ZEBRA ACCELERATES YOUR PATH TO THE
INTERNET OF THINGS:
Create a Visible Value Chain across your
critical business operations
Executive Summary
Enterprises are looking at the advent of Big Data as
a vast mine to gain deeper, more actionable insight
into their operations and processes, and do more
with less. The richness of Big Data is more than just
the volume of data, but also the velocity and value
of the data. Before organizations can place this data
into actionable form, it must be universally accessible
throughout the value chain.
The Internet of Things (IoT) contributes to the stream
of data that organizations will store and mine by en-
abling interconnectivity of Internet-aware devices. This
ecosystem of connectivity helps provide enterprises
with deep visibility into their organizations’ operational
events, accessible through the Cloud, anytime, any-
where and in-between. While IoT is gaining momen-
tum, Executive-level decision makers must prepare
to address the technology and service implications of
deploying IoT solutions.
In doing so, enterprises face several obstacles. First,
IT complexity is often a barrier to success and requires
a method to connect sensors and actuators to the
Cloud in a standard, uniform way. Device manage-
ment is often cumbersome and often the task requires
proprietary tools. Last, connecting legacy devices—
the backbone of most organizations—presents unique
challenges.
In this paper, Zebra shows how to accelerate the
path to IoT through the Visible Value Chain (VVC). It
enables organizations to gain real-time visibility into
their operations allowing them to be more nimble,
agile, and make better-informed business decisions.
Once organizations have seamlessly enabled device
connection to the data center, they can see events
occurring throughout their value chain in real time—
and act upon them. Doing so creates new value and
intelligence from both legacy and new devices, while
mining the vast riches of Big Data.
A Zebra Technologies White Paper
When it comes to proactive decision making, having
access to accurate business intelligence in near real
time is vital. Meeting this goal requires connectivity
and visibility of smart devices—the Internet of Things
(IoT). With the focus on better and more actionable
business analytics, interest in IoT solutions is rap-
idly gaining momentum, especially when they are
Cloud-ready and accessible across the enterprise and
beyond.
Businesses for the past 15 years have been adopt-
ing a wide range of smart device technologies to
improve visibility into processes and operations. The
vast majority of these devices include barcodes, Radio
Frequency Identification (RFID), Global Positioning Sys-
tem (GPS), and environmental sensors. More recently,
Real-Time Locating Systems (RTLS) have also joined
the IoT mix for monitoring and communicating the
status and movement of physical assets to mitigate
business problems.
Deep Visibility and Analytics
IoT-enabled devices are becoming a key method for
providing “right now” visibility into supply chains,
distribution centers, land and seaports, and for helping
to secure facilities, indoor and outdoor. These devices
are also prevalent in very tight process-driven tasks
where instantaneous feedback and control are essen-
tial, including the energy sector. Businesses can use
this deep visibility to eliminate inefficiencies in indus-
tries such as manufacturing, healthcare, transporta-
tion, energy, and retail.
IoT can help identify, locate, or measure the condi-
tion of assets, people, or transactions within a facility.
For example, RFID and RTLS tags allow organizations
to quickly track and locate high value items such as
tools, large assemblies, and vehicles. Businesses can
use this data to optimize processes, reduce shrinkage,
and provide better security and safety throughout the
workplace. Deep visibility into mission critical opera-
INTRODUCTION
CREATE A VISIBLE VALUE CHAIN ACROSS YOUR CRITICAL BUSINESS OPERATIONS
ZEBRA ACCELERATES YOUR PATH
TO THE INTERNET OF THINGS
1
tions provides the measureable metrics enabling the
enterprise to make better-informed decisions and
inspire innovation.
For an IoT initiative to be successful, accurate, current
business data and supply chain events must be visible
both internally and through the Cloud. Visibility across
operations, supply chains, and business partners en-
ables streamlined processes and operations that can
help drive better customer service and loyalty. Tighter
processes can mean faster inventory turns, reducing
the need for on-hand inventory. Eliminating waste and
improving asset tracking can boost product quality
while reducing OPEX and CAPEX.
A Zebra Technologies White Paper
Multiple Industries, Unique Challenges
Manufacturing
In the manufacturing industry, supply chains span
geographical regions and depend on a web of suppli-
ers, distributors, and planners. Each link in the supply
chain can create inefficiencies and cost challenges that
ripple throughout the logistics, warehousing and manu-
facturing process. Making operations more efficient,
especially when related to energy and labor costs, not
only requires visibility into individual processes, but also
interconnectivity and visibility across the entire busi-
ness ecosystem.
Manufacturers have materials arriving at multiple
sites from suppliers around the world. Likewise, their
finished goods ship to retailers and consumers globally.
This creates additional logistical visibility requirements
that must be met to avoid additional costs, long lead
times, and poor customer service. Achieving the visibil-
ity goal calls for solutions that reduce IT complexities,
connects legacy devices, and that are truly mission-
critical ready.
Retail
The retail industry faces logistical difficulties similar to
the manufacturing industry, and is even more cost-con-
strained. Maintaining the right level of inventory while
tracking and tracing every product requires real-time
visibility into both the supply chain and inventories. For
large retail chains, the challenge is even greater. Maxi-
mizing inventory turns, improving employee efficiency
and sales strategies while enhancing the customer
experience requires system collaboration and scalability
that can span across geographical regions.
What’s more, retailers are seeking better ways to
bridge their online presence with traditional bricks-and-
mortar stores through cross-channel selling. Having
the ability to collect information, at every point when-
ever data changes status—from the manufacturer,
through the distributor, to the sales floor—is significant.
Coupling this data with sales and marketing metrics
collected from point-of-sale (POS) devices and smart-
phones can pay big dividends in driving customer
loyalty programs. When properly implemented, retail-
ers can link their smart devices together with their data
center and capitalize on each facet of Big Data.
Healthcare
Heavily regulated and moving to further digitization, the
healthcare industry faces major hurdles in the drive to
improve patient safety, enhance worker efficiency, and
rein in costs. Electronic Health Records (EHRs) adop-
tion paves the way for maintaining detailed, accurate,
and life-long individual patient records. In addition,
medical facilities leverage RFID tags to achieve 100
percent asset visibility, which helps reduce theft, opti-
mize response times, and improve asset utilization by
medical staff.
Healthcare staff increasingly use the data generated
from barcodes on patient wristbands, medications,
laboratory orders/results and other diagnostic tests in
various hospital departments to positively verify patient
identity. Ensuring the right medication dose to the right
patient at the right time requires verifiable visibility and
precise accuracy. With the right IoT solution, healthcare
professionals can integrate with EHR systems, minimiz-
ing medication and laboratory errors, while maximizing
patient safety and improving the quality of care.
A recent survey reported that 85 percent of respon-
dents agreed that smart interconnected devices
provide the necessary visibility to drive more effective,
timely business decisions and improve customer inter-
actions.1 The Big Data information collected from IoT
solutions can enable more informed decision-making,
improve operational processes through real-time analyt-
ics, and keep IT costs in check.
ACHIEVING DEEP VISIBILITY IS PRIORITY NUMBER ONE
2
1 Forrester Research, Inc., “Building Value from Visibility,” October 2012.
A Zebra Technologies White Paper
With 53 percent of surveyed enterprises planning to
implement IoT solutions within the next 24 months,
it is clear IoT momentum is reaching critical mass.
However, a successful IoT deployment must ad-
dress several challenges to return the most value
from Big Data.
Complexity
An IoT deployment is similar to any other complex
set of technology—but with potentially more moving
parts. Planning, integrating, and testing the ecosys-
tem and ensuring it is mission-critical ready is no
easy task. Specifying and connecting sensors and
actuators to the Cloud in a standard, uniform way
is difficult because device manufacturers often use
protocols and firmware optimized for that particular
device. This complexity is often a barrier to success,
and adds risk and costs.
Connectivity and Legacy Devices
Forrester Research points out that there is no unified
interconnection standard to enable seamless integra-
tion across IoT devices, applications, and services in
all vertical markets.2 While a growing range of so-
phisticated sensors and actuators are now capable of
connecting to Wi-Fi®, ZigBee®, Bluetooth®, and other
networks by design, the vast majority of devices in
the field are capable of only very basic LAN connec-
tivity. And very few of these devices are truly Internet-
aware. These at-the-edge legacy devices include
hard-wired sensors, PLCs using their own commu-
nication protocols, and often form the backbone of
large-scale operations in heavy industries, energy
production and distribution, and transportation and
logistics. Integrating legacy devices to an IoT ecosys-
tem and the Cloud requires intermediate-edge boxes,
which upgrade the capabilities of legacy devices with-
out replacing them.
Device Management
The growing availability of devices at-the-edge cre-
ates a need to manage many different types of infor-
mation sources, with different formats, frequency of
updates, quality, and reliability. Device management
is often cumbersome and complex, performing ser-
vice and maintenance tasks online requires propri-
etary tools. Currently, applications can only consume
specific data feeds from the field and support only
specific process needs. The result falls far short of
providing end-to-end visibility. There is a clear need to
add a layer of middleware that simplifies and stream-
lines all this information, creates a “single pane of
glass” interface for all IoT devices, and securely pro-
vides it to enterprise applications.
Teaming with the Right IoT Solution Partner
Most IT departments simply do not have the resourc-
es or expertise to enable a complete IoT solution that
scales and delivers top value. In addition, enterprises
are looking for pricing and business flexibility, with
proven CAPEX/OPEX models that are applicable to
their unique needs. Rather than risk failure, forward-
thinking enterprises are seeking IoT solution imple-
mentation assistance from device manufacturers.
C-level decision makers realize that firms specializing
in the design and creation of enabling technologies
such as barcodes, sensors, RFID tags, and GPS de-
vices are the optimal partners for IoT solution imple-
mentations. Research demonstrates that 66 percent
of surveyed organizations turn to device manufactur-
ers for help with implementing IoT solutions.3 Achiev-
ing the IoT vision requires a solution provider that
understands the complexities of diverse component
integration, and brings to the table proven domain
expertise from a wide range of vertical markets.
FIRST, ENTERPRISES MUST ADDRESS SEVERAL IOT CHALLENGES
3
2 Forrester Research, Inc., “Prepare I&O For The ‘Internet Of Things’,” April 11, 2013.
3 Forrester Research, Inc., “Building Value from Visibility,” October 2012.
A Zebra Technologies White Paper
When it comes to operations across all industries and
organizational sizes, systems that are mission criti-
cal and mission ready are what help you move your
enterprise forward. Meeting that objective calls for
an IoT ecosystem that serves your unique business
needs and works with all classes of wireless and
wired devices.
The IoT ecosystem must connect to the Cloud seam-
lessly, securely—anytime, anywhere and in-between.
It should support applications for all tasks, on all de-
vices, and reduce, not increase, complexity. It should
also drive innovation by allowing developers to con-
nect to the system and create their own applications,
in total freedom and independence.
Zebra Allows You to See More and Do More
Zebra’s 40-year history and resulting network of
trusted partners positions Zebra squarely in place to
help pave your path to IoT success. Zebra’s exten-
sive portfolio of asset-tracking, location, and printing
technologies, including barcode, passive and active
RFID, and RTLS—along with unmatched domain
expertise—turns the physical into the digital to give
operational events a virtual voice. This enables you to
know the real-time location, condition, timing and ac-
curacy of the events occurring throughout your value
chain. Once you can see the events, you have the
opportunity to create new value from what is already
there. We call it the Visible Value Chain.
Consider some of the benefits of IoT built upon the
Visible Value Chain foundation:
• Improve quality with prediction of failure feedback
and analysis
• Create a standards-based integration platform that
delivers faster time to market and value
• Develop pre-built integrations for business intelli-
gence and real-time analytics
• Optimize lifecycle management while lowering
operational costs
• Reduce product testing costs
• Accelerate the innovation cycle for new smart
devices, device-to-device (D2D) and Telematics
services
• Protect critical data and comply with regulatory
requirements
• Build a comprehensive security framework for writ-
ing applications, and a set of tools to securely man-
age applications including secure communication,
authentication, and access control
• Rapidly deploy applications, which enables orga-
nizations to reduce development and operational
costs across a wide range of device/OS combina-
tions and data centers
Uniquely poised to bring the connected world to
enterprise, Zebra Technologies translates this data
into functionality that reflects known business needs.
It also addresses critical concerns like enterprise-level
security and the adoption of the most up-to-date
standards applied by banks and government agen-
cies, or compliance mandates that uniquely impact
your organization.
A successful IoT deployment requires solid connectiv-
ity, simple scalability, and collaboration at every point.
To help you choose the right IoT-enabling solution,
Zebra has identified four essentials to consider:
• Connected Devices – IoT systems should support
both legacy and new smart devices. They should
work with diverse wireless and wired devices that
connect to the Cloud directly through WAN or
through LAN.
THE VISIBLE VALUE CHAIN CREATES INSIGHTS, INNOVATION,
AND NEW VALUE
4
• Internet Access Everywhere – The system should
deliver seamless support of multiple connectivity
options, such as wired and wireless, and increas-
ingly 4G plus LTE wide-area environments.
• Easy Remote Device Management – The system
should offer centralized and remote device manage-
ment through easy-to-use tools that allow provision-
ing, device setup, and maintenance tasks.
• Application Connectivity – The system should offer
consistent, open application programming inter-
faces (API’s) between a wide range of devices, while
affording easy scalability and connectivity to the
data center.
The IoT can help your organization breathe new value
into legacy devices. It illuminates operational events
involving assets, people, and transactions, enabling
the enterprise to realize the true promise of Big Data,
while providing visibility both internally and from the
Cloud.
Once organizations can see the events happening in
their value chain in real time, they can act upon them,
creating new value from what is already there. This
new business intelligence provides fresh insight to
inspire innovation throughout the organization, and
helps them find new ways to operate more efficiently,
more cost-effectively, and ultimately build stronger
customer loyalty.
A Zebra Technologies White Paper
Everyone wants to be connected, to live in a world
where systems work seamlessly together to save
time and where enterprises have an omniscient view
and can leverage the full potential of Big Data. When
decision makers have access to accurate business
intelligence in near real time, they can take proactive
action, optimize processes, and accelerate innova-
tion. The result is a more agile enterprise that can
boost efficiencies, improve quality and customer
loyalty, and drive revenue.
Enterprises are looking for a seamless, rapid, simple
way to create visibility throughout their value chain
without massive multi-year IT deployments. Organiza-
tional leaders are struggling to do more with less and
to be more productive. They crave not only smarter
ways to track and manage assets but also gain in-
sights from Big Data that can drive new, breakthrough
ideas.
IoT provides the critical linkage and visibility into
Big Data. However, businesses must first address
the technology and service implications of deploy-
ing IoT-enabled solutions from at-the-edge devices,
through the data center, to the Cloud. With a growing
range of devices available, there is an enormous need
to manage them in a simple and standardized way.
Once solved, businesses can leverage deep visibility
to eliminate inefficiencies across a wide range of
industries and processes.
A global leader respected for innovation and reliabil-
ity, Zebra offers technologies that illuminate orga-
nizations’ operational events involving their assets,
people and transactions, allowing them to see op-
portunities to create new value. We call it the Visible
Value Chain.
Zebra’s extensive portfolio of marking and printing
technologies, including barcode, RFID, GPS and
sensoring, turns the physical into the digital to give
operational events a virtual voice. This enables orga-
nizations to know in real-time the location, condition,
timing and accuracy of the events occurring through-
out their value chain. Once the events are seen, orga-
nizations can create new value from what is already
there. For more information about Zebra‘s solutions
visit www.zebra.com.
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
5
©2013 ZIH Corp. Zebra and the Zebra head graphic are registered trademarks of ZIH Corp. All rights reserved. Wi-Fi is a registered trademark of the Wireless
Ethernet Compatibility Alliance, Inc. ZigBee is a registered trademark of ZigBee Alliance, Inc. Bluetooth is a registered trademark of Bluetooth SIG, Inc.
All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
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Zebra Accelerates Your Path to the Internet of Things: Create a Visible Value Chain across your critical business operations
Having universally accessible data throughout a value chain is no easy feat for any organization. However, it’s key for Big Data. The Internet of Things (IoT) makes that visibility possible in real-time.