The expanded partnership between Siemens and SAP fosters product innovation across the entire service and asset lifecycle, connecting it more effectively into all areas of business operations — including manufacturing, supply chain, and customer support.
A growing number of customers turn to their software providers for end-to-end solutions to keep up with the accelerating pace of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0). Now more than ever, partnerships within and across industries remain crucial in establishing long-term resilience for companies. At SAP, strong collaborations around the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and Industry 4.0 have already helped the company shift from concept to execution.
In July 2020, Siemens and SAP announced a strategic alliance to develop business models that will further drive digital transformation for various industries globally. The next generation of integrated software applications has opened new doors for more unique collaborations to benefit businesses across different sectors. By leveraging Siemens and SAP’s technology and expertise, the partnership delivers a comprehensive solution for Industry 4.0, enables a true digital thread to eliminate silos, and drives digitalisation to the next level.
Under the deal, Siemens agreed to offer SAP software solutions (SAP Intelligent Asset Management solution, SAP Portfolio, and Project Management applications) to maximise business value for clients across the product and service lifecycle. Meanwhile, SAP will provide solutions from Siemens’ innovative product lifecycle management (PLM) suite called Teamcenter software as the core foundation for product data management.
Among its joint product portfolio is the Siemens and SAP Supplier Collaboration solution that enables teams to interact with suppliers seamlessly while balancing the trade-offs needed within their operations. The solution utilises SAP Ariba to onboard the right suppliers as well as SAP S/4HANA and Siemens’ Teamcenter to manage the full spectrum of collaboration from pre to post-contract design.
Driving Digital Transformation with Siemens and SAP
Once again expanding its long-standing alliance, the two tech giants have announced plans to deliver new software solutions that integrate and optimise service and asset lifecycle management. With this collaboration, industrial equipment manufacturers can take advantage of new cloud-based solutions to help them reduce design cycles in asset engineering projects, prevent unnecessary downtimes, and increase critical asset operational efficiencies. According to the renewed partnership:
- Siemens will deliver solutions from the SAP Enterprise Portfolio and Project Management package, SAP Asset Strategy and Performance Management application, and SAP Asset Intelligence Network to focus on discrete manufacturing initially.
- SAP will enable an ecosystem with integrated service engineering and asset operations by providing solutions from Siemens’ Teamcenter software service lifecycle management (SLM) portfolio to its customers.
As the world-leading provider of PLM and manufacturing operations management (MOM) software, Cedrik Neike, Member of the Managing Board at Siemens AG and CEO of Siemens Digital Industries, said:
“Siemens is helping industrial companies make more confident decisions by closing the loop between IT and OT.”
As part of a closed-loop digital twin, the software giants have also unveiled plans to deliver solutions where service design content is shared with operations and back to product design.
“Through this partnership, we are enabling a true digital thread that integrates real-time operations-based data with virtual product and asset models using components from both Siemens and SAP to provide operational insights,” he added.
Sharing more about the collaboration’s value to businesses, Neike said:
“This can accelerate digital transformation for industrial equipment owners, operators and manufacturers who can offer new business models including performance and usage-based cost, and to more efficiently use assets.”
Accelerating Industry 4.0
Together with SAP Intelligent Asset Management and SAP Enterprise Portfolio and Project Management cloud solutions, the latest Siemens product portfolio are specifically developed to utilise the functionalities of Siemens’ Xcelerator portfolio which includes the Mendix low-code platform and DataHub, MindSphere — the industrial IoT as a service and Asset Performance Management, and the Teamcenter portfolio.
As the SAP and Siemens partnership continues to evolve, more end-to-end solutions arise from the co-development between the front-runner in enterprise application software and the leading product lifecycle software vendor, respectively.
Thomas Saueressig, Member of the Executive Board at SAP SE for SAP Product Engineering, also explained the partnership’s importance to companies across different sectors. He said both companies share a common vision for the future of industrial enterprises. He maintained:
“Through this partnership, we can offer unparalleled benefits to our customers by delivering a digital thread across production and supply chains – from product design, production, and operations to maintenance. This will enable companies to improve overall business performance and return on assets.”
“Taking advantage of cloud solutions such as the SAP Asset Intelligence Network to strengthen collaboration and information exchange, together Siemens and SAP can help our customers accelerate Industry 4.0,” Saueressig concluded.
