How IoT, Cloud Create Actionable Insights for Microsoft Customers

We look at six Microsoft customers and how connecting devices and assets they already had with IoT and the cloud unlock new actionable insights from their data.

Rockwell Automation, which specializes in industrial automation and information technologies, added powerful Azure IoT Suite services to its industry-leading solutions. By automating the collection and analysis of data from remote installations across the petroleum supply chain, including those miles underwater on the sea floor, Rockwell equips its customers with insights at every point of the oil and gas industry’s supply chain, helping to predict problems before they happen. Using Cortana Analytics Suite, Rockwell is uncovering insights buried in data that can offer a competitive edge.

ThyssenKrupp Elevator, a manufacturer and service provider to more than 1.1 million customers in some of the world’s most iconic buildings, is connecting its elevators with Microsoft Azure IoT technology to draw on the potential of data analysis and machine learning. Gathering and analyzing data from thousands of sensors and systems in its elevators enables ThyssenKrupp to offer something its competitors do not: predictive and even pre-emptive maintenance. The results are increased reliability and uptime of elevators, reduced costs for ThyssenKrupp and its customers, predictive behavior modeling and demand forecasting to reduce passenger wait times for elevators (which includes real-time performance reviews sent to dashboards on remote PCs and mobile devices).

KUKA, designer of the first industrial robot and today a ‘leading supplier of industrial robotics, sought to improve production of one of the world’s most iconic vehicles: the Jeep Wrangler. The challenge was to create an automated manufacturing process that could produce eight different automotive bodies on the same line without interrupting production. Using the Azure IoT suite, KUKA connected more than 60,000 device points, including more than 259 assembly-line robots, to create a world-class factory in the fast lane, producing more than 830 car bodies daily. Control tasks and diagnostic processes can be performed on the robots from the control panel’s familiar interface, improving efficiency and reducing training time, ultimately resulting in a car body being produced every 77 seconds, 24 hours a day for more than 8 years running.

Ever-present health care monitoring with a personal touch is what Dartmouth-Hitchcock, the teaching hospital in Hanover, N.H., sought to build—a system to proactively keep people healthy, rather than just respond when they were not. Using technology available in the Microsoft Cortana Analytics Suite such as Azure machine learning, intelligence and analytics, the team created a cloud-based system that enables nurses and health coaches to respond to an individual’s health status in real time. Data from sensors and devices such as blood-pressure cuffs, pulse oximeter devices and activity trackers like Microsoft Band are transmitted to the Azure cloud. The data are then pulled into a Cortana Analytics Suite dashboard at a contact center staffed 24/7 by registered nurses who have a singular view of each person’s personalized care plan.

Gojo, the maker of Purell hand sanitizer, applied Azure IoT technologies and big data analytics to uncover how hand sanitization in hospitals could be improved and whether sensor technology could help. A 2011 study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention counted more than 720,000 cases of hospital-acquired infections—highly preventable infections—ranging from pneumonia to bloodstream illnesses. Infections of this sort result in an estimated 75,000 patient deaths annually. Using IoT motion sensors and automated hand sanitizer dispensers, in conjunction with Microsoft Azure analytics, dashboard and business intelligence services, GoJo created a system that tracks hand sanitization compliance.

What if you could better anticipate your business needs, and your customers’ desires, and then meet them both proactively? Retailer Pier 1 Imports wanted to do just that and better connect with its customers, both in stores and online, using insights and data. To do so, the company took to the cloud and Microsoft Azure Machine Learning, piloting a predictive analytics solution to more accurately forecast which products customers would want in the future, create a dynamic Website using predictive modeling, and create more efficient, effective marketing campaigns.