INAINEX RESOURCE
Industrial Integration Readiness
A pre-project checklist for connecting business systems, automation and machines safely.
Integration projects fail more often from unclear ownership and failure behaviour than from protocol limitations. Technical connectivity is only one part of readiness.
Business and data ownership
- Define which system owns customer, item, project, stock, task and equipment master data.
- Define which events are authoritative and which are derived.
- Agree retention, audit and correction rules.
Interface capability
- APIs: authentication, pagination, rate limits, idempotency and versioning.
- Files: naming, location, schema, duplicate handling and archival.
- PLCs/devices: protocol, tag ownership, command/feedback separation and heartbeat.
Failure behaviour
Define what happens when the network fails, an API times out, a PLC stops responding, or acknowledgement is uncertain. The operational answer matters as much as the software answer.
Security
Segment networks appropriately, avoid exposing control devices directly to internet-facing services, use least privilege, and log control-changing actions.