Siemens, SAP Team on Digital Transformation

Siemens and SAP SE announced a new partnership that will combine their complementary software solutions for product lifecycle, supply chain and asset management to accelerate digital transformation for their clients, the comapnies said in a press release. Through this agreement, both SAP and Siemens will be able to integrate their respective offerings and enable customers to “form a true digital thread integrating all virtual models and simulations of a product or asset with real-time business information, feedback and performance data over the entire lifecycle,” according to the announcement.

“Digital transformation will be critical for the manufacturing industries to increase productivity, flexibility and accelerate innovation, so companies must come together in new ways to enable the digital enterprise,” said Klaus Helmrich, Member of the Managing Board of Siemens AG and CEO of Siemens Digital Industries. “This exciting collaboration between two industry leaders is about more than just interoperability and interfaces; it is about creating a truly integrated digital thread that unites product and asset lifecycle management with the business that enables customers to optimize production of products.”

According to Siemens, the partnership will help customers to break down organizational siloes so manufacturers, product design teams and service managers have the information needed to create and manage customer-centric product and service offerings.

“As manufacturers design and deliver smarter products and assets, access to real-time business information across networks is critical to bring new and improved innovations to market faster,” said Thomas Saueressig, Head of Product Engineering and Member of the Executive Board of SAP. “Bringing together expertise from SAP and Siemens to offer Industry 4.0-enabled business processes allows enterprises to create a digital thread for the entire product and asset lifecycle. With this end-to-end solution, teams across the business network can efficiently work together to design and deliver innovative products productively, profitably and sustainably.”

Under the terms of the partnership, SAP and Siemens will be able to offer new solutions that combine their technologies in order to help companies shorten time to market by leveraging Industry 4.0-enabled data using intelligent assets and products. This will also give organizations the benefit of incorporating customer insights into product development through a comprehensive solution, from product design to service and asset management, according to the announcement.

As a first step in the partnership, SAP will sell Siemens Teamcenter software as part of a product lifecycle collaboration and data management solution, and Siemens will sell SAP Intelligent Asset Management and SAP Project and Portfolio Management solutions for manufacturers and operators across networks. Both companies will collaborate to develop applications from an end-to-end lifecycle perspective to help customers “achieve a seamless digital thread that improves overall business performance.”

“Combining Siemens Teamcenter and SAP S/4HANA® software provides companies an end-to-end process capability from product design to decommission,” said Bob Parker, Senior VP of Industry Research at IDC. “The IT benefits of pre-integration of PLM, ERP, asset management and supply chain applications and the business benefits from having a more resilient response to changing market demand make this a compelling consideration for companies seeking a competitive advantage in the digital economy.”

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.

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