IoT Bootcamp & Hackathon

IoT can only function when the right set of skills come together to collaborate. Business and technology stakeholders have to apply an integrated ecosystem thinking to leverage the full potential. To deliver “as One” we have facilitated a practical training concept aligning our IoT capabilities.

From Dorothea Langer, Jan-Hendrik Adolphs and Tobias Hess

The IoT Bootcamp aimed at combining our learnings from conducted IoT client projects with market trends to strengthen the basis on which we deliver: A joint understanding of business and technology topics and implications of IoT. The first volume of the IoT Bootcamp took place in Hamburg in early April 2018.

To underline the cross-functional working mode of the IoT Capability at Deloitte Germany, the participants consisted of a diverse group from different service lines and countries, bringing a variety of business and technical skills to the discussion. Quickly we dove into the IoT world by giving everybody a brief technology and business baseline (e.g. native IoT business patterns, IoT reference architecture, IoT project setup). With this foundation, we split the group into a Business and Technology deep dive tracks.

Bootcamp group discussing how technology and business can work better together delivering integrated IoT solutions with a fast time-to-market working mode.

The Business deep dive followed a maturity-based storyline. In the first half, we highlighted efficient approaches on identifying and prototyping potential use cases aligned with the strategy and capabilities of a client’s organization. In what we call an “IoT Lab”, clients can gain first ground on their IoT strategy in terms of an IoT initiative roadmap. The second half focused on implementing and scaling the IoT initiatives with a defined IoT roadmap delivering mature IoT solutions while shaping and transforming the organization accordingly. New operating models – including agile working principles and a strong interdisciplinary ecosystem thinking – are the key success factors to a successful IoT implementation and adoption throughout the organization.

Our practical case studies followed the same structure. While the business group developed a model for an IoT Lab and a target operating model for a future IoT Center of Excellence, our Technology deep dive group got their hands really dirty.

Within only half a day, they delivered a fully functional predictive maintenance prototype based on particle.io components and the IBM Bluemix platform. By installing sensors on the small devices and connecting those to a central platform, data collectors and triggers can easily be configured to enable predictions on potential machine failures. We chose IBM Bluemix due to its versatile features, especially concerning data collection, analysis and visualization with the included IBM Watson IoT Platform. A great benefit when setting up the solution were definitely the broad skills and experiences of the participants. Thumbs up for all participants on the great results!

Setting up the prototype parts to transfer and analyze temperature in real-time and trigger an alarm if a certain value or pattern is recognized.

As a next step, we are currently planning the next iteration together with the Swiss Deloitte member firm. Others will follow to work towards an EMEA wide concept. By doing so, we ensure that local IoT initiatives supported by Deloitte can gain even more from an integrated and aligned understanding and approach of IoT.

We are proud to work in such an innovative company that encourages the spread of new technologies and their respective application fields as well as the anchoring of these within our colleagues!