The technically savvy wider business is demanding next-gen tools from manufacturing

It is well documented that the consumerisation of IT has had a very real impact on what users expect from corporate IT. New product iterations from tech giants like Apple, Microsoft, and Google are now routinely founded in a message of usability and simplicity (only last week iOS7 arrived under the banner of an ‘even simpler experience’).  The corresponding abundance of incredibly functional mobile devices mean technological mini-revolutions are announced on a regular basis, and as the general public become more familiar with these pocket miracles, so too are they expecting more from their corporate IT.

Many an IT dept has struggled with the unrealistic demands of a CEO who ‘just wants to have access to everything on my iPad’. Now several years down the line, after an initial response of reticence the majority of forward-thinking IT departments have now embraced BYOD and the business is more dynamic for it.

This is old news in the world of commercial IT but the manufacturing sector has been shielded from these pressures thanks to often being abstracted from the wider business in terms of function and skills. But those times are changing as we find ourselves in the eye of a perfect storm caused by the twin pressures of said consumerisation, and that other major trend that is the convergence of industrial automation and IT.

Business users are now used to being able to access reports on the move. Many businesses have also implemented a form of Business Intelligence, and more still have an ERP system that has in-built deep graphical reporting capabilities. It is therefore no real surprise that these same users are beginning to ask for similar standard capabilities when it comes to production data.

This demand for Operational Intelligence is well documented by leading analysts such as Gartner, IDC and ARC, and from my own perspective I have seen the evidence. I have been in dozens of meetings where the need for ‘better insight’ is discussed.

For example, a major customer recently confided in me that their new CEO is ‘used to having everything on his Ipad’ and wanted the same level of clear, useable intelligence from his new company. Fortunately for us, best-of-breed software vendors such as Wonderware have seen this requirement coming and have begun to gain traction with a new set of solutions that have learned from the drive for form and function in the IT world.

Written by Mike Charles,
Product Manager - Operational Intelligence,
SolutionsPT

As UK manufacturing is poised on a resurgence it is my contention that key to its success in becoming and remaining competitive in the global marketplace will be the ability to empower its users by providing true Operational Intelligence and making the right information available to the right people in a simple and functional format.