Arraya Insights

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Connected, intelligent machines are the future of manufacturing – and they’re also very rapidly becoming its present. Word is out and more companies are realizing the inherent value in linking engineering people manofacturing industry with big modern computer mashinesmachines not only to internal networks, but back to the companies that initially built those machines.

Machine-builders have a unique insight into their product and it’s something manufacturers need to use to their advantage. The connectivity offered by Internet of Things (IoT) technology gives companies a perfect opportunity to do just that.

The benefits of sharing data with the people who actually built a machine are two-fold. For the manufacturers using the machine, it allows them to catch problems before they occur and solve any that slip through that net more quickly. For machine-builders, they’ll have the ability to provide a better customer experience – resulting in higher satisfaction scores – through the support models, security features and the after-sale services many manufacturers demand.

Moving to connected and intelligent machines

Ready to start enjoying those benefits at your facility? Cisco’s Connected Machine Solution can help you get there. This solution is a digital portfolio built on renowned Cisco IoT technology that enables rapid, repeatable connectivity to machines.

The endpoint of this journey is clear: improved overall equipment effectiveness; optimized machines and processes; predictive maintenance capabilities and more. The steps along the way, however, are often less clear. Here’s a closer look at the journey which takes machines from isolated to intelligent and connected:

Step 1: Machine Connectivity. This is the foundation on which the rest are built. It’s dedicated to securing machines and optimizing their overall user experience. Organizations who’ve reached this point are able to enjoy rapid commissioning, secure machines and machine provisioning that is template-based.

Step 2: Machine Data Integration Platform. This step is all about analytics and intelligence. It builds on the machine connectivity attained in step one and expands that beyond the factory floor to the rest of the business. This level of connectivity allows manufacturers to start collecting and diving into the volumes of data churned up as a result of IoT technology.

Step 3: Machines as a Service. The next segment of the journey is centered on how forging tighter partnerships with machine-builders brings greater capabilities to manufacturers. Machine-builders become, in a sense, an extension of the manufacturer’s organization. The Connected Machines platform feeds manufacturers and machine-builders real time data on factors such as asset health, availability and efficiency. As part of this, machine-builders can deliver predictive maintenance to their customers. They can continually optimize machines and, if a possible trouble spot is identified, they can inform their customer on the best way to remedy the situation, preventing costly downtime.

Step 4: Advanced Machine Optimization. This is the highest stage of the Connected Machines journey. At this point, manufacturers gain easy access to cutting-edge analytical capabilities powered by their highly intelligent networks.

Bringing Connected Machines to your facility

A recent survey of Plant Managers and Business Line Executives conducted by SCM World asked what technology they planned to connect in the coming years. Right at the top of that list? Production equipment. A little more than six-in-ten (62%) said this area would be a prime target for them. Manufacturers who haven’t made plans to begin the Connected Machines journey run the risk of losing ground to competitors who have.

Arraya Solutions’ Manufacturing/IoT Practice excels at bringing connectivity to manufacturers. Our team members can help with every step of the process – from planning and designing the right solution for your company, through deployment. Once that solution has been deployed, we’re also capable of providing long term support, ensuring full return on investment.

Have a question? Feel free to reach out to us at www.arrayasolutions.com/contact-us/. We can also be reached directly via our Twitter account, @ArrayaSolutions, which also features the latest company news, our take on industry hot-buttons and links to special offers.

 

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For most folks in IT, long hours are simply part of the job. However, the extent at which those hours are piling up – in many cases the traditional 40-hour workweek is barely visible in the rear-viewworn out business man – should be of concern to leaders. As the number of hours increases, so does the risk of burnout. That, in turn, could lead to unforced and potentially costly errors.

Here’s a snapshot of the average IT workweek according to research by Spiceworks:

  • 54% of IT staffers said they work more than 40 hours per week
  • 17% said they work more than 50 hours per week
  • 18% said they top 60 hours per week
  • The average workweek for the 600 pros Spiceworks surveyed came to 52 hours

The research also looked into the industries in which it was most common for IT to burn the candle at both ends. The construction and engineering industries topped that list with 72% of IT pros in those verticals working more than a 40-hour week. The average workweek length came to 51.8 hours. The rest of that list broke down like this:

  • Manufacturing – 60% top a 40-hour workweek, averaging 51.6 hours per week
  • Non-Profit – 58% top a 40-hour workweek, averaging 51.3 hours per week
  • IT Services – 55% top a 40-hour workweek, averaging 48.3 hours per week

Help desk reinforcements

One factor steadily driving up the number of hours IT spends on the job? End users. Supporting end users can take up a considerable portion of IT’s day, forcing pros to work longer hours in order to fit in all of their other to do list items. In fact, a correlation was documented in Spicework’s study linking help desk staff size to the length of IT’s workweek. According to the study:

  • Organizations with a 40-hour or less workweek in IT averaged nine help desk staffers
  • Organizations with more than 40-hour workweeks for IT averaged just three help desk staffers

The takeaway is clear: The better provisioned the help desk, the better able IT is to focus on its core responsibilities and get them taken care of in a timely manner. The thing is, few organizations are in the position budget-wise to increase their help desk staff size, let alone triple it. The need to do more with less is what kick-started this trend of inflated workdays in the first place.

However, there is an alternative. Arraya’s Managed Services for Help Desk. This service is designed to extend the reach of existing help desk teams without actually increasing the size of those teams. Instead, our Managed Services team will partner with onsite help desks to learn about the unique needs of end users. Then, our team will be able to take work off the help desk’s plate enabling tickets to pass through the system more efficiently – without needing to divert IT resources in the process.

Our service offers 24/7 support provided by our team of knowledgeable and experienced Managed Service professionals. Tickets are captured in our system with as much info as possible, regardless of submission method. This allows for faster intake, assignment and escalation if needed. Also, once a ticket has been successfully solved, that information is then stored in our Knowledge Base. That way, should it or a similar issue occur again, the help desk will be better positioned to solve it.

If you’d like to learn more about Arraya’s Managed Services for Help Desk, please reach out to us at www.arrayasolutions.com/contact-us/. We can also be found on Twitter: @ArrayaSolutions. Be sure to follow us so you can stay in the loop with all of our latest company news, industry insights and special offers.

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Perhaps the biggest story out of last week’s Cisco Collaboration Summit was that Spark, Cisco’s team-based communication and collaboration app, is about to undergo some major changes. Come 0o1a7692-2227the new year, Spark will no longer be a mere messaging app, but will evolve into an entire platform. This transformation could end up having a major impact on small-mid-sized businesses looking to upgrade their communication and collaboration abilities.

Starting in 2016, Spark will deliver a collaboration experience which spans multiple communication avenues: messaging, meeting and calling. These services will all be delivered via the cloud, making the new Spark a very attractive option for SMBs looking to improve collaboration, but who don’t have the resources or space to expand their physical data centers. Companies engaged in an M&A situation may also be interested in Spark, as it can be rapidly deployed to bridge newly merged organizations.

Here’s a closer look at the three building blocks of the Spark service:

  • Messaging – Spark’s unlimited messaging keeps employees in close connection with their business contacts – whether those contacts work one cube over or for a completely separate company, located on the other side of the world. It’s designed to provide a mobile-first experience, allowing employees to easily edit and review projects across devices and platforms. Messaging covers one-to-one interactions or large groups in virtual room settings.
  • Meeting – Employees’ only worry going into a meeting should be crossing off all of the items on the day’s agenda. The nuts and bolts of the meeting itself should be the last thing on their minds. Spark makes it easy to schedule or join meetings from any location. On top of that, any and all meetings can have audio, web, and video conferencing built-in.
  • Calling – The way in which employees think of business calls is changing, an evolution which Spark supports. It allows workers to take advantage of voice and video communication through mobile, desktop, and even room-based devices. It features a rich mobile experience which includes single number reach, single voicemail services, and the option to move seamlessly between multiple devices during a call.

See faster ROI on Cisco Spark deployments 

Cisco believes Spark’s cloud platform, its app-focused design and its hybrid architecture are what will help it stand out. It combines Cisco’s deep background in network security, cloud technology and its full slate of collaboration technology – including endpoints, clients and apps – into one powerful solution. The end result is a communication and collaboration tool that is secure, simple and complete.

Ready to be one of the first to experience the value and flexibility of Cisco’s Spark? Arraya Solutions can help turn that goal into a reality. Our Cisco Practice is home to some of the industry’s best and most knowledgeable engineers specializing in Cisco technology. However, extensive tech skills and know-how are expected in today’s industry. What sets our Cisco team – and all of our individual practices – apart is our ability to work closely with your organization to find the right solutions to match its needs. We’ll then help deploy those solutions to ensure your organization will be on the quickest path to achieving full value.

To learn more about Spark, Arraya or any of our solutions and services, please reach out to us at: http://www.arrayasolutions.com/contact-us/. We can also be contacted directly through our Twitter account, @ArrayaSolutions. While you’re there, be sure to follow us so you can stay up to date on all of our latest company news, events and special offers.

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The storage needs of today’s businesses are always evolving. An organization which starts out requiring some flash storage or a hybrid solution may eventually find itself processing moreabstract speed blur effect workloads which require faster and faster speeds. That can lead an organization to consider investing more heavily in flash just to keep pace.

Flash storage is nearly a must when it comes to workloads which require blazing fast speeds (e.g., databases). However, there are cases when some flash power is enough to get by and other times when flash may not be needed at all. The challenge of finding a way to address those varied needs in the most efficient and cost-effective ways possible lands on IT’s plate.

The changing storage needs of organizations are reflected in the findings of DataCore’s 5th annual State of Software-Defined Storage Survey. This survey looked closely at the state of storage today by asking IT pros: “What storage capacity do you currently have assigned to flash?”

  • 53% said less than 10% of storage capacity is assigned to flash
  • 18% said 10-20%
  • 15% said 20-30%
  • 7% said 30-40%
  • 9% said more than 40%

In last year’s study, 63% of respondents had less than 10% of their storage capacity tied to flash storage, or a 10% swing from what was tallied in this year’s version. This illustrates a gradual trend, but a trend nonetheless, toward an increased reliance on flash.

All the flash power you need

At Arraya we recognized the need to bring powerful, scalable flash storage solutions to our customers’ data centers. To make that a reality, we partnered with Nimble Storage. We believe strongly in the positive impact Nimble’s solutions can have on transforming data centers into the highly efficient, scalable and resilient foundations that today’s IT is built on.

In particular, we see Nimble’s Adaptive Flash as capable of meeting the varied storage needs of today’s businesses. It enhances performance, capacity and data security from a single architecture. In addition, it can safeguard and boost IT’s capabilities without significantly adding to the complexity of managing the existing environment.

Adaptive Flash also:

  • gives IT pros the ability to toggle between multiple storage service levels (such as All Flash, Hybrid Flash and No Flash) to ensure resources are being used where they’re needed most
  • supports seamless, minimally-disruptive growth by making it possible to scale compute, cache and other functions independently of one and other
  • enables push-button deployment that is designed to get resources out more quickly, making your IT team even more productive
  • secures your data by combining integrated snapshots, regular backups, powerful encryption and more

Under the hood, Adaptive Flash runs off Nimble’s Cache Accelerated Sequential Layout (CASL) architecture and InfoSight. CASL enables flexible and adaptable yet powerful flash technology in a small footprint – all of which are signatures of Adaptive Flash. The other part of the equation is InfoSight. This technology automates and streamlines administrative tasks while also alerting IT to problems and suggesting solutions in real time. This makes it easier for IT to keep storage environments in top shape.

What to do next

The knowledgeable and experienced members of Arraya’s team can help craft a storage solution that is perfect for your company’s distinct set of needs, ensuring maximum ROI. To find out more about how Arraya can help, visit us at www.ArrayaSolutions.com. There you can view our data center strategy in depth or get in contact with an Arraya Account Executive. This can put you on your way to a more secure, available IT environment.

Also, be sure to follow us on Twitter, @ArrayaSolutions, to keep up with all of the latest company news, special offers and industry insights.

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Representatives from across the manufacturing vertical gathered at the Sheraton Valley Forge in King of Prussia on Wednesday, 12/2, for the Delaware Valley Manufacturing Internet of Things (IoT) Summit. ryan presenting iotThis event, which was a joint venture of Arraya Solutions, Cisco and MapR, was designed to showcase some of the latest technologies allowing manufacturers to better serve their customers and in the process gain a competitive edge over competitors.

Ryan Benner, Arraya’s Director of Enterprise Infrastructure, kicked off the half-day summit with some brief opening remarks before segueing into a presentation on the crossover between the digital world and manufacturing. In his presentation, Benner covered what it means to be a digital manufacturer, the upshots of making this transition and how companies can go from offline, to the Connected Factory, through the Connected Enterprise and all throughout the supply chain – and how Arraya can help.

“Manufacturers are now technology companies that also happen to manufacture a product,” said Benner. “It’s something you need to embrace. You need to embrace the idea that technology is the engine that’s going to drive your company.”

Benner also laid out the current state of the digital transformation of the manufacturing industry and where insiders expect to be in 2020. Benner presented statistics from Cisco which showed that as of now, nearly 20% of manufacturers felt they fell into the “offline” category. By 2020, that number is expected to drop to about 5%. Meanwhile, at the other end of the spectrum, less than 15% of organizations feel they’ve currently extended connectivity through their supply chain. By 2020, that number is expected to skyrocket up to closer to half.

Following Benner’s presentation, Doug Guth, a Solutions Architect for Arraya, took to the stage to discuss Connected Factory technology. His presentation served as an introduction to both Connected Factory tech as well as the way in which it could benefit an organization. He highlighted connected plant Ethernet and wireless technology and what it would take to become a truly connected factory. On top of the value this technology can bring to manufacturers, Guth’s other main take-home message was the need for a strong partnership between the manufacturing side and the IT side. Without this bond, manufacturers will struggle to meet their IoT and connectivity goals.

Of course, no discussion of IoT would be complete without some time spent on addressing the security concerns raised by increased connectivity. This particular focus area was covered in a presentation by Dan Madey, a Consulting Systems Engineer for Cisco. Madey described the threat landscape currently facing those in industrial networking, as well as the security provided by migrating to Cisco IoT and security tech such as ISE and SourceFire. His presentation also touched on what needs to be done in order to design an effective industrial security strategy. One of Madey’s overarching themes was the need for hardened security which didn’t slow down operations.

The day’s presentations concluded with a discussion lead by Steve Murray and Chris Matta of the MapR team on how manufacturers can leverage Hadoop to drive business value. They opened by introducing Hadoop to attendees and the way in which it enables companies to not only store big data, but to bounce questions off that data to provide greater analytical capabilities. Murray and Matta demonstrated the power of Hadoop by way of multiple real world use cases covering companies from various segments of the manufacturing industry.

As Ryan Benner pointed out during his opening remarks: “This technology isn’t just about fixing problems in the plant. It’s capable of fixing issues across the entire enterprise and the supply chain.” The power of the insight provided by this connectivity was echoed throughout the day’s sessions.

Weren’t able to attend? Here’s help

Overall, attendees saw great value in the Delaware Valley Manufacturing IoT Summit. In fact, over 92% of attendees described themselves as being “very satisfied” by the event. In addition, no one scored the overall quality of the presentations with a mark lower than “satisfied.”

Did you miss out on the IoT Summit but would like to learn more? For starters, click here to check out more on where Arraya stands with IoT and what we can help you achieve. Also, if you’d like a copy of any of the presentations featured at our IoT Summit, reach out to us at www.arrayasolutions.com/contact-us/. We can also be contacted directly through our Twitter account, @ArrayaSolutions. There you’ll also find special offers, industry insights and all of our latest blogs, covering topics such as IoT, security, mobility and more.

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Moving to a hybrid cloud model is becoming an increasingly popular point of discussion for organizations across all industries. Once that model is up and running, it isn’t always clear what needs pointing-graph-on-computer-pad_fyJC_9BOto be done to fully optimize it. This leaves organizations at risk of shortchanging themselves in terms of the benefits they should be experiencing from their environment.

Operations Management Suite (OMS) from Microsoft can ensure this doesn’t happen. OMS helps organizations explore new hybrid cloud capabilities and gain more control over their environment while also increasing security around it.

OMS consists of four Microsoft solutions: Operational Insights, Azure Backup, Azure Recovery and Azure Automation. These solutions can either be purchased together, as part of the OMS, or separately with their own pricing structure. Existing System Center users may be especially interested in the full suite.

Why?

Microsoft has elected to give System Center customers the option to bolt OMS onto their existing System Center deployment for a substantial discount. Customers can purchase discounted OMS licenses for every System Center data center license they have. So if you’ve got four System Center data center licenses, you can buy four OMS licenses as well.

Here’s what OMS can do for you

One element of OMS that most often catches the eye of customers is Operational Insights. This is because it is, in essence, a log analytics solution which is on par with some of the more expensive offerings out there. The big difference between Operational Insights and others in the log analytics sphere is that it’s cloud based. Whereas other solutions require servers on which to store logs and data, with Operational Insights, the logs go right to the cloud.

Operational Insights gives you dashboards depicting the status of your environment. For example, it will show you whether your Active Directory is in a healthy state just by analyzing the Active Directory logs. Then it can make recommendations based on what it finds in the logs. The important thing to remember is that while it is powerful, Operational Insights isn’t a replacement for regular health assessments of, say, your Active Directory. Instead, it’s the kind of thing that will keep you in good shape between health assessments.

The upsides of OMS go beyond Operational Insights. Let’s take a look at what else it can offer:

  • Improved time to value. IT needs a solution that will get up and running quickly, not one that’s going to heap even more work on its plate before delivering any true business value. OMS fits happily into that first category. It’s possible to roll out in seconds and to start collecting meaningful, actionable insights and data in just hours. Also, a wizard-driven experience allows new features or servers to be effortlessly added.
  • Increased ease of management. OMS increases the efficiency of IT teams by giving them a single, unified view of your entire corporate IT infrastructure. Gone are the days when multiple tools and interfaces were required to stay on top of varied assets. OMS covers all workloads, regardless of whether they’re stored on site or in the cloud. Even better, the solution will stay up-to-date on its own, furthering simplifying the process of managing it.
  • Lessened threat of downtime, lost data. With OMS, Azure becomes your disaster recovery site. It houses apps and sensitive data securely in the cloud instead of on legacy storage solutions. Should something need to be recovered, it can be pulled down directly from Azure. In addition, Azure can be used to test out production apps before they go live and, in the event of a compute capacity crunch, workloads can be migrated onto Azure to free up bandwidth elsewhere.
  • Enhanced System Center. OMS works great with or without System Center. But, if you already have System Center running, you will notice even more value. Not only does OMS integrate seamlessly with System Center, it provides access to new capabilities and tools all geared towards a more robust management experience.

What comes next?

Ready to bring OMS to your organization? Have more questions? Reach out to us at www.arrayasolutions.com/contact-us. You’ll be put in touch with one of our Account Executives as well as a member of our award-winning Microsoft practice. They can answer whatever questions you may have and get you on the road to elevating your IT team and your organization.

If you prefer, we can also be reached on Twitter, @ArrayaSolutions. While you’re there, be sure to Follow us so you can stay in the loop with all of our latest company news, blogs and special offers.

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There are few things which can test the mettle of an IT leader quite like a merger or acquisition. Uniting two, usually radically different, IT environments under the same corporate banner requiresbyod_corporate_mobility a tremendous commitment of time and resources to complete. That’s not even taking into consideration the fact that stiff government and industry regulations can heap even more stress on to these already-highly stressful situations.

If you haven’t been called on to lead one, you’re in luck. Keep in mind that the frequency of M&A events has been trending upwards recently. According to research by the firm Intralinks:

  • Early-stage M&A activity rose by 5.6% in Q3 2015
  • The total number of M&A events is predicted to be roughly 8% higher in 2015 than in 2014.
  • A fast start is expected for 2016 in terms of the total number of deals in Q1 2016, which is projected to be 7% higher than in Q1 2015

Essential M&A process steps 

Arraya has a proven track record in M&A engagements. We’ve helped multiple organizations execute these complex projects from the discovery and planning phase, through migration, and ultimately sun-setting legacy environments. Our team has accumulated a wealth of skills in each facet of the process, including with two absolutely mission-critical Microsoft technologies:

  • Active Directory Domain Services migrations —There are many reasons to integrate an acquired Active Directory with your own. In short, consolidation of Active Directory identities, workstations and servers from multiple companies or business units means enhanced productivity for end users and easier management for IT staff, resulting in lower costs.
  • Exchange migrations — It doesn’t matter if the organizations involved have a non-Microsoft Exchange environment, Exchange servers deployed on-premises or have migrated to Office 365, a cross-organization mail migration can be a complex process, but it is well worth it. This is the foundation upon which organizational communication is built – and something which may pave the way for other M&A activities to transpire.

Award-winning M&A leadership

A partner like Arraya can help you make it through an M&A situation quickly, efficiently and with as little stress as possible. Our 2015 Marcum Innovator of the Year Award-winning M&A in a Box solution is the key. This solution distills complex M&A events into a flexible and scalable methodology that may be utilized across industries, by organizations of all shapes and sizes.

Some of the highlights of our unique approach to M&A include:

  • Project Management — While all of our engagements include a Project Manager to ensure project success, for M&A activities, this role is even more critical. Our Project Management staff will work with your IT group and key decision makers to keep communication flowing, ensure milestones are met and keep the project on schedule. Our dashboard feature makes reporting the status of projects to upper management simple, giving your business the insight into the project it needs.
  • Holistic Method — Microsoft-focused M&A activities never exist in a vacuum and often can impact a variety of workstations, servers, users, mailboxes and line of business applications. Through our M&A experience, we have learned what questions to ask and have built repeatable-yet-customizable processes. These two elements come together to give us valuable insight into the IT infrastructures of clients.
  • Backed By Diversity — Arraya covers many areas of expertise, including virtualization, networking, storage and service management. Your unique M&A project might just require some additional help beyond our Microsoft team and each Arraya practice stands ready to assist!

If you’d like to learn more about M&A in a Box, our capabilities with unifying complex Microsoft environments and more, please visit us at www.arrayasolutions.com/contact-us/. We can also be found on Twitter, @ArrayaSolutions. Be sure to follow us so you won’t miss out on our latest blog updates, company news and events, and special offers.

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It takes a village to support IT as it helps drive organizational success – a village of applications. IT relies on apps to support daily operations, reduce management overhead and improve quality ofapps-keys-shows-web-application-or-applications_GJsHIVv_ service for end-users. The right tools can strengthen IT’s ability to deliver services reliably and efficiently.  Not all tools are created equal, however.  Sometimes, applications designed to make life easier can have the opposite effect.

Consider monitoring tools and apps. They’re tasked with giving IT pros the insight they need to maintain the availability and performance of mission-critical services. So, in the event that a server goes down, IT will know about it right away and can take action before any long term damage is done.

That’s the bright side. On the other hand, monitoring apps can generate a tremendous amount of white noise. Alerts may need to be manually validated to weed out duplicates, false alarms, etc. Then they must be prioritized to ensure the most pressing issues are getting immediate attention. IT employees already don’t have much wiggle room in their daily schedules and adding in these new responsibilities only exacerbates that point.

The solution? IT Operations Management (ITOM) from ServiceNow. ITOM builds on standard ServiceNow deployments, creating a service-focused, agile and highly-available environment. There are two ITOM offerings that, when paired together, excel at helping IT consolidate app management and improve operational efficiency. Those solutions are Event Management and Orchestration. Let’s take a closer look at each one and the roles they play.

Event Management

Most organizations rely on apps from multiple vendors. These apps don’t always play well together. This can cause information to become segregated, making it harder for IT team members to solve problems and mitigate future issues.

Here’s how it helps: Event Management consolidates all of an organization’s disparate, third party monitoring tools into a single pane of glass. It can be configured to filter alerts to allow only qualified alerts to reach the IT desk. These are then displayed on a consolidated dashboard, which puts all of the monitoring info, regardless of source, in one spot. The dashboard can increase IT’s understanding of the total impact of events by mapping the connection to business services.

This solution also:

  • Automatically creates alerts and incidents to reduce time-consuming manual tasks and speed up time-to-resolution
  • Prioritizes issues so that those with the highest impact on the business will get moved to the top of IT’s to do list
  • Makes it a breeze to link existing monitoring apps to ServiceNow via a high throughput Rest API

Orchestration

Once the number of alerts has been reduced (thanks to Event Management), the next problem is ensuring the processes used to address the alerts are as efficient as possible. One way to do this? Automating response and remediation to some of the more common issues.

Here’s how it helps: Orchestration brings consistency to IT service delivery by automating the activities IT does regularly, standardizing offerings and consolidating tool sets. Imagine what IT could do with the time saved by taking tasks such as employee on-boarding and user administration off its plate? Perhaps best of all: Orchestration introduces self-service password resets into the mix, allowing users to solve their own password problems, jettisoning one of IT’s least favorite and most common duties.

This solution also:

  • Provides fast time-to-value with a library of already-created orchestration activities and ready-to-use apps
  • Grows with the enterprise due to its scalable structure
  • Ensures audit compliance with an event record which tracks Orchestration activities to create a history that can be followed during an audit

Experience the power of ITOM live

Now’s the perfect time to learn more about what these and other ITOM solutions from ServiceNow can do for your organization.

If you want to get the conversation started, we can always be reached at www.arrayasolutions.com/contact-us/ or through Twitter by sending your questions, comments and ideas to @ArrayaSolutions.

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How much is unplanned downtime on your production floor going to cost your company? Obviously there are plenty of different factors impacting that figure. One estimate cited by the folks at man in manufacturing facilityCisco said the price tag could come to $20,000 per minute. No matter the dollar figure, the consensus will likely be that any losses caused by unplanned downtime are not ideal.

The failure of production machines is right near the top of the list of usual suspects responsible for unplanned downtime. The thing that should be driving manufacturers mad is that often these events are 100% avoidable. All manufacturers need to make that a reality is access to the right kind of data. If manufacturers can view real time updates on asset health, efficiency, etc., they’ll be able to proactively spot and service a machine headed for trouble. Instead of suffering through an unexpected outage, manufacturers and their teams can plan for the optimal time to issue fixes, allowing the necessary adjustments to be made to ensure productivity levels remain as unaffected as possible.

Embracing Internet of Things (IoT) technology can make that happen.

What IoT can do for you

Manufacturers are looking to bring Internet-style connectivity to previously unconnected devices on their shop floor to provide them the data they need to stay out in front of issues. Businesses who’ve done so have experienced powerful, tangible business benefits. Let’s start with downtime. Companies who’ve embraced connected manufacturing or IoT concepts have reduced their unplanned downtime totals by as much as 48% according to Cisco. At the proposed clip of $20,000 a minute, you can bet companies would be thrilled to achieve a near 50% reduction.

The business impact of IoT isn’t limited to downtime. There’s a laundry list of benefits for modern manufacturers to reap, such as:

  • a 49% reduction of their defect rate
  • improving overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) by 16%
  • a 23% reduction in the new product introduction cycle
  • increasing inventory turns by 35%
  • slashing annual energy costs by 18%

Interest in IoT growing among manufacturers

With numbers like that, it’s clear the economic impact of IoT is substantial, and many manufacturers are starting to take notice. Increasing connectivity is finding its way near the top of the priorities lists of many in the field. In fact, just over six-in-ten (62%) of manufacturers have said they plan to connect their production equipment by 2020.

It’s possible to not only link the machine floor internally, the equipment that makes it up can also be linked back to its makers. This brings a whole new set of eyes with a totally different perspective on that technology into the mix. Connecting the shop floor back to the original equipment manufacturer provides a company with another info source, one which can further improve the lifespan and performance of their technologies.

Interest in IoT doesn’t stop with the machines themselves. Manufacturers also hope to introduce connectivity into a host of other areas by 2020. These include:

  • 61% who are hoping to connect employees’ disparate mobile devices by 2020
  • 59% who are planning to connect meters (energy, water, etc.) by 2020
  • 56% who are targeting worker’s ID badges as a priority to connect by 2020
  • 53% who want connectivity to become a part of their company’s finished goods by 2020

Here’s how to learn more

Now’s the time to begin the process of transforming your company into a truly connected factory with the help of solutions from Cisco. As an industry leader in the IoT and manufacturing spaces, Cisco has a robust technology portfolio tailored to help organizations in the vertical achieve their digital makeover goals. These tools can build a comprehensive and secure IoT infrastructure and forge connections between machines, devices and apps from the supply chain through the plant and then out the door.

Realizing these benefits calls for having a partner like Arraya Solutions in your corner. Arraya is a Cisco Premier Partner, with a deep talent pool covering the entire Cisco technology stack including multiple CCIE certifications. In addition to the knowledge the members of our Cisco Practice bring to the table, they will also work closely with your organization to customize our solutions based on your needs.

If you’d like to learn more about IoT, its impact on manufacturing and what’s next, join Arraya and Cisco on Wednesday Dec. 2 at the Sheraton in King of Prussia, PA for The Delaware Valley Manufacturing IoT Summit (register here). It will feature presentations led by Cisco and Arraya geared towards the trials and opportunities manufacturers encounter with IoT technology.

Have a question? Reach out to us at www.arrayasolutions.com/contact-us/. We can also be contacted through our Twitter account, @ArrayaSolutions. There you’ll also find our latest company news, our takes on industry hot-buttons and links to special offers.