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I had the opportunity to participate in the Bosch IoT Strategy Summit held at the Chicago Connectory on October 12th.

Covering nearly 20,000 square feet in Chicago’s historic Merchandise Mart, the Chicago Connectory is a co-creation space and IoT incubator boasting cutting-edge technology and security, expert programming, and mentorship from leading experts in IoT. More than a co-working space, the Chicago Connectory offers partners a co-creation model that fosters collaboration, networking, problem solving, and a new way of doing work in the age of connectivity. The Chicago Connectory is a partnership between Bosch and 1871. Together, 1871 and Bosch are empowering an ecosystem to drive the future of IoT.

As a global leader in manufacturing, Bosch has a rich history of innovation. It began in 1886 as a startup in a backyard garage when Robert Bosch developed the first automotive spark coil. Over the following 130 years, the company has grown into a leader in industrial manufacturing, admired worldwide for its quality products ranging from automotive components and power tools, to home appliances and sophisticated sensor technology. Now, as the digital era transforms our world and billions of devices are linked to the Internet, Bosch is developing its strengths in manufacturing to bring new capabilities to a connected world. Connectory is a wordplay on connecting and factory, two central elements of Bosch’s vision for IoT. It is a space where connections happen — among devices, people, and ecosystems — as the world prepares for the future and digital transformation.

The Bosch IoT Strategy Summit gathered thought leaders in the Internet of Things (IoT) space, who shared what it takes to bring IoT into organizations, how to master its complexity and why you can’t do IoT alone. Featuring thought leadership presentations, executive panels and an IoT live exhibition, the event was filled with learning, collaborating, networking, entertainment, and big ideas. Industry leaders and IoT professionals will discussed the progression and value potential of the IoT. The executive presenters and attendees took a deep look at IoT trends and implementations in Industrial, Automotive, Enterprise and Smart City verticals.

The detailed agenda is included here:

Opening Remarks: Harnessing the Power of IoT

Matthew Jennings, Regional President, Bosch Software Innovations

The IoT has tremendous potential in various industries and is a critical component of an overall digital transformation. The welcome address provided an overview of Bosch’s footprint in the IoT and presented successful IoT applications across key business sectors.

Keynote: Taking the pulse of enterprise IoT

Subu Narayanan, IoT Ventures Leader NA, McKinsey

McKinsey’s new survey suggests that the enterprise Internet of Things is poised for strong growth. This keynote presented key findings of McKinsey’s latest market analysis and the trends companies need to understand to drive tangible impact through IoT.

Executive Panel: Bringing IoT skills into your organization

Panelists discussed the impact of IoT on teams, required roles and how companies can attract and retain IoT talent.

Moderator: Matthew Jennings, Regional President, Bosch Software Innovations

Panelists: Henry Chang, VP, 3M Connect

Jim Treleaven, President & CEO, Via Strategy Group

Dennis Boecker, VP Information Technology, Robert Bosch LLC

Executive Panel: The challenges of delivering in IoT

Implementing an IoT connectivity strategy is a highly complex undertaking, particularly in larger organizations. Panelists spoke to challenges organizations need to overcome to realize the full potential of IoT implementations.

Moderator: Matthew Jennings, Regional President, Bosch Software Innovations

Panelists: Don DeLoach, Co-chair, Midwest IoT Council

Corey Plender, Regional CTO, Bosch Software Innovations

Driving ROI in the near- and long-term

Nate Anderson, Partner, Bain & Company

Driving attractive ROI is as important today as it’s ever been. But making tradeoffs is increasingly difficult in a digital world where you’re often forced to invest against an uncertain future.

The importance of the ecosystem

Glen Allmendinger, President, Harbor Research

As organizations seek to drive business in the digital world, building a balanced business ecosystem becomes even more crucial. How to define and re-evaluate an ecosystem plan.

Eliminating IoT complexity for sustainable results

Brenna Berman, Executive Director, City Digital

For many organizations that don’t address IoT complexity substantially lose momentum in their digital-transformation programs. Lessons learned from implementing large-scale IoT projects.

IoT Fireside Chat: Civic and commercial perspective on urban Mobility

The sustainability of our cities is one of the key challenges with Mobility being a critical factor. This discussion covered how social, economic, and technological trends will further disrupt the urban environment and how businesses and cities can work together to develop sustainable mobility solutions.

Moderator: Brenna Berman, Executive Director, City Digital

Panelist: Jessica Robinson, Director City Solutions, Ford Smart Mobility

The Role of Global Standards in the Rise of Smart Cities

Rouzbeh Farhoumand, Senior Director of Technical Standards, Huawei Technologies

According to the United Nations, more than half of the world’s population now lives in towns and cities, and by 2030 this number will swell to about 5 billion. This urbanization will require cities to transform themselves at an unprecedented pace. And technology will play a crucial role as cities attempt to reinvent themselves. A recent Wall Street Journal insert entitled, “The Rise of the Smart City”, started with this thought, “Cities have a way to go before they can be called geniuses. But they’re getting smart pretty fast.” And they need help from industry alliances and technology-driving consortia to produce solutions to become smarter and to overcome the challenges of housing, transport, health and safety for their citizens.

Edge Computing: An Emerging Defense Strategy

Kevin Duffy, VP of Business Development, Foghorn

Digitization is the call of the hour. Business are under tremendous pressure to embrace IOT, resulting in ubiquitous connectivity – be it assets, systems, or processes. Security is an afterthought. Edge Computing is becoming critical for protecting IOT deployments. With a special focus on Industrial sectors, the presenter talked about securing mission critical systems through an edge intelligence platform.

Improving IoT applications with blockchain

Corey Plender, Regional CTO, Bosch Software Innovations

Lexy Prodromos, Director of Operations, Chicago Blockchain Center

While the IoT market and number of connected devices expands significantly, there is an increasingly urgent need for network security. We learned about how blockchain can prevent IoT hacking and help manage IoT devices in various industries.

It was a very informative event and a great networking opportunity as we continue to build our participation in the Chicago Innovation Ecosystem and expand our SAP Next-Gen network. http://bit.ly/2hXJYX6 #SAP #SAPCloud #AI

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At a time when the global energy industry is undergoing dramatic change, South Australia could very well be the epicenter of innovation.

The South Australian government just announced plans for a solar power plant that will generate up to 150MW of electricity by using thousands of giant mirrors to direct sunlight to the top of a 227-meter thermal tower.

And earlier this year, Elon Musk made headlines with the news that his company will help build the world’s largest lithium ion battery to store renewable energy in the state.

You can also see this kind of innovative thinking at SA Power Networks – the utility responsible for operating and maintaining the electricity distribution network for the entire state of South Australia.

How Do You Energize a Mobile Workforce?

“The Australian energy market is going through a huge amount of change,” says Chris Ford, Chief Information Officer at SA Power Networks. “And as a result, every element of our company is being transformed.” This transformation includes taking advantage of mobile technologies and real-time analytics to help meet not only the demands of an evolving energy market, but also the challenges of a very large service area.

SA Power Networks employees maintain a territory that encompasses 178,000 square kilometers of some of Australia’s driest and remotest landscapes. Summers often bring scorching heat and damaging wildfires to the region.

“Some of our people won’t be in the office for five or six days on the trot,” notes Charlie Hollis, Manager of Procurement at SA Power Networks.

But SA Power Networks is using mobile technology to simplify daily operations for these remote personnel and the home office employees who support them. A good example is how SA Power Networks approves purchase requisitions and the 30,000 purchase orders the utility generates every year.

“We use a mobile app that streamlines the entire procure-to-pay process,” says Melissa Maio, SA Power Networks’ Purchasing Team Lead. “Our managers and field personnel can approve requisitions and purchase orders from anywhere using their mobile device.”

Delivering High-Energy Data

SA Power Networks also customized a mobile app based on SAP Work Manager to allow field personnel to gather service interval information and data from asset inspections in real time. These assets include 400 zone substations, 73,000 street transformers, 720,000 power poles, and 200,000 km of wires.

Previously, this information was captured at the site on a pad of paper and then entered into SA Power Networks’ business systems when field personnel returned to the office. Only then could the data be analyzed and acted upon.

In fact, providing all employees with the information they need to make quicker and more accurate decisions is a hallmark of SA Power Networks’ IT strategy. The utility, for example, is now using the SAP HANA platform to perform advanced analytics on live data as well as historic and demographic data. Company leadership believes this insight will help them respond better to emergencies such as brushfires and storms and manage the overall network more effectively.

“Predictive analytics is really key to us moving forward,” says Ford. “We currently have pilots underway designed to help us predict exactly where we will need to repair lines in certain storm situations.”

A Look Ahead

Innovation continues to be a priority in the energy industry down under.

Australian news reports there are currently more than 50 large-scale renewable energy projects under construction across the country. And in South Australia, SA Power Networks is determined to keep pace with the progress.

“We have been looking at robotics and machine learning to identify areas where we might improve the efficiency of certain tasks even further,” says Ford, citing one final example.

One thing, however, isn’t changing.

Regardless of how the energy is generated, delivering electricity to the 1.7 million people of South Australia will remain the singular mission of SA Power Networks.

Hear more from Chris Ford and the leaders of SA Power Networks in this video.

Please follow me on Twitter @JohnGWard3.

This story originally appeared on SAPVoice on Forbes. http://bit.ly/2hVH2ue #SAP #SAPCloud #AI