An IOI node is the part of IOI a company actually runs. It sits beside the systems the company already has, keeps the company's IOI data lake current and controls who and what can use it.
What a node connects to
A default node is live in days. It starts as a monitoring surface for the company's freight quotes, and IOI optimizes physical operations from the secured data lake from there. Everything below is optional and can be connected at any time afterwards, without replacing anything the company already runs. The optional connections fall into two groups.
| Group | Examples |
|---|---|
| ERP | SAP ECC, Oracle EBS |
| EDI over a VAN | X12 204 load tenders, 214 status updates, 990 responses |
| Mainframe and AS400 | Green screens and COBOL batch jobs |
| Flat files over SFTP | Nightly CSV drops |
| Email and PDF | Bills of lading, rate confirmations, invoices |
| Spreadsheets | Excel on a shared drive |
| Custom stacks | Whatever was built in house |
| Vehicle telemetry | Position, hours of service, empty space |
| Self-driving trucks | Vehicles that take a load and route themselves |
| Automated factories | Lines, docks and throughput |
| Deployed robotics | Arms and movers on the floor |
The first seven are the legacy surfaces where most industrial information lives today. The last four are the physical assets that increasingly do the work. A node connects to both, along with suppliers, carriers and customers who choose to connect.
From raw data to a data lake
Each of those systems describes the world in its own format. The same load can arrive as an EDI 204 from a mainframe, a rate confirmation PDF attached to an email and a row in a dispatcher's spreadsheet. The node reads all three, reconciles them and writes one clean record into the company's IOI data lake.
Four formats, one load
- EDI 204 from an AS400
ST*204*0001~B2**OWAY**SH77412~S5*1*LD~ - Rate confirmation PDF
Load SH77412 · 9 pallets · Coppell to Laredo - Dispatcher spreadsheet
SH77412 | 9 plt | 7,850 lb | Thu AM - Nightly SFTP file
SH77412,COPPELL TX,LAREDO TX,9,7850
IOI data lake
tender { load: "SH77412", origin: "Coppell, TX", dest: "Laredo, TX", pallets: 9, weight: 7850, pickup: "Thu 08:00" }
Anything that speaks IOI
- Carrier truckclaims it from its ELD-connected app
- Self-driving trucktakes the load and routes itself
- Junoquotes, books and tracks it
The same load arrives as an EDI 204 from an AS400, a rate confirmation PDF, a spreadsheet row and a nightly file. The IOI node reconciles them into one tender record that a carrier truck, a self-driving truck or Juno can act on.
Illustrative example.
The data lake is a cleaned, queryable set of the company's industrial data, IOI-compatible and built on an open-source schema. It stays current as the operation moves. When a telematics feed shows a truck's open space change, or a nightly file updates inventory, the data lake updates, and so does every system and agent that depends on it.
Because the schema is open, anything that speaks it can work with the data lake directly: the company's own software, Juno, a partner's planning system, a robot fleet or a self-driving truck. And because the schema covers actions as well as state, a node can do more than report. It can quote, book, tender, write a status update to another factory or ask a plant to produce, within the permissions the owner sets.
Owned by the company that runs it
The node and its data lake belong to the company. Nothing on it is pooled with another customer, and Oway uses only the access a company grants to its own node to run and optimize that company's work.
Permission before every connection
Sharing is where most of the value of an index comes from, and also where most of the risk is. IOI treats every connection the same way:
- Explicit. A connection to a supplier, carrier, customer, AI agent or machine starts with the owner's permission.
- Scoped. Each grant names exactly what can be read, proposed or done, and for which data.
- Revocable. Grants can be narrowed or revoked at any time.
- Recorded. Every access is logged with who made it, what was used and what changed.
That lets two companies share exactly what one purpose needs, such as dock windows for a shared shipment, and nothing else. A carrier can see when a dock is open without seeing the shipper's margins.
Built to be read by machines
A node is designed for people and for machines. People use IOI Search and Oway OS. Software uses the API to query the data lake and subscribe to changes. AI agents, including Juno, reach the node through MCP with read, propose or act scopes the owner sets.
In the next note, we show what it looks like to ask a node a question in plain English. For the full security model, visit our Security page.
