Three Tips for Successfully Supporting Your Customers to the Edge

Sam Rodriguez Sr., Product Manager of Industrial Solutions at CPI

When it comes to “the edge,” there are no shortage of nuanced industry definitions, but the fundamental concept relies on the action of extending the network into new spaces. In order to support digital transformation, companies in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) space must be ready to help customers address various edge applications by creating safe spaces to protect networking and compute/storage equipment outside of traditional networking equipment rooms. To date, these applications exist primarily in support of digitalization projects and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) deployments.

Edge locations can be anywhere from warehouses, manufacturing floors, commercial areas to roadsides, oil fields and mines—a big difference from the environmentally controlled data center environments that IT systems administrators or data center managers are used to.

As an added challenge, there is typically a considerable gap when it comes to project ownership. For example, a new manufacturing facility project is usually managed by Manufacturing Facilities Operations, so the need for additional IT space may be an afterthought.

Digital transformation is not the exclusive role of the IT department, but the entire organization, including those in Operational Technology (OT) who are key stakeholders as well.

In fact, this is the nature of the edge: Think of it as homesteading in the Wild West except in this case, it is the IT professionals leaving the safety of their data centers for new frontiers; they can’t plan for everything and there are many unknowns.

Guided by my almost 25 years of experience in the data center space, having led several unique projects and undertaken many other lessons learned, I have gathered a few useful tips for organizations facing the many unknowns of digital transformation infrastructure.

Here they are:

Identify and Include all Stakeholders

Imagine you were recently contacted to be part of a promising edge project. You meet with the project managers and consultants, gather site and product specifications, and finally devise a good solution to present to the customer—until you learn the location in which the network needs to be placed isn’t under the jurisdiction of IT, but rather the facility operations management team, which may have considered the infrastructure for the network only as an afterthought.

Digital transformation is not the exclusive role of the IT department, but the entire organization, including those in Operational Technology (OT) who are key stakeholders as well.

While it’s true that an IT team has the expertise in network design, systems administration and software integrations, they are not as well versed in specific manufacturing technologies and systems. This is where the control systems, automation, manufacturing and facilities engineers can provide valuable input on specific manufacturing systems and software integration. They can also identify what data is critical for operational decisions, the limitations of the facility, and the ideal procedures, workflows and responses to daily events. If these factors are identified early in the design phase, the information architecture and corresponding data network can be designed to allow more flexible response.

Bottom line: If you want to deliver your project on time and within budget, make sure you convene all stakeholders and get a consensus on everyone’s needs, limitations and goals. This would not only apply to the example above, it would also apply to other applications like Internet of Things (IoT) deployments for smart cities, remote monitoring and instrumentation at a utility or industrial site and more. (My most recent white paper on this topic describes how to promote great IT/OT collaboration in greater detail.)

Drive Digital Transformation From Within

For example, to address the unique needs of the edge and to simplify the complexities of product configuration and ordering, I assembled an expert team dedicated to helping customers successfully deploy new edge applications. A big part of this effort was the introduction of an intuitive digital tool to guide and configure enclosures for use in nontraditional environments.

This digital tool, known as the CPI Product Designer, allows customers to quickly select, configure and accessorize an edge enclosure. The tool can also produce a complete bill of material of standard compatible parts that can be ordered immediately a la carte and provide the ability to kit items under one part number for easy ordering and tracking. This customer-specific part number can be reordered each time the same solution is required.

Once configuration is complete, the CPI Product Designer automatically emails a complete package of documentation, including drawings and sales documents. The customer can then decide if they can utilize the configuration as-is, or modify the drawings to communicate desired design changes. This process allows customers to utilize a configuration of standard products that better meets their needs, and provides a better service response when requiring a customized solution.

Bottom line: Clear communications, simplicity and detailed specifications are essential to understanding your customer’s needs. Whether you accomplish this with unique tools, products or services, it is important to provide accurate technical data and a well-defined communication path with your customer.

Support Your Customer with a Custom Solution at Scale

Sometimes, your customers will benefit most from a modified enclosure design that meets their exact and unique edge application requirements.

This includes addressing environmental conditions by sealing and finishing the enclosure, thermal management and airflow accessories for keeping equipment cool, reliable power distribution, remote monitoring of operating conditions, cable management and any particular mounting requirements or accessories, including pole mounting and bracing.

The team at Chatsworth Products (CPI) has supported many applications that have benefitted from customized solutions, including customers in oil and gas, rail, seaboard, broadband/telco, government/security, manufacturing, pharmaceutical, correctional facilities, retail applications, and energy and utility distribution.

Bottom line: Customized solutions may provide the best results for your customers. Make sure your organization has the resources to work with customers to identify their specific needs; modify a standard concept to meet that application; bundle it with accessories to create an easy-to-deploy and complete solution; and—most importantly—deliver these modified standard products in a near industry-standard timeframe to provide exactly what the customers need, when they need it.

Sam Rodriguez is Sr. Product Manager of Industrial Solutions at CPI.