The Industrial Internet Consortium is a global, member supported program that promotes the accelerated growth of the Industrial Internet of Things by coordinating ecosystem initiatives to securely connect, control and integrate assets and systems of assets with people, processes and data using common architectures, interoperability and open standards to deliver transformational business and societal outcomes across industries and public infrastructure.
The Industrial Internet Consortium was founded by five companies: AT&T, Cisco, General Electric, Intel, and IBM.
As the digital and physical worlds collide, organizations need to be able to more easily connect and optimize assets and operations to drive agility across all industrial sectors. The Industrial Internet Consortium was formed to help achieve this goal by identifying the requirements for open interoperability standards and defining common architectures to connect smart devices, machines, people, and processes that will help to accelerate more reliable access to big data and unlock business value. It also focuses on innovation through testbeds.
The Industrial Internet Consortium’s goal is to accelerate the Industrial Internet. Specifically, the Consortium’s charter is to encourage innovation by:
- Utilizing existing and creating new industry use cases and testbeds for real-world applications;
- Delivering best practices, reference architectures, case studies, and standards requirements to ease deployment of connected technologies;
- Influencing the global standards development process for Internet and industrial systems;
- Facilitating open forums to share and exchange real-world ideas, practices, lessons, and insights;
- Building confidence around new and innovative approaches to security.
The Industrial Internet Consortium is formed as a group under the Object Management Group, Inc., a nonprofit trade association, as set out in section 501(c)(6) of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. An elected Steering Committee provides the leadership and governance within the Industrial Internet Consortium. More information on the Steering Committee’s responsibilities and election process can be found HERE.
The Industrial Internet Consortium Steering Committee has 12 members (plus the Executive Director, ex-officio), each of whom is affiliated with an Industrial Internet Consortium member company. The Founding Member seats are occupied by General Electric, IBM and Intel. Five seats are for Contributing Members and consist of four-year terms; these seats are currently held by SAP and Schneider Electric until September 2019 and Bosch, EMC and Huawei until September 2020.
The remaining Steering Committee seats are for either one-year or two-year terms and consist of two representatives from large industry members, one representative from small industry, and one representative from academia or a nonprofit member. In the 2017-2018 election and beyond, seats up for election will be for two-year terms. Seats are filled by a vote of the members within each level, with the exception of the Contributing Member which is a four-year term voted on by the Founding and Contributing Members.
To join the Industrial Internet Consortium, fill out the membership application, which includes the terms of membership. There are five levels of membership: Founder, Industry more than $50 million, Industry less than $50 million, Academic/Nonprofit; and Government. The fee structure and membership application forms are available HERE.
No. The Industrial Internet Consortium is a not-for-profit group that offers open membership for any public, or private business, organization or entity
Yes. Industrial Internet Consortium members are headquartered in 26 countries and span the globe. In today’s global economy, members need to collaborate with colleagues across the world to address the unique challenges of incorporating the digital with the physical. Globally integrated enterprises run factories and source parts and materials from across the globe. Smarter cities and governments across the world will utilize and benefit from the Industrial Internet which enable smarter buildings, cleaner energy, better emergency preparedness and responsiveness.
We’re at the precipice of a major technological shift, where smart machines will communicate and connect in ways that will lead to transformational business outcomes. Any company that wants to have a voice in setting the direction for the Industrial Internet, can and should join the Consortium. Members are developing critical collaborative relationships with leaders in technology, manufacturing, academia and the government on working groups. Members can participate in Industrial Internet Consortium research projects and testbeds activities. Members also gain an immediate, visible platform for their opinions.
In addition to gaining an immediate, visible platform for their ideas, Consortium members will join in developing critical relationships with leaders in technology, manufacturing, academia and the government on working groups. Members are encouraged to join one of several Working Groups and teams in the broad categories of Business Solution Enablement; Technology; Security; Testbeds; and Marketing. These groups work collaboratively through online collaboration tools, virtual meetings and quarterly face-to-face meetings.
Members of a Working Group may work anywhere they have access to a highspeed Internet connection. They will become integral elements of the process.
Yes, only Industrial Internet Consortium Members may be a part of a Working Group.
Working Groups are formed at the discretion of the Steering Committee when sufficient interest and leadership exists. Each group contributes to specific workstreams as mandated by the Steering Committee. An Object Management Group, Inc. staff member assigned to the Industrial Internet Consortium coordinates the activities for each group. Significant group deliverables are reviewed and approved by the Steering Committee prior to being announced and adopted.
Many organizations who focus on Internet of Things are interested in establishing standards. The Industrial Internet Consortium provides requirements to Standards Organizations but it does not directly develop the standards themselves. The Industrial Internet Consortium focuses on creating frameworks, use cases and testbeds for real-world applications across various industrial environments as well as building confidence around new and innovative approaches to security.
The work of the Industrial Internet Consortium does not focus on consumer IoT. Our work is focused on developing safe, secure and interoperable technologies and innovation to business verticals including energy, healthcare, transportation, and manufacturing.
The Industrial Internet Consortium advocates for open standard technologies and will be influencing the global standards development process for the Industrial Internet. The Technology Working Group will be working on specific recommendations, which will be announced at a future date.
No. The Industrial Internet Consortium will influence the global standards development process for internet and industrial systems to improve the integration of the digital and physical worlds. The Industrial Internet Consortium scope includes the identification and location of sensor devices, the data exchange between them, control and integration of collections of heterogeneous devices, data extraction and storage plus data and predictive analytics. The challenge for the Industrial Internet Consortium is to ensure that these efforts come together into a cohesive whole.
Testbed activities are one of the primary functions of the Industrial Internet Consortium. Members are actively working on approved testbeds and identifying and prioritizing future areas of focus. Learn more about the Industrial Internet Consortium's testbed activities HERE.
The Industrial Internet Consortium holds general membership meetings four times a year. The locations of our upcoming member meetings can be found on our Events webpage. In addition, Industrial Internet Consortium Working Groups hold ongoing and task-specific working meetings via conference calls and WebEx.
The staff is headquartered in Needham, Massachusetts, USA.
If your question is not answered above or you need additional information, please visit www.iiconsortium.org, send an email to [email protected] or call +1-781-444-0404 for more information.