At BaseN, we see digital twins as a way to understand the entire lifecycle of products and services. Learn how lifecycle visibility and situational awareness create new opportunities.
Every business leader has experienced it. You make decisions based on reports, experience, and the best information available. Yet unexpected problems still appear. Assets fail earlier than expected. Costs increase without clear explanation. Opportunities to improve performance are discovered too late.
What if your organization could see operations more clearly, not only what is happening now, but how assets and products move and evolve over time? This is the promise of a digital twin. A digital twin is commonly described as a digital representation of a physical asset, system, or process. It reflects real-world conditions and allows organizations to monitor performance, identify issues, and improve operations.
The Whole Lifecycle
At BaseN, we see digital twins from a broader perspective. For us, a digital twin is not only about monitoring an individual asset. It is about understanding the entire lifecycle of a product or service, from raw materials and production to delivery, usage, and eventually replacement. But before a digital twin can exist, one important capability must come first.
Situational Awareness
Situational awareness means knowing what assets you have, where they are, how they move, and how they interact within a system. Without this understanding, building a meaningful digital twin becomes difficult. Our roots in building large-scale situational awareness systems have shaped how we approach digital twins.
Once organizations gain clear visibility into their operations, they can begin creating reliable digital representations of their assets and services. From that point forward, the value grows significantly and digital twins enable organizations to:
- Understand the current condition of assets and services
- Track how products move through supply chains and operations
- Identify inefficiencies earlier
- Improve planning and decision-making
- Develop new services around connected products
Over time, digital representation itself becomes increasingly valuable. The accumulated history of an asset where it has been, how it has performed, and how it interacts with other systems creates knowledge that supports better decisions and continuous improvement.
The Smartphone
A simple example can be seen in something we all use daily: a smartphone. When a customer buys a phone, the relationship with the manufacturer or retailer often ends at the point of sale. The physical device continues its life with the user, but the broader lifecycle of the product is largely invisible. With a digital twin approach, that lifecycle could remain visible.
The product’s origin, movement through the supply chain and performance over time, and eventual replacement could all be part of a connected digital record. The same principle applies to industrial systems, infrastructure, and connected services. Organizations that understand the full lifecycle of their assets gain a stronger foundation for improving efficiency, building new service models, and responding to change.
At BaseN Corporation, we enable organizations to build digital twins that connect real-world operations with reliable situational awareness and lifecycle visibility. Our experience spans large-scale environments such as telecommunications networks, energy infrastructure, and distributed industrial systems where operational insight and reliability are essential.
As digitalization continues across industries, digital twins are becoming more than a technical concept. They are becoming a practical way for organizations to understand their operations more deeply and make better decisions over time. For organizations that are exploring how to improve operational visibility, and connect their assets and services across the entire lifecycle, the discussion around digital twins is only the beginning.
