A theme park was always looking for ways to enhance the customer experience, and minimizing wait times at attractions and foodservice outlets was one of the key concerns. Tracking and analyzing visitor behavior could potentially let management address it. The first step would be to have the analytics software look at things like advanced ticket sales, weather forecasts and previous attendance records to help management make staffing decisions several days in advance. Collecting and analyzing data could also improve day to day operations. If equipped with the right kinds of information, the control center could make informed decisions about where to place staffing resources. If the line at a water ride was getting too long, management could add staff and launch more boats. If the line at a foodservice station was getting too long, management could send costumed characters to hand out menus and entertain the guests, thus making the wait less painful. To track where visitors were and what they were doing, park management would need to gather data from devices like surveillance cameras, foodservice cash registers, and ticketing machines. But the plan would also require placing some of these devices in locations where trenching and installing new cable connections would be both disruptive and expensive.

A Caribbean resort has numerous buildings spread out across a scenic campus. One of the company's most important concerns is reliable air conditioning, as guests will be very upset if they are uncomfortable. Downtime is not an option. But if air conditioning equipment fails completely - a compressor, for example - the replacement has to be shipped in from another country at an inflated price. The resort realized that closely monitoring their equipment would enable preventative maintenance, and greatly extend the useful life of their air conditioning systems. But how do you monitor things like pumps and compressors when they have no network interface and they are scattered across a very wide area?