Keeping pace with innovations is important for any global industry player. For Siemens, being active in many fields of technology, being close to innovation hotspots and the related ecosystems is vital. Even with a strong history of R&D and an excellent anchoring in regional markets, the notion of fast market transformation requires access to external innovation and in parallel driving our own innovations.
Responding to this, Siemens in 2016 under the brand of Next47 founded a new kind of venturing unit to help identify and build the next generation businesses for Siemens. Being an insider to Siemens businesses and being an attractive partner for startups enables Next47 to generate value and a new kind of collaboration between both worlds.
The currently rolled-out MindSphere operating system could prove to be a good example of how Next47 can successfully assist Siemens in the endeavour to attract entrepreneurs working in the open innovation environment. MindSphere was originally created for customers of the Digital Factory division of Siemens and has been developed into an operating system for internet-of-things (IoT) applications.
In more detail, the open cloud platform is the centrepiece of a powerful IoT operating system with data analytics and connectivity capabilities, tools for developers, applications and services. It helps to evaluate and utilise data and to gain breakthrough insights.
In brief, MindSphere offers customers a development environment in which they can integrate their own applications and services, for instance in the areas of predictive maintenance, energy data management and resource optimisation.
Attracting developers and entrepreneurs to use the application programming interfaces and match them with Siemens customers active on MindSphere is a task for the corporate venturing unit and proves how Next47 acts as a catalyst into Siemens.
Eventually, moderating this new kind of collaboration will be a significant contribution to the overall success of an open cloud operating system like MindSphere. The roll-out of the platform will also be a central topic of the Siemens and Next47 presence at this year’s Hanover Fair at the end of April.
