Integrating IoT devices into business processes

Abstract

The Internet of Things (IoT) has arrived in everyday life, controlling and measuring everything from assembly lines, through shipping containers to household appliances. Thus, IoT devices are often part of larger and more complex business processes, which might change their course based on events from these devices. However, when developing IoT applications the process perspective is often neglected and coordination of devices is realized in an ad-hoc way using custom scripts. In this paper we propose to employ process model to define the process layer of IoT applications and enact them through a process engine. Our approach thus bridges the gap between physical IoT devices and business processes. The presented implementation shows that those two can be combined without in-depth programming expertise or extensive configuration, without restricting or strongly coupling the components.