Siemens chief technology officer (CTO) Roland Busch has recently explained how it’s assisting its clients with digital solutions to reduce costs, increase speed and develop new business models.
The City of Chicago has already saved millions by retrofitting its water supply with Siemens technology. Siemens in partnership with Microsoft integrated alternative energy sources for efficient data center operations, establishing the world’s first zero-carbon, waste-to-power data center in Cheyenne, WY.
Atlanta Streetcar has selected Siemens to establish a predictive maintenance program that puts more intelligence behind data points to reduce delays for streetcar riders as well as save energy.
Siemens is the technology partner for Chicago-based Commonwealth Edison (ComEd) to build and test software that will allow the utility to manage clusters of microgrids simultaneously.
Start-up RadioBro, which is establishing its IoT device business in the aviation and aerospace industry, is using Siemens digital twin software to reduce their product development time from months to weeks.
Siemens also provided an innovative solution for autonomous driving that minimizes the need for physical prototyping while reducing the number of logged test miles necessary to demonstrate the safety of these vehicles.
Roland Busch, chief technology officer of Siemens, said: “Siemens has reinvented itself into one of the world’s top 10 software companies and is continuing to expand its digital capabilities.”
Siemens is expanding its investments in U.S.-based digital capabilities to co-create intelligent solutions with customers. It’s the first company worldwide to create 20 centers for digital customer applications in the industrial sector.
About 900 software developers, data specialists, and engineers are working with Siemens customers at these MindSphere Application Centers to develop digital innovations for data analysis and machine learning. These new solutions are being developed on MindSphere, Siemens’ open, cloud-based operating system for the Internet of Things (IoT).
The company has distributed its 20 centers across around 50 locations in 17 countries. Eight of these digital service hubs are located in the United States – in Austin, Foster City, Atlanta, Alpharetta, Pittsburgh, Berkeley and Orlando – and constitute the largest footprint for these centers outside of Germany.
Siemens launched its MindSphere IoT operating system across the company about one year ago. Approximately one million devices and systems are now connected via MindSphere, and this figure will reach 1.25 million by the end of fiscal 2018.
The company has also increased its U.S. R&D investment by $175 million year over year to $1.3 billion in fiscal 2017 – a 16 percent increase – with a strong focus on digital innovation. Siemens is investing $13 million annually in a new digital R&D hub in Chicago focused on cloud and Internet of Things applications to support the building management and automation market.
Siemens will increase its R&D expenditures in fiscal 2018 and is investing $600 million more. R&D spending will increase from nearly $6.3 billion in fiscal 2017 to $6.9 billion in fiscal 2018.
“From digital twins and digital services to the Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence, Siemens is innovating next-generation digital technologies to help cities and companies across the country realize measurable value from data,” said Lisa Davis, CEO of Siemens USA.
