Visit an industrial plant - a mine, power generation plant or manufacturing facility for example - and automation, mechanical and digital, is everywhere. Millions of dollars are invested in machinery, robotics, enterprise and industrial software systems that run and operate a plant. However, chat with the workforce, the frontline workers themselves, and you’ll find that they’re largely disconnected from all of this automation – when they do their job, it's paper, voice or experience-based and rarely digitized.

The best tools and practices for better data visibility & monitoring are highly dependent upon the environment upon which you are working.  Looking at the 'real-time' world of manufacturing operations, the needs within this area are to provide context (meaning) to the data so that workers or management can make decisions based upon the results or outcome.

Perhaps it's not that these outdated IT systems are killing your business, as much as they are hampering your ability to take advantage of new technologies, new ways of doing business, and new methods of collaboration between your employees.