First Line Software is a premier provider of software engineering, software enablement, and digital transformation services. Headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the global staff of 450 technical experts serve clients across North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia.
Earlier this month, the IIC (Industrial Internet Consortium) held its Q3 meeting at the Disney Grand Californian Hotel& Spa in Anaheim. The meeting ran from September 9 – 12 and was attended by 225 members.
The tone for the three-day meeting was set by Stephen Mellor, IIC CTO during the opening session when he said, the hype of IIoT is over and the time is now for real IIoT projects”.
During this meeting, IIC announced their new “IIC Accelerator Program” which is intended to stimulate the adoption of IoT by end users across industries. The program has been designed to offer opportunities for participants to discuss project challenges with peers, get advice from IIC experts, or engage other IIC ecosystem members to help them solve complex technical problems.
There are several components that make up the IIC Accelerator Program including the new Test Drive which incorporates short term, rapid engagements with end user clients – from ideation, technology identification, and partnering with IoT experts – to get to deployment quickly. Test Drives are intended to reduce the uncertainty of technology adoption and to produce validated, market-ready solutions to be rolled out to an enterprise.
Another component of the IIC Accelerator Program is the IoT Challenge. These are public contests aimed at solving real problems and advancing the validation of Industrial Internet applications and solutions. As part of this quarter’s program, IIC meeting attendees were able to cheer on local startups who were competing for an IIC Small Industry membership during “Pitch Night”, an event that was hosted at the University of California Irvine. It was a fun evening that was very much like what would be seen on an episode of Shark Tank.
One of the meeting highlights for First Line Software’s VP, David Tedford, was the opportunity to participate in another IIC Accelerator Program component, the Testbed track. He had this to say, “First Line Software has collaborated with several organizations to provide software development services. Some of these successful IIoT projects actually started out as Testbeds.”
Currently there are 14 Testbeds in progress that are focused on IoT-related hardware and software solutions. They include: Smart Factory for Machine Learning to Predictive Maintenance Testbed, Distributed Energy Resources Integration Test Bed, Deep Learning Facility Testbed, Connected Care Testbed, and Connected Workforce Safety Testbed, to name a few.
There is tremendous value from IIC providing its members with the opportunity to participate in the Testbeds and to network with other thought leaders within the IIoT space. Members can then bring this knowledge into the field and share it with customers and prospects as a true trusted advisor. IIC members work together to ensure that IIoT solutions are being developed by leveraging the latest standards and security best practices.
The Accelerator Program includes two other components:
End User Leadership Councils – collaborative councils of senior executives representing various industries interested in establishing vision and influencing direction in IoT in an industry and implementing, testing or using IoT solutions in their facilities.
Special Interest Groups – groups of members and non-members created for the purpose of collaboration with essential experts in a specific area of technology. The first SIG is dedicated to Over-the-Air (OTA) Updates and seeks to create requirements for OTA solutions for the automotive and other industries.
Finally, IIC held two focus groups for members during the event. David Tedford, from First Line Software, was invited to share his insights about how IIC as an organization can engage members further to get the most value from their membership. “It’s good to know that the IIC is listening and looking for ways to increase our membership and more importantly, increase IIoT solution adoption,” was what David had to say about this opportunity.
If you didn’t have the opportunity to speak with David Tedford about your IIoT initiatives during the event, please complete the Contact Us form and request a call.