Leading Analyst Firm Publishes White Paper on How IoT-Enabled Analytic Applications Will Revolutionize Supply Chain Planning and Execution

For the first time, complex global organizations can purchase solutions that offer unprecedented end-to-end supply chain visibility

ALEXANDRIA, VA (December 1, 2015) Savi®, a pioneer in sensor technology and sensor data analytic solutions, partnered with IDC, the premier global provider of market intelligence for information supply chains, to publish a white paper on how Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled analytic applications will transform the global supply chain. The white paper found that the combination of reduced sensor costs, the proliferation of massive amounts of data generated from physical assets and the advancement of capabilities to transform data into operational intelligence is providing true end-to-end supply chain visibility for the first time. In addition, the paper finds that IoT applications will enable organizations with complex global supply chains to connect their products and processes, giving them the power to make critical decisions that are based on real-time data. By working with analytic applications providers, businesses will be able to use powerful predictive analysis to significantly reduce risk of theft and tampering and dramatically optimize efficiencies related to shipment ETA, inventory management, cross-docking and more.

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The white paper, titled “IoT-Enabled Analytic Applications Revolutionize Supply Chain Planning and Execution”, found that as connectivity becomes the norm across the global business landscape and IoT technology quickly gets adopted, the explosion of data created out of a connected world is driving firms to purchase purpose-built analytic applications that utilize predictive and prescriptive analytics to decipher massive amounts of data. This is allowing them to uncover critical insights to optimize global supply chains in only weeks, versus a toolkit approach which can take months. Companies that utilize purpose-built applications can quickly analyze vast amounts of data to produce invaluable insights that improve operational efficiency and reduce risk across the global supply chain.

The paper also underscores the difference between milestone-based solutions and real-time sensor-based solutions, underscoring that milestone-based solutions are limited because they only communicate data based on a series of scheduled data collection points, providing almost zero visibility across the supply chain. Sensor-based solutions, comparatively, capture real-time data to enable analytics, insight and action based on the best information available to make the supply chain more responsive and nimble, cutting down on the lag time between data capture and realization. While integrating data from semi-structured and unstructured sources like sensors can be complex, requiring rare skill sets not easily found within the organization, there are innovative solution providers with SaaS IoT-enabled analytic applications that deliver rapid time to value. These IoT-enabled solutions are providing organizations with the opportunity to rethink and retool their supply chains in order to be faster and more responsive to the ever-changing, hyper-competitive business environment.

The IDC White Paper uncovered additional market opportunities and key takeaways in the supply chain landscape including:

  • IoT-based analytic applications are driving transformational improvements across the supply chain and business operations. The adoption of IoT across the supply chain is inevitable, in terms of depth and breadth, and no part of the supply chain will be spared.
  • The massive quantities of data being harvested and analyzed offer unprecedented visibility into real-time conditions. Organizations can now quickly respond intelligently to situations thereby driving supply chain efficiencies to a new level.
  • Sensor-enabled analytics is an area of particular interest within the manufacturing supply chain, which must leverage new and emerging technologies as it strives to be faster and more transparent, while maintaining productivity and profitability levels
  • IoT technologies will materially affect the way that all companies manage their supply chains by 2020. Becoming faster and more transparent, while maintaining productivity and profitability, will not be possible without leveraging new/emerging technologies. In fact, 25% of companies are expected to use IoT technologies in their supply chains by 2020.
  • IDC expects the IoT market to reach $1.7 trillion by 2020 and firms producing solutions in the Industrial IoT space to see revenue opportunity of over $1.04 trillion.
  • Organizations with IoT-enabled expertise and solutions and the ability to help easily integrate and analyze sensor data will demonstrate their value quickly, showing an improved return on investment.
  • IoT-based applications are already driving transformational improvement across a variety of industries including transportation, retail and energy.

“We are now at the point where connectivity between analytic applications and business processes can be a reality for firms that purchase IoT-enabled analytics solutions, as some of the world’s leading commercial organizations have already started to do. It’s no longer about if, but when supply chains embrace these solutions,” said John Santagate, Research Manager at IDC. “Businesses see the tremendous value that the use of IoT applications has to transform their business processes, and they are looking to organizations that can offer state-of-the-art purpose built applications from companies that have expertise in the unique challenges of sensor data, real-time analysis and the top challenges facing global supply chains from business optimization to risk management.”

“IoT-enabled analytic applications will redefine the entire supply chain category. As global organizations wrestle with increasing amounts of machine-generated data, they can now tap into IoT-enabled solutions that turn data into actionable business intelligence that informs, streamlines and protects their business. These applications provide a layer of agility and responsiveness never seen before,” said Savi CEO Bill Clark. “IoT solutions are truly revolutionizing supply chain organizations, and Savi, which has unparalleled industry experience in sensor data and analytics, can offer our clients best-in-class solutions to help them work more efficiently and smarter across multiple geographies like never before.”

About Savi
Leveraging 25 years of leadership in sensor technology, Savi is pioneering sensor analytics solutions that create operational intelligence from the Internet of Things. Applying big data technologies to machine-generated data, Savi solutions are trusted to run the world’s largest and most complex asset tracking and monitoring network, serving the U.S. DoD, Allied military and more than 1,000 commercial companies around the world. Savi has been recognized by Frost & Sullivan as Company of the Year in 2015 for its sensor analytics solutions. For more information about Savi visit www.savi.com.

Savi and Savi Technology are registered trademarks and Savi Insight, Savi Hybrid Lambda Architecture and Savi Scenario are trademarks of Savi Technology, Inc. All other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.

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