In 2016, Zebra explored the concept of the “Intelligent Enterprise,” an operational framework that helps to define how information passes from solutions to their handlers and how the data analyzed along the way provides actionable insights and visibility. In partnership with the Technology and Entrepreneurship Center at Harvard (TECH), we assembled 40 industry experts for the 2016 Innovation Symposium: The Intelligent Enterprise. Click here to discover how these thought leaders defined an “Intelligent Enterprise” and explored best practices and opportunities for organizations of varying sizes and industries.

When you think about the various industries that drive our world - including healthcare, transportation, logistics, manufacturing and retail - enterprises are already taking advantage of a new “intelligence” to make decisions in real time today. At the heart of the Intelligent Enterprise are sensors, radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, beacons and locationing solutions that, along with the rapid adoption of the Internet of Things (IoT), offer enterprises real-time operational visibility.

Gartner predicts 6.4 billion connected things are in use worldwide in 2016, up 30 percent from 2015, and will reach 20.8 billion by 2020. But what does this explosive growth mean for the future and how can enterprises harness this intelligence to drive meaningful innovation?

The concept of the “Intelligent Enterprise” is about making businesses as smart and connected as the world that surrounds us. A sensor may seem like a small device, but when married with the troves of data and the ability to understand – and act – on it brings a big wave of technological innovation, creativity and new levels of intelligence to our world.

Engaging and leveraging the tremendous advances that IoT brings to enterprise solutions can be challenging. The answer lies in a framework that Zebra refers to as sense-analyze-act. Sensing data, analyzing it for insights and then mobilizing it to the right person to drive specific actions is fundamental to building an “Intelligent Enterprise”.

For example, to help advance retailers’ capabilities, Zebra is working with them to develop solutions to dramatically improve inventory accuracy levels, which is frequently a barrier to a successful omni-channel strategy. While our solutions enable automation, human interaction is still critical at many points in the fulfillment chain, and we are helping retailers with real-time visibility of inventory, efficient picking, staging and delivery to customers.

With smarter devices come smarter things and smarter environments, paving the way for enterprises across all industries to become more intelligent.