Savi Technology products were first deployed in Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm and are currently used by the United States and allied military forces.

he 26-year old company, which provides sensor-based analytics, software and hardware for managing and securing supply chain assets, is betting big on the Internet of Things (IoT) and says solution providers should be doing the same.

As sensor technology and IoT grows, solution providers need to enhance their capabilities to collect data and analytics.

In a Q&A with itbestofbreed.com, Andy Sounders, vice president of products and strategy at Savi, sheds some light on how VARs can take advantage and prepare for the IoT data tsunami where massive opportunity exists.

How do sensors play a critical role in how VARs/solution providers leverage data and analytics?

VARs and solution providers must get acquainted with the latest advancements in sensor technologies. The lack of any real standards in the sensor space can create confusion as to how to deal with different types of sensors for various use cases. Plus, they will need to get very accustomed to each of the “three V’s” of big data. Sensor data has high Volume, high Velocity and is highly Varied.
Further, when discussing analytics, it is important that VARs understand the different “flavors” of analytics and specifically how they can apply to the sensor-enabled supply chain.

How do sensors play a critical role in driving data in IoT?

Sensors are the front-line “data producers” that power the IoT and enable intelligent supply chains. Without this foundational element, we’d be unable to collect location, state and context, which combine to create “actionable data,” or data which enables companies to make smarter decisions.
Today, we are at a point where the costs of the technologies necessary to “sensor-enable” an asset and handle the volume, variety and velocity of the data that is produced are reasonable enough to further support the investment.  Sensor costs are roughly half of what they were 10 years ago, but perhaps more important, the cost of the network bandwidth to carry this data and the cost of processing of this data have fallen 50 to 60 percent. All of this leads to the “revolution” we are seeing in supply chain visibility and analytics with sensors at the core.
 

Next: Making Money