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Here you will find the answers to the most frequently asked questions. Something still unclear? Contact us.

About i-flow

The i-flow software is characterized in particular by the following features:

  1. Simplicity by design: Our user interface is built for ease of use, Our customers connect OT & IT systems without being slowed down by technical complexity.

  2. Endless connectivity: i-flow comes with 200+ connectors for popular industrial systems, drastically reducing the setup time and effort required.

  3. Real-time monitoring: Get valuable real-time metrics to optimize your Industrial Unified Namespace (UNS). This makes it easy to maintain and fine-tune your digital ecosystems.

  4. Collaboration: Interconnecting factories is a team sport! Use the know-how of all your experts – from the plant to the central teams and maximize your results.

  5. Scalability:Designed to grow with your operations, i-flow can effortlessly handle the demands of a single factory or be scaled up to coordinate data flows across multiple locations.

One of the biggest challenges in OT/IT integration and scaling data-driven use cases (e.g. predictive quality) is poor data availability and quality. Slow progress in digitization projects is the result. The reasons for this include:

  1. Complexity: System architectures have become complex over decades. Point-to-point integrations have made access to data a challenge.
  2. Heterogeneity: System integration is a brownfield scenario with machines coming from many different vendors. No two data points look the same.

i-flow’s Industrial Unified Namespace (UNS) provides a single interface to unified factory data with three major advantages:

  1. Become Unified: Improve data accessibility and interoperablility by sharing unified data in a central MQTT broker independent of source protocol.
  2. Become Event-Driven: Enable efficient real-time communication between your OT & IT systems with MQTT publish / subscribe.
  3. Become Scalable: Dramatically reduce the number of integrations to enable a scalable architecture that can adapt to changing requirements.

The following companies benefit from using the i-flow software:

  • Innovative medium-sized and large companies from the manufacturing industry
  • Companies that invest in their data infrastructure to gain a competitive advantage and become industry champions 
  • Companies with one or more brownfield or greenfield sites worldwide
  • Companies looking for a standardized solution for system and data integration to seamlessly integrate IT and OT
  • Decision-makers who want to decide in real time and know exactly which data is crucial for their success
  • Users who not only appreciate low-code software, but also the advantages of maximum intuitive user guidance to develop and roll out use-cases faster.

The do-it-yourself (DIY) approach is always a valid consideration. There are at least two aspects to consider: costs & scaling.

Costs: If you compare the annual salaries of software experts with the annual i-flow license costs, i-flow becomes beneficial quickly. In addition to the development costs, the costs for the operation and maintenance of individual solutions must be taken into account (e.g. for necessary updates).

Scaling: Using in-house developers usually works in business areas where use case requirements tend to be static and developer turnover is very low. In addition, the more factory systems are integrated, the more difficult it becomes to keep track of individual implementations. i-flow, on the other hand, enables scaling in dynamic environments.

Absolutely. We offer different service levels. Please contact us for more information.

About our Technology

With the i-flow software you can connect a variety of OT/IT systems. You can find a comprehensive list here.

You just started? Perfect timing! Connect your first factory systems (e.g., machine) to your IT using i-flow. This saves you valuable resources for basic tasks for data wrangling such as integrating, understanding and preparing data. Create clean data right from the beginning and use the integrated data for your upcoming projects.

Yes. Most advanced customers find it difficult to fully utilize the data from the systems due to the increased system complexity. In addition to the complexity, a heterogeneous system landscape in existing factories is usually a challenge. With i-flow, you maximize data availability and quality, regardless of the source and target system of your data. The introduction is gradual, from project to project and in 3 steps:

Integrate, harmonize + publish.

i-flow is a low-code software . The software offers a development platform that enables users to harmonize and distribute factory data – without any programming knowledge. Depending on preference and for specific use-cases (e.g. complex data processing), i-flow also enables the execution of user-defined code.

i-flow supports two deployment options to meet your needs. All with state-of-the-art security.

  1. Option: On-premise installation on your factory edge server
  2. Option: We can deploy i-flow in a cloud environment that is managed by your IT (private cloud environment)

An Industrial Unified Namespace (UNS) describes the concept of a “publish once, distribute everywhere” architecture. Data producers (e.g. machines) publish data once (“publish once”) via a standardized naming convention and data structure in a central message broker. From there, the data can be subscribed to by a large number of data consumers (“distribute everywhere”).. This architecture concept therefore differs from the traditional automation pyramid, in which systems are individually integrated with all other systems on the neighboring levels of the automation pyramid (point-to-point integration).

In contrast to the classic automation pyramid, the UNS architecture leads to greater flexibility and scalability in your system architecture. Further information and the role played by the i-flow software can be found here.

i-flow is available as annual subscription. Please contact us and together we will find the right package for you!

To ensure the highest security standards, we protect your data with a multi-level security concept based on proven state-of-the-art technologies. When deployed in the cloud, i-flow runs in secure data centers that are managed by your IT (inside your private cloud environment). We are using state-of-the art encryption methods and secure access control. We would be happy to explain our comprehensive security concept to you in a personal meeting.

Start with i-flow

Yes. You can test i-flow free of charge for 30 days. Please add your name to our waiting list. We will then contact you immediately.

Yes. The trial license is free of charge for 30 days.

No. Unfortunately, it is not possible to extend the free trial period.

The i-flow software is usually installed by you or your IT department. We will provide you with a download link, a license key and detailed step-by-step instructions. In any case, we are happy to answer any questions you may have.

Please contact our customer support at support@i-flow.io. We will contact you as soon as possible.

Typically, our customers start either with the implementation of a data analytic project (e.g. condition monitoring, cross-plant OEE) or with the automation of processes (e.g. order confirmation in SAP based on machine data). After installing the software, you will have access to a large number of example use-cases from our customers worldwide.

i-flow is a low-code software, all essential functions are programming-free. This means that no programming knowledge is required to use the software. If desired and in very demanding use cases (e.g. complex data processing), you can execute your own code in i-flow. No specific knowledge of OT, IT or interface technologies is required.

Any questions? Speak to us now

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I am looking forward to speaking to you.

Daniel Goldeband
Director of i-flow