PTC: Data Is The New Oil, Analytics Is The Refinery

Many IT companies have touted the value of data and data analytics, but the actual value is often hard to comprehend. PTC CEO Jim Heppelmann recently explained the value of data, which he called the ’new oil,’ and offered a demonstration of PTC’s ThingWorx Analytics.

’Some people have said that data is the new oil. That sort of implies that data is a valuable commodity that comes to us in a crude form. But like me, you probably don’t have that much use for crude oil, but you might have a lot of use for the derivative products like gasoline, or plastic, or lubrication, or what have you,’ Heppelmann said.

’So if data is the new oil, analytics is the new refinery,’ he said.

PTC customer FlowServe, an industrial pump manufacturing company, demonstrated how it has outfitted its utilities with sensors through a partnership with Hewlett Packard Enterprise.

FlowServe uses sensors to gather information regarding temperature, vibrations, pressure, as well as data from flow meters. That analog information passes through a National Instruments tool that converts it to digital form. From there, the ThingWorx Analytics platform can sort, organize, and analyze the massive amounts of collected data.

An HPE Edgeline device processes the information. It also houses the artificial intelligence around the information, and it’s also where the user interface originates.

Through the ThingWorx Analytics platform, FlowServe can gain more insight into the pump’s operations, as well as maintain the utilities and prevent emergencies.