Sean Riley

Sean Riley

Global Industry Director for Manufacturing & Transportation at Software AG

Recent posts

  • Executive Voices

    Why sustainability is a new cornerstone of business value

    For many business leaders, the past two-and-a-half years have been an ongoing test of resilience. First came the COVID-19 pandemic, which shuttered offices and factories, shifted consumer preferences, and created global supply chain havoc. By early 2022, even as the worst logistics bottlenecks had eased, the cost of shipping a container was four to five times higher and took an…

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  • IoT

    IIoT: Let the machines speak for themselves

    Product managers need to understand what their customers want and, in the past, had to rely on research like focus groups, surveys, and conversations with customers. And this worked, somewhat, but it took a significant amount of time and was extraordinarily expensive. It was also very limited because it came from customer comments on usage and performance and not actual…

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  • IoT

    Three reasons to create resilient revenues with IoT

    There are three important reasons why manufacturers will embrace smart, connected products. 1. It's a massive opportunity The size of the overall equipment-as-a-service market is to reach $131 billion by 2025, a 35% increase from 2019. 2. Competition is looming In McKinsey’s Machinery & Industrial Automation, 95% of survey respondents expect to change their business models to be successful. 3. Margins are shrinking  More than…

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  • IoT

    How to leverage IIoT for smart factories

    As manufacturing leaders digest new challenges - such as choppy demand, inconsistent supply chains and urgent changes to work safety environments - they are being forced to reassess factory operations. New worker safety requirements, in particular, mean that operations professionals must be able to access data remotely. By using industrial Internet of Things solutions, they can remotely and more safely support improvements…

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  • IoT

    Three major manufacturing trends for 2021

    As manufacturers continue to adapt to Covid-19 realities, they are realigning their organizations to quickly adapt and stay competitive in 2021. Choppy demand, broken supply chains, urgent changes to work safety environments – these are just a few of the challenges facing manufacturers, forcing them to reassess their operations and business models. Next year, and for years to come, they…

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  • IoT

    Jump on the direct-to-consumer bandwagon

    The direct to consumer craze is forcing brands to become logistics companies, handling everything from fulfillment to shipping. For years, traditional consumer brands have focused on creating relationships with their customers and fighting retailers for influence. With the rise of the Internet came an onslaught of new companies that solely provide products through a direct-to-consumer channel (DTC). Brands can avoid…

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  • IoT

    An Autumn Checkup on Manufacturing Trends 

    1. My first prediction was that Internet of Things adoption would accelerate thanks to an uptake in edge analytics, scaling the IoT edge.  How did I do?  IoT adoption IS accelerating and the examination of applying edge analytics to multiple use cases IS increasing.  Companies like Dell, HP and Cisco are becoming more serious about creating gateways with the capabilities to host complex analytics on the edge.  And…

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  • App & Data Integration

    A Midyear Checkup on Manufacturing Trends

    Earlier this year, I made a few predictions about the manufacturing industry for 2019.  I thought I’d check in to see how I did. My first prediction was that Internet of Things adoption would accelerate thanks to an uptake in edge analytics, scaling the IoT edge. How did I do? IoT adoption IS accelerating and the examination of applying edge analytics to multiple…

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  • IoT

    What does Freedom as a Service Mean to Manufacturers?

    Software AG’s new tagline “Freedom as a Service” is especially meaningful to the manufacturing industry. Since the industrial revolution, manufacturers have been focused on obtaining data to streamline operations, improve production quality, improve products and obtain greater market share. The rise of machinery and automation gave birth to new quality programs heralded by early leaders like W. Edwards Deming.  Advancements continued and…

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  • IoT

    IoT: The New Frontier for Edge Analytics

    Today, on IoT Day, the Internet of Things is at an inflection point; data being collected from devices and sensors is vast, so massive that - a lot of the time - it is not used. Why? Because the data is not understood! Part of the problem with IoT data and, more specifically, Industrial Internet of Things data is that it is…

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