smart” and “connected” products; (2) how to manage as-built information that can be used for analytic and decision management process for physical products.

What is my conclusion? PLM vendors should find a unique “post IoT” niche to develop services having strong differentiation factor compared to other giant vendors focusing on a broad set IoT topics. It can be a tricky thing to do after PLM vendors promoted bright IoT PLM future just by turning everything into “connected heaven”. It is a time to add some pragmatism in the future of PLM IoT. Just my thoughts…

Best, Oleg

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Disclaimer: I’m co-founder and CEO of openBoM developing cloud based bill of materials and inventory management tool for manufacturing companies, hardware startups and supply chain. My opinion can be unintentionally biased

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