Smart new way to manage business data

A digital twin makes it possible to get a visual, real-time dashboard assisting businesses in any industries to make sense of data in a new way. This capability, created by IoT.nxt, essentially means a replica or representation of devices, machines, connected processes or complex business ecosystems is created and presented in a live infographic, that provides information in real-time.

“It is a dashboard 4.0. Unequivocally the next way for data scientists or data analysts – or even dashboarding companies – to create a simplified and easy way for end-users to experience this information,” explains IoT.nxt Digital Evangelist, Tobie Alberts.

This information or data can relate to a multitude of objects, functionalities and processes. For instance, an Intelligent Cell Site within the telecommunications industry. “If a digital twin for such a site is created, with 144 connected or subdivided systems, it ultimately relays enough information to the end-user to understand functionality and monitor warnings. The digitwin can communicate intricate information visually, without the end-user needing any engineering experience.

IoT.nxt has invested a lot of resources and time in creating a practical and fully agnostic way that allows companies to position these digital twins and subsequently link the relevant data onto a visual representative of the real objects, processes or functionalities. It is expected that up to 20 trillion devices will be connected within the next five years, which drives innovation to manage the data this will create. Generated data around these assets or sensors would present a massive problem for anyone creating reports or using traditional dashboards. Marrying various reports and many different dashboards into one image is not only practical but also allows for the business to have a holistic view and gain understanding of the process. This is where the power of digital twins lies.

The digital twin duplicates the physical object and highlights efficiencies and other benefits and can then make any copies to represent many objects. Data is represented in moving 3D parts, flat digital twin designs or process designs. “For instance, in the manufacturing industry, companies have highly instrumented devices, with a multitude of sensors. These need to be monitored by accurate digital twins, which precisely simulate performance in real-time, to enable machine learning – predicting future performances and possible failures,” Alberts says.

Multiple twins in a business owner’s ecosystem creates an even bigger picture. When introducing twin-to-twin dashboards (one twin representing a product or process and the other, for argument’s sake, a device) the interaction between the various twins can be visualised, thus, providing an even bigger overview of digital replicas of the process within the inter-twins. The benefits of digital twins to business:

• A magnitude of data can be collected in an easy and seamless way.
• It is a tool or platform used by end-customers to understand a process, product or device better.
• Generating value. This value can either be in understanding the process, predicting failures or to manage devices better in a more holistic way.