CUTTER CONSORTIUM

Business Intelligenceand Networks of Things and Peopleby Paola Di Maio

Business Intelligence Executive Summary Vol. 10, No. 3

Science fiction has been preparing us for what thefuture of artificial intelligence may bring: doors thatopen without keys, lights that switch on and off aspeople enter or leave rooms, ambient temperaturesthat automatically regulate themselves, watches thatmonitor our healthcare and call the ambulance if some-thing is wrong, coffee that makes itself, fridges thatorder food directly when fresh supplies are needed,components that self-assemble, and trucks that drivethemselves and automatically park in the garage whenthey require maintenance.

Automation embedded into every nook and crannyshould be really cool, and markets have been waitingto spring into action since we first heard of the end-less possibilities. According to some expectations,the “intelligent future everywhere” should be herealready. In reality, however, technologists and businessstrategists have been quietly and silently preparingfor a future that, while technically already possible,in practice is still far from reality.

While much has been said about the Internet of Things(IoT) and RFID, few plans have been made to seizethe corresponding commercial opportunities; presum-ably the recession has kept everyone too busy to thinklong term.

The accompanying Executive Report serves as areminder that now may be a good time to startplanning in this direction.

THE INTERNET OF THINGS

While issues surrounding sensor networks requirecareful consideration, as in any new technology, forexample, the usual dilemma of which standard to fol-low as well as security, privacy, and so on, in principlea lot of this sensor technology is already available.

In forthcoming years, there will be very little on theinnovation horizon not related to the sensor grid, soone way or another, you are going to have to facewhat’s ahead. Future operational scenarios for compa-nies and businesses in all sectors will depend on theirability to interpret and manage the combination ofmultiple layers of “embedded intelligence” that willenable us to control, locate, and monitor the flow ofgoods and services by gathering information directlyfrom pervasive networks of highly distributed datasources dispersed in the environment. This opens upmany possibilities. In the report, we consider how IoTscenarios, that here we rename “Networks of Thingsand People” (NoTaP), will impact business intelligence(BI) and to some extent enterprise architectures. Earlysigns of this shift are already visible: the recentlylaunched stickybits Web site, for example, is a newapplication that lets users scan any bar code and attacha geotagged message to that physical object. Thiscreates an easy way to attach digital information(text or multimedia) to any object with a bar code.For example, a digital tag attached to a card couldbe programmed to trigger a musical soundtrack.

The challenge for BI in modern information-intensiveenvironments is to model, drill, query, and interpretmassive amounts of real-time terabytes of data, whichcome from very disparate and heterogeneous datasources. In the future, when data and informationwill come from sensor networks, capturing what reallymatters and managing process operations and improve-ments accordingly is going to be even more difficult.

In order for BI to contribute to supporting innovation,and therefore to be of strategic importance for organi-zations, it is necessary to incorporate the people per-spective and to integrate BI in the open innovation

process. The report focuses on the role that new per-vasive technologies are going to play in establishinga knowledge and intelligence continuum betweenpeople and things and their environments. Readersare reminded that although BI is often associated withoverall “applied analytics” functions and tools, here itis to be understood in the broader sense of operationalor strategic intelligence.

NOTAP STACK

The report proposes a simplified view of the complexsensor architecture in the NoTaP stack:

Sensemaking/intelligence

Real-time querying

Communication

Tracking/positioning

Sensors/interfaces/networks

Things/people/the world

At the bottom of the stack is the natural world ofthings and people. Both can be equipped with sensorscapable of gathering and transmitting data that whenrelated to other data becomes information, which in a

structured form can be knowledge and eventuallyintelligence. Data collected by sensing devices can betracked with location and positioning technologies;when gathered, processed, and analyzed in a properoperational context, this data can become criticalBI material.

CONCLUSION

The report ends by providing some overall insights toget you and your team thinking in terms of future sce-narios and hopefully will encourage readers to take thefirst steps toward incorporating, at least in simulatedenvironments, such technologies in their operationaland business models.

We have become accustomed to reading about newtechnologies everyday — and, over the years, we’vebeen bombarded with news and information aboutRFID — but have you ever stopped a moment toponder what it all means for you and your business?

The report aims to equip readers with enough knowl-edge about the vast, emerging field of sensor networksto help them understand the new developments andassist them in forming new ideas and making plans inrelation to their jobs and businesses.

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The Executive Summary is a supplement to the BusinessIntelligence Advisory Service’s Executive Report. ©2010 CutterConsortium. All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction inany form, including photocopying, downloading electroniccopies, posting on the Internet, image scanning, and faxingis against the law. Reprints make an excellent training tool.For information about reprints and/or back issues of CutterConsortium publications, call +1 781 648 8700 or e-mailservice@cutter.com. Print ISSN: 1540-7403 (Executive Report,Executive Summary, and Executive Update); online/electronicISSN: 1554-7078.

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