Michael Dell: IoT is ‘at the heart of a cycle of continuous innovation’
LAS VEGAS–Airplane manufacturer Boeing, like many other leading industrial players, is actively working to combine its long history of engineering with new digital and IoT solutions in an effort to transform its operations.
Dell Founder and CEO Michael Dell highlighted the infrastructure company’s 20-year relationship with Boeing during a keynote session at Dell EMC World.
“CEOs want their companies to become technology companies and every business unit wants to become a platform,” he told event attendees at the Sands Expo and Convention Center. “There is a lot to do. You need an internet of things strategy, you need a cloud strategy, you need a workforce strategy and, security, that’s the greatest concern of all.”
 Ted Colbert, Boeing’s CIO and SVP, said the company’s “digital opportunity” will require “us to take the real strong engineering foundations we have and combine it with new digital opportunities to leverage the emerging capabilities.” He name-checked mobile, IoT, artificial intelligence and machine learning. “We have to both improve the skill set within the IT organization and raise the digital IQ of our business leaders so they pull on recognizing the tech-enablement opportunities to transform their businesses.”
Colbert said digital technologies will allow the company to transform from how it built airplanes during World War II to incorporating robotics and automation, and create transparent supply chain and manufacturing operations.
“They’re taking aviation to the internet of things,” Dell said, “using the power of all this data to design better products and improve their operations and customer experience. And they make things that fly, which is really awesome. They’re developing a software DNA inside Boeing, which is at the heart of a cycle of continuous innovation.” ‘
But it’s more than aviation, Dell said, calling out everything from thermostats and cars to jet engines and turbine. “Those products and services generate massive amounts of data, which, when analyzed can be used to make products and services even more capable and market-oriented.”
