More digital drops. Water industry 4.0.

Gartner defines digitization as “the use of digital technologies to change a business model and provide new revenue and value-producing opportunities; it is the process of moving to a digital business.”

What is interesting here is the focus on the fact that digitization, new ways of solving challenges, and business opportunities go hand in hand. And this reflects exactly what is happening in the water industry, where digitization has opened doors to brand-new areas of industrial applications and opportunities for expansion e.g. pump integration to the entire water installation. Thus, linking energy optimization, monitoring, advanced system protection and pump control to process performance of the  surrounding equipment.

Digitization is wide-ranging and can be roughly split into four different areas: firstly, data collection,  analysis, and optimization e.g.  through algorithms. Secondly, customer touch-points, sales channels and services. Thirdly, production technology, planning, and distribution. Lastly, data flow, storage, and security.

Each of these – admittedly overlapping – areas have a significant impact on very different parts of the organization:

Business Development and Service.
Sales and Marketing.
Production and Logistics.
Infrastructure, IT, and legal.
Knowing this, it becomes clear that the digitization process cannot be seen as ‘another large project’, due to the fact that it is scattered over a wide range of functions, processes, and products. Thus, successful companies in the industry are those which recognize that digitization requires a new mindset, fast response time, unallocated resources, and a willingness to take risks.

Internet of Things (IoT) is a major driver behind the digitalization of the water industry.

IoT refers to the trend of  integrating internet connectivity into physical devices and everyday objects. Embedded with electronics, internet connectivity, and other forms of hardware such as sensors, these devices can communicate and interact with others over the internet, and they can be remotely monitored and controlled. And, not least, they can share data.

Data has been gathered for analysis and optimization over the past  decades through BMS2, CTS3, and SCADA4 systems or control  systems. However, what is new is the drastically growing amount of data and storage – combined with the limitless accessibility that is provided by electronic devices
and information technology.

Computer power, communication, and data storage have developed exponentially while becoming less and less expensive, and nothing indicates that IoT will slow down. However, over the past decade, we have seen new standards and platforms come and go – and this has, to some degree, hampered digitalization and fostered a need for a standardized framework for managing digitalization on a global scale.