i3 technology can be applied to many different industries. The i3 system is unique in that it was purpose-built to support federated operating environments. Federated organizations can be described as environments where many independent groups must work together despite their organizational autonomy. City governments are usually composed of numerous independent operational departments. A large multinational corporation may be structured as a series of autonomous units organized around product lines or counties. An ecosystem of independent companies that work with other ecosystem members to provide solutions to a common customer is also a federated environment.
All these organizations depend heavily on data to drive business and produce results for the constituencies. i3 helps these organizations make better use of the data they have and in doing so i3 can improve the organization’s operational effectiveness. Further, by managing the data flows between organizational unit’s allowing greater data reuse, i3 help improve data efficiencies which leads to a better return on their data investment (ROI).
The world is rapidly changing. The highest-performing companies understand the importance of data as a key competitive differentiator. These companies are shifting from looking at data as a consumable that supports an application to one where data is actively managed as a strategic asset. i3 stands ready to support these organizations by providing the tools they need to manage these assets.
At its core, the i3 Software provides a framework that allows communities to form across organizational boundaries based on their needs to use data in support of customers and pursuit of new opportunities. The data exchanged between these operational units act as the enabler that allows collaboration across organizational divides. Further, because these ecosystems serve an increasingly dynamic market, i3 provides the operational independence needed to allow data-based exchanges to evolve as policies, procedures, and other needs change over time. Such inter-organizational data governance systems are needed to dynamically manage data flows that can change as fast as the market evolves.
Healthcare
Healthcare is a community-wide concern but most healthcare-driven technology initiatives have been targeted to support doctors or hospitals. Some of these initiatives are truly miraculous but patients have to go to the hospital or the doctor’s office before they can benefit from these solutions. And, once in that controlled environment, any derived data is locked into these managed settings where access to the data can be restricted. The emergence of i3 represents a new direction that creates fully connected wellness communities. i3 allows many established healthcare to come together and share data in a managed and controlled environment. i3 also allows the incorporation of other healthcare entities to participate in sanctioned data exchanges that support medical research, enable environmental research, and allow monitoring of civic healthcare outcomes. Wellness data from consumer-grade products or regional environmental data can be easily accessed in support of patient or community-focused projects. The dynamic nature of the i3 data fabric gives the healthcare professional the freedom to activate data flows in support of an individual, an institution, or an entire community as needed.
Retail/Hospitality
Shopping, dining, and entertainment are no longer about buying a needed item – it is about the experience. The Internet has expanded the buying options available to consumers and with so many options to choose from, purchasing activity has become highly dependent on the channel that provides the best consumer experience. While stores and restaurants have significant control over their immediate surroundings, the experience is impacted long before the customer crosses the merchant’s threshold. Creating customer experiences that generate excitement and loyalty among consumers requires merchants to understand the complete customer journey, and this drives a need for external data that can be called upon to satisfy short or long-term data requirements. i3 Systems is working with shopping centers, business improvement districts, and merchant associations to allow retail and hospitality enterprises to share data within the confines of that collaborative environment in order to create consumer environments that provide better experiences for the consumer and better business results for the business owners.
Smart Government
Government agencies are often structured around multiple functional departments, each with a distinct and individualized mandate to serve the citizens. While this structure allows efficient departmental operations, it often impedes the flow of data between departments, cities, and counties. Without such macro-level data, insights are often overlooked and opportunities to improve efficiencies or quality of life are difficult, even impossible, to find. Technology from i3 Systems creates a data fabric that allows approved data to be shared, in a managed way, between operational entities. This same data fabric provides the ability for cities to interact with the citizens and businesses they support through a data-exchange process that allows the cities to better serve the citizens they support. Recent events have also served to demonstrate the importance of data in combatting issues that transcend city and county borders, Pandemics, earthquakes, fires, and floods are examples of potential crisis-level issues that require the cooperation of many government agencies. Coordination of civic response has to be based on the exchange of data and i3 Systems provides data fabrics that can rise to such occasions. The data infrastructure that facilitates emergency responses provides the basis for advanced services citizens expect from their smart cities.
Smart Manufacturing
The industrial age give rise to factories and assembly lines which enabled machines to take on much of the manufacturing burden and in doing so, these technologies unleashed a new age of economic growth. Many experts have forecast the manufacturing world will begin to experience a fourth industrial revolution and in doing so, the world will undergo another transformation process that creates even greater opportunities. Under the flag of the fourth industrial revolution, manufacturing equipment becomes both smart and automated; these systems will be more capable and they will be able to instantly pivot in order to respond to rapidly changing production needs. Instead of a series of smart manufacturing devices, entire factory lines will be integrated so the entire factory line operates synchronously with the rest of the line. The flow of raw materials into the factory and the flow of finished goods away from the factory will be coordinated to maximize efficiency. Supply chain partners will use data to coordinate the transformer of goods to distribution centers and to subcontracted production partners. Such a managed environment will allow business processes to evolve from a focus on high volume manufacturing to on-demand manufacturing that also provides the economic benefits that traditionally could only be achieved through volume and repetition,
Smart Agriculture
The agricultural industry has been on a relentless march toward big agricultural farms. Larger farms acquire smaller farms in order to achieve the scale needed to afford products and services that require volume production. Conversations about big agriculture often focus on how the latest technologies have been applied to harvesters, tractors, or other farming tools. Data is often neglected from such conversations even though it is understood that access to data and data analytics are becoming as important to the modern farmer as a shovel. Big agriculture, besides benefiting from the latest farming technology also benefits from its access to significant data resources that are often as closely held as any patent or fertilizer formulation. Data fabrics, such as that provided by i3, provide an ability for small farmers to work together through data sharing collaboratives, to develop their own data resources that allow them to compete against big agriculture. Some have even speculated that such community-managed data systems are analogous to community grain silos that allowed communities of small and medium farmers to prosper in the face of competition of much larger mega farming systems.
Smart Oil and Gas
Oil and gas companies use raw natural resources and through a series of complex processes, convert those raw materials into various forms of fuel that provide the energy we need to exist in today’s world. The processing plants that are utilized by these companies represent a large and extensive infrastructure investment that is physically at a fixed location. Maximizing the efficiencies of these investments requires these assets are operated at peak efficiency even though the source of the natural materials they need may not be conveniently located. Oil and gas companies have exploration groups spread throughout the world constantly looking for sources of natural resources. Once these resources are found, a complex network of ecosystem partners is utilized to extract and transport the natural resources to centralized processing plants. After processing, an equally complex network of distribution partners must be utilized to move the product to market. Because if i3’s focus on the creation of an active data fabric that allows data to flow between partners involved in the process, efficiencies can be maximized and the data distribution network can be changed as partners adjust and adapt to account for current market conditions.